Hostage drama spreads PDL message through national media
By Tobin Perry

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (PD)--When Atlanta-area hostage Ashley Smith bravely shared with alleged murder Brian Nichols a message on servanthood from Rick Warren’s best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, she didn’t just reach one person -- she reached thousands.

In the week since her dramatic story came to light, public attention toward the book has risen sharply. The increased attention has introduced the book’s message to thousands who might not have normally picked it up.

The book jumped from 54th to second place on the best-seller charts at both Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com, trailing only pre-order sales of the next installment of the Harry Potter series due out in July.

Sharing from chapter 33, Smith used the book to explain to Nichols that God had a purpose for his life -- a message that eventually led to the fugitive’s surrender.

“We are grateful to see God use The Purpose Driven Life to provide comfort and direction to people from all walks of life and humbled to learn that hostage Ashley Smith found strength and encouragement in its pages during her seven-hour ordeal,” Warren said in a news release from Africa, where he was participating in a mission trip.

In the next week, Smith’s story graced every major news organization in the country and many chose to highlight the particular influence of The Purpose Driven Life on the story’s outcome. MSNBC, CNN, and newspapers such as USA Today all released major features on the book that week. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh even pitched the book on his radio show and website.

Besides focusing on the massive sales of the book over the past two and a half years -- more than 21 million copies so far -- several of the news organizations highlighted personal stories of transformation coming from The Purpose Driven Life.

In CNN’s 45-minute special edition of News Night on March 16, reporters visited First Baptist Church of Dallas, a 40 Days of Purpose participant, and Sierra Christian Center, a purpose driven church formed inside a Northern California prison.

While interviewing members of First Baptist Church of Dallas, CNN talked with Michelle Harrell, whose dying father had been encouraged by the book just a few weeks earlier. The first night on her 40-day journey through the book, she asked her father if she could read to him.

On day six, Harrell read to him: “Life on earth is a temporary assignment. Earth is not our final home. We were created for something much better.”

“That’s good,” her father told Harrell.

Just a few weeks later -- while on chapter 26 -- her father passed away.

“He was just hungry for [the book]; it brought him so much peace,” Harrell told CNN.

CNN also gave viewers an inside peek at Sierra Conservation Center, a northern California prison transformed by going through The Purpose Driven Life and 40 Days of Purpose. Since then, CNN reported, 74 prisons in 29 states have embraced the book.

“I was convinced that for those who felt hopeless and purposeless that it would, at a very minimum, give them hope and purpose, and it would transform them as well,” said Hector Lozano, a prison counselor who helped get the program into the prison.

Warden Matt Kramer told CNN that the program saved the prison $1 million in decreased security costs.
Other newscasts brought in respected pastors Robert Schuller, D. James Kennedy, and Charles Johnson to discuss the explosive popularity of the book.

“I think this book touches the human soul,” said Charles Johnson, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas, on MSNBC’s Scarborough County. “A working pastor -- a very caring, sensitive pastor -- wrote a message very simply, very profoundly. He wrote about the original purpose driven book -- the Bible. And the American people are reading the book because it touches a deep core within them.”

Throughout the outpouring of media attention, stories have been popping up around the country of people who decided to read The Purpose Driven Life for the first time after hearing about Smith’s story. For example:

• A Texas reporter who followed the developing story in Atlanta wrote in a column last week that she had received the book from a friend months earlier but hadn’t read it. Now, the reporter says, she intends to start it.
• Jewish siblings of a staff member at a purpose driven church in Southern California asked for copies for the first time last week, after two years of the staff member trying get them to read it.
• A Catholic priest in New Jersey called Purpose Driven Ministries to get copies of the book for his congregation. After hearing about the Atlanta story, the priest wanted to introduce his parishioners to the book’s inspiring message.
• A Southern California company told their employees they’d get a copy of the book for each employee that wanted one. Out of 70 employees, 40 took them up on the offer.

“God has his hand on [this book] and he has had a significant role in allowing this message to fill a spiritual void,” said Mark McDonald, president of The Purpose Driven Life.

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