Building Men

As one of the educators for the brain injury program at the hospital I work for, I present inservices and also have some of our staff write up presentations on assigned topics. The other day I sat down with one of our better employees after she turned in her paper. I asked her how she would utilize the the information she learned in completing the assignment particularly how she would take it from the written page and convey it to others. I explained to her how she is the type of employee we want more of and it was my desire to see her reproduce herself. I wasn't expecting her response. She explained she had been learning from me over the years whether it was when I worked as a nurse on the unit or when I was working in my role as an educator and anything she was showing others was what she had learned from me.

This secular example caused me to pause and think about the spiritual commandment to make disciples and what Paul wrote to Timothy in II Timothy 2:2 "The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

A little while back, I posted about my appreciation for Maurice Broaddus and what a privilege it has been to be a part of his life. God gave me a burden for Maurice when he was but a boy and I am thankful I was able to provide some positive influence on him. He has told me I am his spiritual father. It has been a pleasure watching him grow in Christ and his outreach has far exceeded any I have had. Praise God.

There are others however who have had a great impact on my life and without their leadership and taking an interest in me I might not have reached out to Maurice. These are my mentors.

My Dad has to be mentioned first. Dad never really led me spiritually in word. In fact, my knowledge of the scriptures exceeded his quickly after I became a Christian. My Dad led by example. Throughout his life, Dad was a man who sacrificed for everyone in need. Anyone who had a problem with their furnace or an appliance, Dad would be there to fix them up. Of course he sacrificed for my sisters and me. He would stop and help anybody. Another thing I learned was faithfulness, not only in how we conduct ourselves but in faithfulness to God. I'll never forget how after he rededicated himself to the Lord and when my mother died shortly afterwards, Dad was in church to worship the Sunday after she died. His example instilled in me the importance of faithfulness to God no matter what the circumstances.

Dad
I had known Jack Crawford for quite some time before I became a Christian. He is the father of one of my closest friends growing up. I didn't give him much thought as a kid. He was Gary's Dad and he helped us have a good time by either having a pingpong table or a dart board set up for us in his garage. He also made cokes available to us out of a coke machine. When Jack learned I had asked Christ into my life, he made a point of meeting with me regularly and supplying me with doctrinal books from his library. Jack helped me understand more about Bible prophecy as I had shown a keen interest in it and it was an interest of his own. What Jack was really doing was nurturing me, a new born babe in Christ, making sure I was being nourished with the word of God.

The third man who entered my life is the one who helped me apply the truths of scripture to practical application in my life. Eldon Kibbey was my Sunday School teacher in our new believer's class after I became a Christian. It wasn't in this class though where his mentorship took hold. I went to work for him later that year. He owned a janitorial franchise and asked me to come and manage part of the operations. During my five years working for Environment Control, Eldon led myself and his other managers in the purpose of his company-- Building Men. Eldon applied 2 Timothy 2:2 to every aspect of his business. Eldon's words of wisdom and sound teaching and the way he conducted his life inspired me to be more like him and to be more Christ like. Eldon was building me and he knew the chief cornerstone of my life had to be Jesus. And Eldon was cognizant of the need for Christ's supremacy in his life so he could, like Paul the Apostle, say "Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions and sufferings... I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me."II Tim 3:10-11

Bible instruction was only one part of Eldon's impact on the lives of his managers. He took interest in our lives. We prayed together and lifted one another up during difficult times and Eldon made sure it wasn't just business. He was also my friend. He had me and other managers over to house for get togethers. We shared interests other than business and God. He made himself an important figure in my life in all aspects. He shared in my victories and my defeats. He was my councilor, cheerleader and advocate. I could count on him.

Eldon is still a great example for me. I don't have as many opportunities to meet with him but when I do have a chance to speak with him, I still find myself learning. Building Men continues to be Eldon's purpose. He does this through his work with the Christian Business Men's Committee and he has mentored many men and continues to do so. Recently, he has reached out to my oldest son.

Eldon has his spiritual mentor also. I remember him quoting Colonel Nimrod MacNair to make many a point. Looking again at 2 Timothy 2:2 we see the principle beginning with Colonol MacNair's influence on Eldon's maturation and how it continued on to others. (The things Eldon heard from Col. MacNair--Eldon entrusted to me--So I would be able to pass on to people like Maurice. And Maurice is investing these things to others) It started with one man reproducing himself in another and then that man doing the same and so on down the line.

This is a characature we, the managers of Environment Control, had made for Eldon. It depicts Eldon(with the whip) The Master Builder (1Corinthians 3:10-11). I'm the guy on the upper left.

Maurice Broaddus doesn't need anyone to toot his horn for him; He does a perfectly good job of that for himself. Afterall, this is a guy who holds an annual convention named for himself. Mo-Con has been gathering horror authors together in Indianapolis for 5 years now. Maurice has been writing professionally for some time. His pontifications can be found on his blog, his reviews at Hollywood Jesus, and in columns for Nuvo among many other sources. He has had short stories, novellas and now novels published. I have had the privilege to watch his growth longer than most.

Maurice came into my life about 30 years ago. He was a studious 4th grader who took part in the Sunday School class I taught at the Eagle Creek Grace Brethren Church. The class was filled with a crew of enjoyable but rowdy boys. There was something about Maurice that drew me to him. He was polite, studious and eager to learn. He was new to the church and was just learning to fit in, initially quiet and a bit reserved. All of those qualities made me want to reach out to him, but it was more that. I felt a connection with him. God laid a burden on my heart to befriend this young man.

Maurice has brought so much joy in my life. Before I had boys of my own, Maurice filled the place in my heart reserved for fatherhood. My wife and I would have Maurice over to our house sometimes just to play games in the backyard sometimes to spend the night watching movies. Over the years, we spent countless hours discussing a variety of topics finding mutual interests in comic books, horror stories, politics and most importantly the Bible. Maurice always amazed me with his thirst for knowledge. He was never satisfied with what he was being taught in school and he would go to great lengths to expand his knowledge. I remember when he was in junior high his complaining the school didn't have a class in Latin available so he set out to try and teach himself Latin by checking out books in the Library. I also remember when he was in High School and he had to write a science paper and he elected to defend creation and argue against evolution, this done in public school. Maurice makes me proud. I watched with pride when he accepted his diploma at Northwest High School, married Sally, introduced me to his sons, took on leadership positions in his church and most recently gave me copies of his first published novel and the book of short stories he edited.

I like to think I have had some influence on Maurice's life. I know he has had influence on mine. The most important part I played was introducing him to Jesus Christ. Maurice has remained faithful to God and has led others to the Lord himself and has counciled many in his various ministries.

I don't get to see Maurice as much as I would like. He leads an extremely busy life and I too have limited time for social gathering. I read his blog, which is very well crafted and I heartily endorse for those who want well thought out discussions on the issues. He is certainly his own man, and where once before we agreed on most everything, Maurice now has formulated opinions I sometimes question. I have concerns about his judgment at times just like every father has concerns for a son who ventures in a direction where peril might lay. But my confidence in Maurice is not diminished. He has pursued his goals steadfastly and is now seeing the fruit of his efforts.

Maurice has become an accomplished writer. He has won awards for his short stories written a novella Devil's Marionette and has co-authored the novella Orgy of Souls with Wrath James White and most recently signed a 3 book deal with Angry Robot a division of Harper Collins. The 3 books will comprise a trilogy telling the story of The Knights of Breton Court. Maurice has also edited, along with Jerry Gordon, an anthology Dark Faith for Apex Books.

I just completed King Maker Book 1 of The Knights of Breton Court and found it to be for the most part an enjoyable read and I look forward to book two King's Justice which I suspect will be better. The trilogy takes the King Arthur legend and superimposes it upon street gangs in Indianapolis. The story is very edgy and as the back cover declares "The Wire meets Excalibur in this stunning fantasy from the dark streets of inner city America".

The book is very well written. Maurice is adept at describing settings and the action that takes place. The dialogue he gives his characters is realistic, at least I think so. As a white suburbanite I can only assume the host of characters he introduces are realistic; at the very least most are engaging. Because of my cultural disconnect I did find some the book a little slow going, particularly the middle portion when Maurice spent a lot of time introducing many characters I found hard to identify with.

The book opens with the brief but legendary life of Luther White who "ran wild with robberies and number running" and who as Merle (a somewhat crazy appearing and mystical white man; a confidant of Luther) proclaims has the Pendragon spirit. The opening chapter ends with a climactic confrontation with Luther's rival, Green, who's trade was whores, drugs and murder. From there the book moves forward in time and focuses upon Luthor's son King James White and those who become his Knights and the rival Indianapolis gangs from Breton Court and the Phoenix apartments.

Maurice had to present alot of characters in the book, particularly when he has two more books in the series to populate. Personally, I found this slowing to the pace of the narrative. I would have preferred some of the time spent developing less consequential characters better spent on King, Lott and Merle. The natural development of the series would lead me to believe these characters will get far more attention in the next two novels. Though it was hard to relate to some of these incidental characters, I found interesting as I have met people, though they weren't drug dealers, who had similar personalities and found them just as disgusting as if they did sell drugs. In speaking to Maurice about this, he stated "Yeah, everyone knows a Junie." You'll have to read the book to meet Junie.

It took awhile for the book to come together for me but with about 100 pages to go it became a page turner. For many it may seem like the book took an abrupt genre shift but it worked for me.

Dark Faith a collection of 26 short stories and 5 poems edited by Maurice and Jerry Gordan is intended to explore the dark side of faith.

Though the stories I read were well written, I can't come out and say I endorse the anthology. In speaking to Maurice about my concerns, he admitted probably half of the authors of the stories are athiests. It's apparent.

Brian Keene is a Bram Stoker Award winner and I am familiar with his novels so I began with his I Sing A New Psalm. I have heard Mr. Keene speak a couple of times at Mo-Con and he admits to being angry at God. He doesn't deny God's existance and in his Novel The Rising, bucks
the cliche of presenting a pastor as evil and instead characterizes the pastor positively. Keene also shows he has a fairly good understanding of the Bible. Unfortunately, Keene, in this story let's his anger come out and the protagonist's faith fails him.

He Who Would not Bow is written by Wrath James White who has befriended Maurice and they have collaborated on previous works. Maurice and Wrath have completely different outlooks on faith. Wrath is definitely a nonbeliever and his story presents an apocalyptic tale where God has set up His kingdom on Earth and He rules like a tyrant. The story is told from the viewpoint of a dissenter who is part of a team out to bring God's kingdom down. Wrath's vision of God dismisses His Love, Mercy and Grace and Wrath appears to be one of those who has difficulty with a just God allowing terrible things to happen to good people.

The third story I read was Go Tell It On The Mountain from Kyle S Johnston. I can only describe this tale as blasphemous as it depicts Jesus as "a bored Santa Claus, watching the clock on the wall, waiting for closing time" as he greets a line of people pleaing for salvation as they await judgment. Jesus becomes chummy with the protagonist of the story, back slapping buddies. Jesus wants to be called Jeezy. The story presents Jesus as a guy with father issues with too much power and no idea what is going on.

At this point, I could read no more. I called Maurice and explained my problems and asked him if there were any stories in the book he could recommend that would not be offensive. Of those he directed me to, Gary A Braunbeck's For My Next Trick I'll Need a Volunteer was my favorite. The story is a science fiction It's a Wonderful life.

I wish the book would have contained more positive applications of faith in a dark world. Maurice has done this in many of his own stories and the inclusion of one would have been a nice addition to the collection. Positive depictions of people of faith in horror fiction has been around for a long time. I find it sad that authors now enjoy blurring the difference between good and evil leaving readers without a greater good to turn to.

Almost everything Maurice can be found at http://mauricebroaddus.com/