This week I am participating in a blog campaign for the release of a new book Called ‘Live Second – 365 Ways to Make Jesus First’ by Doug Bender. It has been a fun and exciting week with one of the highlights being yesterday I had the opportunity to speak on the phone and interview the Author of the book, Doug Bender.
This was the first time in my life I have ever interviewed anyone and to interview the author of a book well lets just say I was a teeny tiny bit nervous…okay I will admit it I was more than a teeny tiny bit nervous I was a lot nervous! Armed with my list of questions (all 5 of them) I called his phone number at our scheduled time. As I sat there holding the phone to my ear listening to it begin to ring I have to admit I was shaking in my house slippers and hoping I would be able to speak when he answered the phone. The phone rang… and rang… and rang… and rang, when it was finally picked up on the other end I heard the sound of a recording saying that the person I had called was unavailable so to please leave a message. I have to admit I think I may have felt a bit relieved he didn’t answer; But my relief was short lived because within about two seconds I received a text message saying he was on another call and would call me back shortly then within a matter of seconds my phone rang and it was Doug Bender. I also realized from the first hello all my nervousness had been for nothing because Doug Bender is a very friendly and easy to talk to guy.
Below is my interview with Doug Bender …
I will start with a lesson I learned today as I tried to put this all together…
Interviewer lesson #1 make sure you remember to write things down or bring a recording device unless you are a speed writer or retained the shorthand you took in high school. For those of you youngsters who do not know what shorthand is you can Google it or just take my advice you don’t really want to know shorthand. With that being said please remember I tried to decipher my notes and in quoting Doug I am pretty sure I got it all right but just in case I didn’t consider this as my disclaimer * 😀
Now on to the interview…
Doug was born July 8, 1983 and lives in Dallas Texas
Are you married? Yes I am married my wife’s name Catherine and we have a two year old daughter named Bethany.
What do you like do when you are not working? I love to run, I just ran a marathon this past weekend. I also love music, my wife Catherine and I met while we were doing music. I play the guitar and I also play the violin. As a couple we both also love to cook and visit ‘hole in the wall’ type restaurants where we love to eat Ethnic and spicy foods.
The new book has 365 Ways to Make Jesus First. Do you have a personal favorite? Why? I’m not sure. I think everyone will have a different favorite depending on where they are at. But for me, I think my favorites are all the Day 7 entries. The Day 7 entries are all prayers from the Bible. Prayers from the Psalms, from Jesus and from the prophets. I was blown away in writing this when I got to read nearly every prayer in the Bible. I found I did not talk with God nearly in the same way as they seemed to. It really changed the way I approached God. *(see note at the bottom)
How did you get involved in I am second? I came on with I am Second just after it started… I think it was a couple months after the website launched, about 5 years ago. I worked (and still do) with e3 Partners overseas as a church planter, I was in Ethiopia at that time. I am Second was started as an attempt to share the faith and spread the gospel that we were seeing overseas to our own backdoor. I came on the team to write the small group discussion guides for I am Second and my role has grown with time, I now work full-time on the I am Second team.
Well that about wraps up my interview with Doug Bender we talked for about 30 minutes I know I did not get it all down here because I was just so interested in what he had to say that I got to listening and forgot to write it all down. The most important thing I discovered in our talk is Doug Bender has dedicated his life to God. He loves Jesus and he seems to be doing his best to make sure others know Jesus too. I had a lot of fun as I talked with him and I am so glad I had this opportunity to get to know him better.
If you would like to know more about I am second or Doug Bender here are a few links for you…
A link to Doug’s personal video on the I am second website – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wazdvj2Mnmc
I am second website – Iamsecond.com
I am Second blog – http://www.iamsecond.com/blog
I also want to mention I have been reading the book every day and highly recommend it. It is a book with 365 daily readings that get you into your Bible to read. The book then also prompts you to take what you have learned in your reading and apply it in your daily living. Link to the book – Live Second- 365 Ways to make Jesus First
That about wraps it up have a blessed day and thank you for reading 🙂
* from the question above about which day is Doug’s favorite from the book…this question was also asked during an online chat I attended on facebook the night before, like I said earlier I forgot to write down all the answers during the interview so for this question copied his answer from the facebook chat I am pretty sure he answered this question almost exactly the same in both interviews.
A Story By Me 