Dear Friends,
I have received many wonderful gifts from friends and family over
the years, but none greater than the gift I received from a member of the
church I presently serve.
Some of you may know the story, but one of our church leaders- I
won’t mention his name, but those who have copies of my book know him, for I asked
him to write the forward to the book The Home Run, Leadership Lessons from
the Coach, that was recently published.
Writing a daily devotional was something I started years ago while
pastoring at Calvary Chapel, Fort Lauderdale. For over 15 years I have been
getting up before sun rise to write these daily “Leadership Thoughts,” which
you receive through e-mail.
I started writing them for a selfish reason. I thought the daily
discipline would help me a better writer.
Today, after writing over two thousand of these messages, I hope
my writing has improved, but you the readers are the judge of that.
Unbeknownst to me, my friend in the church-I’ll just call him Dan,
began collecting and editing these devotionals, and one night at a meeting of
church leaders, he surprised me with a bound copy of these “Leadership
Thoughts.” He had taken over one year’s worth of devotionals I had written,
edited them on his own, put them together in book form and sent them off to be
published.
Having provided this incredible gift of love, time and energy, he
proceeded to order the first 20 books paying for them out of his own pocket.
And when I had him order a second shipment, he refused to do so unless he could
pay for the second shipment. As a way of paying him back for his incredible
generosity I finally coerced him and his wife to join us for a vacation with
Jean and me at our cottage in upstate New York on the beautiful shores of Lake
Ontario. As a pastor I don’t have a lot of collateral, but I do have a
wonderful summer cottage that has been in our family since the year I was born.
Some of you who have been there, know what a blessing it has been to us and our
family.
The book, The Home Run (for most of my pastoral years I
have coached several sports at a number of levels) has a lot of words in
it-over 600 pages of single-spaced print, so it is a heavy kind of coffee table
version. I tell people that if you don’t like what’s inside, use it for a door
stop, or an exercise tool for it weighs over five pounds and just lifting it to
reading position will definitely increase the size of your biceps.
Just yesterday, a church a member who receives these dally e-mail
devotionals saw a copy of the book which I had brought to a friend who had
requested a copy. He was impressed, not only by its size, but by its back cover
which had a picture of Jean and me at our cottage, Jean in her windbreaker and
me with my Cleveland Indian (now the Guardians) hat and wearing my Fellowship
of Christian Athletes tee shirt.
He mentioned he didn’t know that these devotionals had been
translated into book form, and he asked me for a copy. I told him that a friend
has purchased copies for me, but that I couldn’t afford to give them away as
they were $20.00 a copy to publish. He told me he didn’t care and asked if he
could buy one.
Now few people even know that the book exists, let alone that it
can be purchased for the huge sum of $ .99 on Amazon (digital copy of course).
If interested in the digital copy, you can google “Amazon The Home Run,
Leadership Lessons from the Coach, Tom Crenshaw” and you can purchase a copy.
But for those who, like me, are not digitally inclined and prefer
“hard copy” the book can be purchased for $20, the actual cost of the book plus
shipping which is an additional $ 6.00. I told you it was heavy. I make nothing
on the book, but if you are interested in having a hard copy, drop me an
e-mail, and I will be happy to ship you one.
Now you know the “Rest of the Story,” of how a pastor, teacher,
coach, and father of four has found time to write a book.
And in closing, let me say thanks to my friend Dan for providing
me a treasure of a lifetime-not just the book, but the time, effort and love
that went into its production.
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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