The Power of Biography

Book News

So what's the most popular book on the shelves right now? Well, Forbes is slating Steve Jobs' biography to be the biggest seller of the year. There is even a bio aimed at young adults under Macmillan's children's book imprint that is also focusing on Jobs' story.

Steve Jobs Hits China

Shoppers in China stood in line before stores opened and bought all 250,000 copies of the Chinese edition within the day. The story of an American entrepreneur having such an impact in China is noteworthy. Among the cultural, economic, and sociological implications, I am wondering why this is so popular specifically.

What Readers Are Saying

Cheng, Shanghai resident, said:“I am buying Jobs’ biography for my son and I want him to learn about the spirit of the great man.”

Ms. Pan, who took part in an online discussion with users of Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo, said:“We hope reading about his experiences will inject vitality into our hidebound culture, lead young people to dare to seek out change, dare to be themselves, dare to push the limits and pursue creativity.”

Notice the concern with the story educating young people? That's similar to what the children's book publisher creating a young adult bio sought.

"I think Steve Jobs is one of the most important figures of our generation," says Feiwel of her decision to publish the biography. "He is of interest to kids not just for the computers, iPads, and iPods he created, but for who he was and how he lived his life. He was a visionary who was very complicated, and he had his ups and downs, which makes him very human and appealing."

Likewise, a Chinese reader commented:

“I felt like he was talking to me face-to-face, I’ve been touched by his astonishing honesty and absorbed in meditation over his ideas.”

The Pentecostal Steve Jobs?

If the power of biography and personal narrative can be so effective, isn't there a prominent place for telling our stories, especially the early figures of Pentecost in North America?

For me, this is personal. I remember reading Bug and Nona on the Go as a child and it changing my life. I assumed that was a coming-of-age experience for all Pentecostal young people. But recently I asked my English class how many had ever read a book by Sister Nona Freeman. I anticipated a room full of hands shooting up to prove my point on the value of writing as a ministry. Yet only 3 of the 33 students said they had read any of those books.

A generational gap? Perhaps. But what do we do to bridge that? What is the next version to share the power of personal narrative?

Next Steps

• Maybe the next wave of biography will come through video? Is it time to turn to film for storytelling?
• At the very least we should explore online options. Blogs offer an avenue for anyone to tell his or her story so we can catpure and share personal narratives. Maybe we can start by telling our own stories and also use this to share those of our elders.
• Check out UGST's Symposium site for papers soon to come on this year's theme "Telling Our Story." In the words of Dr. Vinson Synan, we should be recording the stories of the older people among us. We have lost many from our first generation, but we can still capture many stories critical to the history of our movement.

There is power in a personal story. It is incumbent on us to use this power. As we tell our stories, we build a bridge to tell His story.