Power For Living

Power for Living

For several years a free copy of the book “Power for Living” could be ordered via a website or by calling a toll-free phone number. The website and toll free phone number no longer exist, and currently only second-hand copies of the book are available via Amazon.com and other online bookstores.

It was written by the late Jamie Buckingham, a Christian pastor and prolific author (44 books). The book, intended for non-believers, is soundly evangelical.

Buckingham’s widow, Jacqueline, remembers: “It was 1984 . . . [the foundation] had a committee which tried to write the book, but Nancy DeMoss was not happy with the result. . . . They asked my husband to rewrite it. We went to our prayer group and prayed on whether he should do it.” The answer was yes, and “my husband wrote what was requested in exactly five days.”

She says the book is “meant for new converts” and was offered on TV once before, about 10 years ago. She’s looked at the new version and is happy to see that it’s “just the same–Jamie’s words and writings–except they’ve added some new testimonies.”
– Source: Inspired to Give Something for Nothing . . . What’s the Catch?, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 19, 1999

Ads for the book first ran in the USA (1989, 1999).

In 2001 radio and TV ads in Germany promoted the book’s German edition. However, the ads were soon pulled, ‘because Germany’s broadcasting regulations prohibit advertising by political, religious and ideological groups.”

Too, as in the US before, the foundation’s self-imposed media silence led to speculation that the book promoted a cult.

Similar speculations have arisen in Japan, where a Japanese version of Power for Living has been advertised since early 2007.