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: Processing Through Success Myths and Struggles of the Soul

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 50^th 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.

Pastor Mur shares a story of how God answered a prayer in ways he never expected.

There are nearly 50 Foursquare churches in Hawaii, and 75,000 people get to go to these great churches each weekend. They are full gospel churches that grew out of the ministries of two men – Ralph Moore and Wayne Cordeiro who founded Hope Chapel and New Hope.

I attended a Foursquare church for the first time in November 1976. I had come from New Jersey to California to speak at a construction industry seminar, and planned my trip so I could attend that Sunday morning service at Angelus Temple, its founder’s church. It was the first time I had ever been to California.

I was 30 years old when God saved me in 1961. I had no background in Biblical Christianity when that happened. I had moved to Philadelphia earlier that year, and made a friend who invited me to a Billy Graham Meeting, and late one night two weeks after that meeting, Jesus came into my bedroom and my heart.

I immediately wanted to be an evangelist like Mr. Graham, and enrolled at Philadelphia College of the Bible in January 1962 after executing its written agreement never to attend a full gospel church. I unintentionally broke that agreement 18 months later, and was soon involved with full gospel churches. My dad had taught me to love to read, and in those days I read everything I could find about the Holy Spirit. My construction work moved me around, and I had to drop out of Bible College.

While there were no Foursquare churches where I lived, I discovered the writings of Aimee Semple McPherson, the founder of the Foursquare movement, and decided that I would go to her Angelus Temple if I ever got to Los Angeles. I was 45 years old when I got there for the first time.

The Angelus Temple, Church of the Four Square Gospel, built by Aimee Semple McPherson and dedicated January 1, 1923. The temple is opposite Echo Park, near downtown Los Angeles, California.
Image: 2005 photograph / Wikimedia Commons.

When the Temple’s morning service ended that day, I walked up onto the platform and stood behind the pulpit. No one paid any attention to me. I looked out into those 4,000 seats, and tried to imagine what the place looked like 50 years earlier when Sister Aimee was in her prime; and then I did something outrageous and even silly: I prayed that God would somehow involve me in that Temple and in the church it had spawned.

I said outrageous and silly because I lived 2,500 miles from there. I was the founder of a small, though growing, consulting engineering firm that demanded my attention virtually every hour of every day. Those demands had also led to a failing marriage and all the hurt and misery that entailed. My prayer lacked a serious foundation; there was nothing to build on, and I soon forgot my words. But looking back today, I realize that the first thing I learned at that church is that God answers the prayers uttered at that altar.