The Whole Truth

Bishop Sheard: We wouldn’t have been able to share the good things that were written aforetime.And that’s so important because all of us come to areas in our lives where we need some encouragement.And thank God it has been left on record, in the form of written material, where we can read and grow.The Bible itself is a manuscript written by men who were inspired by God. God spoke to them, and they left it on record for our growth and maturity. TWT: Writers may not receive the same encouragement as singers or some of the other ministries in our great church. How would you inspire writers and up-and coming authors to keep writing? Bishop Sheard: Writing may not be as celebrated as singers, and that’s ok. But it takes a special kind of person to write. First of all, it takes discipline. It takes discipline to sit down and keep go ing over a manuscript, rewriting and improving your content. It requires a tremendous amount of disci pline to start a book or a perspective and keep at it. I encourage people to look at if you have something to say that’s worth someone else hearing.You want to put that down so that even after you are long gone from this earth, people can still read what you wrote. Hopefully, my books will inspire people when my time is up. You must have a purpose for what you do in life. My purpose in life is to help people - to help people become better Christians, better citizens of the United States, or whatever country they may find themselves in the world. So, if it is your mission to make that happen, then you have to leave your words for posterity.You may get to inspire people that you’ll never meet.That’s my view in encouraging others to write – to inspire others. TWT: It sounds like you want your vision to be written down so that it may be left on record. What do you hope people receive from your most recent book, Say It. Tell It. Live It?

TWT: It appears you used different processes when developing content for the three books you’ve authored thus far. Your unfinished manuscript seems to be your most lengthy work to date. “A Bout with Doubt” is several messages you preached in book form. Bishop Sheard: Messages and, of course, real-life experiences. “A Bout with Doubt” emanat - ed from when I almost lost my wife (pause). I wrote a song, and I preached a sermon titled,“A Bout with Doubt.” It was during a time when the doctors were telling me one thing, and I was seeing another thing. The doctors were saying she was not going to make it, but I’m hearing the Lord tell me something else.

I finally got to a point where the Lord said to me, “Didn’t I tell you?” So I had my bout with doubt, but I won.That’s the message–I want people to win.

TWT: How does your authorship speak to your legacy, as opposed to your preached messages? Bishop Sheard: The good thing about authoring is that it gives people the chance to go back and read what was said. Sometimes the peo ple close to me say,“Bishop, you don’t preach long enough.” There are certain ideologies I have ascribed to when it comes to the oral speaking of theWord. I believe that the average person retains only 18 to 20 minutes of what you say. If that is the case, if I speak for an hour, you’re going to miss 40 minutes; it’s not going to even register. So why not break it up and try to be as exact as we can and get to the point? That is the difference between my preaching and my writing. My written material will go into detail much more than in an oratorical setting.

TWT: What if the Prophets had never written the words contained in the Bible?

12 THEWHOLE TRUTH 12 T EW LE TR T