I’ve known Ted Cole for over thirty years. He carried many titles over the years: Son, Husband, Father, Brother, Teacher, and Pastor. One of his newest titles is Author. He published his book, I Was Just Thinking, in 2019.

I wanted to introduce his novel to my audience and had a few questions for him.

I know you originally wrote your book snippets for a different purpose. Can you tell me about your original audience?

Over my forty years of ministry, I wrote several articles for newsletters for churches I served, as well as for local newspapers.

What prompted you to compile your writings into a book?

At the urging of my wife and close friends, I collected those short stories and published them in book form.

How does your writing relate back to your time in ministry?

My goal in writing each story had three parts: 1) To be brief, 2) To add humor, 3) To address issues that most Christians face daily. Some of those issues are death and losing loved ones, fear, doubt, judgmentalism, doctrine, discipleship, prayer, grief, faith, children, forgiveness, Jesus, religion, pigs, theodicy, the church, and some reflections on my personal faith journey.

As I mentioned on the back cover of the book: "Life is messy. Sometimes we lose touch with God in the mess, but usually, he is found in the mess." That has been my experience both as a pastor, husband, father, and seeker of spiritual truths... "These short stories represent God winks I received when thinking about the raw edges of life, stories sprinkled with both humor and honest reflection."

Who would you say your ideal audience would be?

Some stories represent a more progressive view of theological issues, while others are more traditional. I would hope that the stories speak to a broad Christian audience.


You can find his book, I Was Just Thinking, at the following link on Amazon.

*https://smile.amazon.com/Was-Just-Thinking-Ted-Cole/dp/1098018729/