--The Deleware State News

Paul David Morris was born in 1936,the son of a Baptist minister in what was then the small community of Ponca City, Oklahoma. He was but 10 months old when his dad died. His mother, two brothers and two sisters, the youngest being nine years his senior, moved back home to Atlanta, Georgia where "little Davey" was raised.

After an honorable discharge from the military, he moved to southern California where his two sisters lived. While he had grown up in and around Fifth Avenue Baptist Church (the church used in the filming of "Driving Miss Daisy"), Paul's conversion to Christ did not impact his life until 1957, while living in California.

As a young man of 21, Paul struggled with his new life apart from the routine predictability of military regimen. Depression set in. One night when sleep would not come, he stepped out on the porch of his sister's home, looked up at the full moon and cried out, "God, if you are there, I need you!" He returned to his bedside, knelt down and wept. A few days later, he was led to Christ by his employer. It is a wondrous story Paul sometimes tells when asked.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Bob Jones University, (1962), after which he joined the youth ministry of Jack Wyrtzen and Word of Life Fellowship. He quickly rose to the full-time position of Assistant Director of Word of Life Island. After that, he returned to seminary where he received the Master of Divinity degree at Grace Theological Seminary (1969) in Winona Lake, Indiana. While a student in seminary,he became a pastor in Indiana and then served two churches in California. While pastoring, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree at the California Graduate School of Theology in 1972 and decided to enter the psychotherapeutic field. Dr. Morris built an active southern California practice as a mental health professional where he directed counseling clinics in Garden Grove and Catalina Island, in association with the psychiatric and medical community.

While in Avalon on Catalina Island in 1975, he founded Thesis 96, an educational program designed to assist young people entering college toward the direction of their calling and purpose in life. Only a small percentage of high-school graduates enter college really focused on God's designs for them. Even then, in the early 70's, he was committed to helping people find their "purpose driven life." Advised by the Catalina Island Company that the famed Wrigley mansion which had sat empty for over forty years, was about to be donated as a site for his school, Mr. Wrigley (of chewing gum fame) died in Chicago and the building instead, went into probate. Dr. Morris's program was to take a different route. He left Catalina to join Charles W. Colson in Washington, D.C., to help in what was then a fledgling Prison Fellowship. In his capacity as National Training Director, he taught in excess of 125 week-long seminars in Washington, D.C., and in prisons throughout the United States and Canada. During this time, Prison Fellowship adopted his "Thesis 96" principles in a program entitled, "Get Ready to Soar!" These efforts, along with his administrative duties, contributed substantially to what has now become an international ministry.

Following his ministry with Prison Fellowship, Dr. Morris directed Thesis 96 Christian Counseling Center, which developed into one of the largest programs of its kind in the Washington, D.C. metroplex. This was largely due to the daily radio talk show, Linked with Love, which he hosted with his wife, Bonnie.

He has written two books. The first entitled, Love Therapy, was reviewed as "one of the finest books in print on the art of Christian counseling." It has been used as a text in many Christian college and seminary classrooms. His second book, Shadow of Sodom (both by Tyndale House Publishers), addresses the issue of a Christian response to homosexuality. He has now completed another project entitled, The Carpenter, a tome of more than 600 pages and may be read online. It is the compelling story of Jesus as seen through life and experiences of the 'rejected' apostle, Joseph, called Justus.

In professional recognition of his work in the field of Christian psychotherapy, he was invited to contribute to an anthology of the therapeutic philosophies of leading practitioners in this field, entitled Helping People Grow, edited by Dr. Gary Collins, Executive Director of the American Association of Christian Counselors.

Dr. Morris is ordained and has served as senior minister to three congregations. His command of the original biblical languages and many years of formal and personal study has produced a unique and rare blend of psychologist and theologian. Challenging conventional theological postures, his ideas express a singularly functional philosophy of Christianity. In powerfully driven presentations on stage, platform, pulpit or the written word, his focus is straightforward and explosive: Jesus of Nazareth is real and relevant to the dynamics of Twenty-First Century living.

But Paul is substantially more than a gifted communicator and dramatist. He is a gentle and wise counselor, teacher, theologian and thinker. He knows God and he knows how to be a constructive catalyst in the tensions and struggles of men in their often painful attempts to connect with God. His greatest delight is to help people realize that they have immense value and worth to the Father. The measure of that worth may be seen in stark reality of Calvary. That is the standard by which a person's worth is measured by God the Father. But the vitality of productive living comes from authentic connectedness to the risen Christ, our Living Savior and Lord.