Occasionally Randy sends out specific prayer requests related to his writing and speaking ministry. You can sign up to receive the EPM Prayer Updates by e-mail or read them online.
As a boy, Randy enjoyed reading comic books and science fiction, anything that stimulated his imagination. After he became a Christian, his youth pastor gave him a key to his office and said he could read whatever he found on the shelves. Thus began Randy's love for Christian books. He was especially influenced by C. S. Lewis—an influence that continues today. In fact, he says that he's never written a book, fiction or nonfiction, in which he hasn't been influenced by Lewis in some way. In the spring of 2008 he was able to have an extended visit at the home of Douglas Gresham, C. S. Lewis's stepson.
Randy attended Multnomah School of the Bible (now Multnomah University) in the master’s program in the late 1970s. His theology teacher, Dr. Joseph Wong, wrote a note on one of his papers. “You should consider being a writer,” he said. He took it to heart.
As a pastor in the 1980s, Randy was burdened by the number of Christians he saw devastated by sexual immorality. He started writing a book addressing this huge problem. In 1985 his first book, Christians in the Wake of the Sexual Revolution, was published by Multnomah Press, then the college’s publishing arm.
Please see our speaking requests page for guidelines about asking Randy to speak.
In 1985, Randy was diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes. "God used this to remind me of my dependence on him, in a daily, concrete way," Randy says. "Before that, I knew intellectually that I was dependent on God for every breath. But I was really very independent and self-sufficient. Now I have a built-in reminder every single day when I take my five or six blood tests and insulin injections: 'Apart from me you can do nothing' (John 15:5b). The timing was perfect. Of all the months in my life when I could have gotten a serious disease it happened in the one month when my first book was published. That was a reminder that my writing isn't about ...
Randy was a pastor at Good Shepherd Community Church in Boring, Oregon for 13 years. In 1990, he left that position after a civil court judgment was found against a pro-life group—of which he was a participant—for peaceful, nonviolent civil disobedience at an abortion clinic. The judgment led him to resign as a pastor and start Eternal Perspective Ministries. See "How Did EPM Begin" for the complete story. See also "Do you remember when the Lord called you into ministry?"
Randy's father is not Wallace Alcorn, who taught at Moody Bible Institute, and his wife is not the Nancy Alcorn who heads Mercy Ministries and lives in Tennessee. Randy's wife spells her name Nanci.
No, it is a different Randy Alcorn. Randy writes, "Periodically someone runs across something written by 'Randy Alcorn' and assumes that could only be me. But there are other Randy Alcorns, and one of them is a columnist for The Daily Sound in Santa Barbara, California. I've read a few of his articles I agree with and others I definitely don't."
Randy writes: "Of my novels, though in some ways I think Deception is the most fun and maybe the best written, I'd have to say Safely Home. The number of lives I've been told about that have changed through reading that novel amazes me.
"Of my nonfiction, it's a tough call, so I'll cheat and say The Grace and Truth Paradox and Heaven. The Heaven book has been a real surprise, with 400,000 in print just two-and-a-half years after it was released. We get an amazing number of letters from people who say they now look forward to Heaven and are excited about the New Earth, and that they've received great joy and comfort ...
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