Mike Kai, The Pound for Pound Principle and Douglas Kozub, Transparent Gratitude
Double book review:
Mike Kai, The Pound for Pound Principle: Becoming All God Designed You To Be (Authentic Publishers, 2013), 192 pages, ISBN 9781780781006.
Douglas Kozub, Transparent Gratitude (Available from Kozub@hawaii.rr.com)
I need to share some background so that my two book reviews below can be read with understanding. Both books were written by men who pastor relatively new Foursquare churches in Hawaii. Each book is the first book by its author. I know both authors, though I know Doug Kozub better than I know Mike Kai.
The Foursquare Gospel Church has enjoyed remarkable growth in our Hawaiian Islands. Our 50th state now has around 50 Foursquare Churches, and eight percent of the state’s population attended a Foursquare church on Easter weekend. My wife and I attended the 8:00 AM Easter service at the Blaisdale Arena near downtown Honolulu, a large public venue building which was rented for the weekend by New Hope Christian Fellowship, the largest church in Hawaii. We got there at 7:30 AM, and found 5,000 people waiting in line for the doors to open. 8,000 attended that service. 25,000 came to Easter services at that arena Easter weekend.
Foursquare started its Hawaiian outreach in the last 50 years during which it separately sent four ministers and their wives to begin churches in the islands. The last two men that came experienced and led the success that has marked Foursquare in the Islands. Ralph Moore was the first of these two, and he started a church under a tree on the Kailua side of the island of Oahu. That church, Hope Chapel, has now grown to seven hundred churches all over the Pacific, Asia and beyond. The second pastor is Wayne Cordeiro, and his New Hope churches have also spread in similar numbers throughout the Pacific, Asia and more.
Cordeiro’s Portuguese dad was in the military and married Cordeiro’s mother, a Japanese woman, when he was stationed in Hawaii. Moore is Caucasian (or a “haole” in the local dialect) though his second in command who came with him from California is Japanese.
Moore and Cordeiro each have unusual talent for recognizing, mentoring and training men and women for the ministry. Both have taught and written widely on Church growth and the pastoral profession.
Foursquare is a small Pentecostal Holiness US denomination that was started in the 1920’s in Los Angeles, California. It has 1,700 churches in the US and 6,000 plus credentialed ministers. 250,000 or more attend one of its US churches each weekend. Its largest church is Church on the Way in Van Nuys California which has the largest Hispanic congregation in North America. I have been a staff pastor in Foursquare since 1986. Foursquare has now established itself in about 140 countries, and in some with great success.
THE POUND FOR POUND PRINCIPLE
Mike Kai
The Pound for Pound Principle is the personal autobiography of its author, and it is a lovely warming recollection of the life of a man who started with relatively little, and has experienced a great deal of success in ministry at the age of 40.
Mike is what Hawaii calls a local. His ethnic background includes four nationalities. He grew up in Honoka’a, a small town of 2,000 on the Island of Hawaii or the big Island. His dad was a policeman, and his mom stayed at home to care for their children. Mike was small in stature as a child, suffering the associated taunts while dreaming about what small kids hope for. Mike’s religious background was Catholic; his favorite pastime was playing basketball. He was a fair student, and the nearest big city was Hilo where 25,000 people lived two hours from his home.
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