Paul Morris grew up in a neighborhood near East Lake Country Club, in Atlanta, Georgia; attended Murphy High School, then served his country in the U.S. Army for a two-year enlistment. At age 20, Paul was led to Christ in the home of his employer in Long Beach, California. Two weeks later, he knew he could do nothing else with his life, but serve his new found Lord. After graduating as a ministerial student from Bob Jones University, Morris obtained his ministry degree (M.Div. – Master of Divinity) from Grace Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D., in Counseling and Administration from California Graduate School of Theology.

He is ordained by the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches and the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest. He served three churches as senior pastor. Since pastoring, however, his membership has been with the Presbyterian Church for the past 29 years.

In his early years, Paul worked with Jack Wyrtzen’s Word of Life Fellowship as Assistant Director of Word of Life Island, later joined Chuck Colson as the National Training Director for Prison Fellowship. More recently he served as founder and chief clinician of a very busy Christian Counseling Ministry in the Washington, D.C. area where he, and his wife Bonnie, hosted a call-in radio program, Linked with Love, for four years. Later, he worked as the Clinical Program Director for two mental health hospitals.

His service to the Lord has included many venues and has been anything but boring, but always fulfilling . . . and he sees no reason to stop now.

Communicator:

As National Training Director for Prison Fellowship Ministries, Paul conducted over 125 week-long seminars in prisons and churches in the United States and Canada with powerful results. (One prisoner due to be released in the middle of one of his seminars, asked permission to stay in prison until the seminar was over. Please read the other stories below relating to his many experiences with the inmates).

He’s preached, lead training courses, lectured, taught adult classes, conducted group therapy and hosted a daily radio program. He connects with people when he teaches, probably because his primary intent is to communicate God's love for them.

Author:

Morris has written poems, short stories, stories for children and numerous scholarly papers. He published The Journal of Redemptive Therapy, now out of print. He has written two non-fiction books, also no longer in print: Love Therapy, explaining his approach to psychotherapy, and Shadow of Sodom, a work addressing the social issue of homosexuality and an appropriate Christian response to it.

In recognition of his work, he was invited to contribute a chapter on Love Therapy, to Gary Collin's anthology of Christian psychotherapy, Helping People Grow.

His most recent, and to date, he feels his most important work is The Carpenter Trilogy, the story of Jesus as seen through the eyes of Joseph bar Sabbas, called Justus. Justus was the disciple NOT selected to replace the betrayer, Judas Iscariot. The book's first volume, entitled "The Apprentice," is now in print and available from Amazon.com and its own website.

In the course of his career as a mental health professional, he developed an approach and philosopny of Christian counseling which he calls Redemptive Therapy. This is a volume yet to be published.

Educator:

In addition to conducting seminars throughout the United States and Canada, Dr. Morris has functioned as a Professor, Executive Vice-President and Academic Dean of a small Christian college. He’s been guest lecturer in classrooms across the country.

Through years of formal and personal study, He has produced a unique blend of psychological and theological ideology. His ideas express a singularly functional philosophy of Christianity.

A Presbyterian Church, Laguna Hills, California

Sunlight streamed through stained-glass windows bathing presbyterian congregants in gold, red and blue. The minister had finished his sermon and offered a closing prayer. The organ, its pipes encased in dark walnut, played a quiet postlude while people shuffled out of the pews and disassembled.

The young man seemed dazed. The sanctuary was quiet, seemingly stunned by what they had heard. This young man had been sitting a few rows back from the front on the left side of the sanctuary. Now, as the minister stepped down from the dais, this young man stepped forward shaking his head. He took the minister by the hand and shook it vigorously. There were tears in his eyes. “I don’t know,” he said, “I don’t know you or where you have come from, but you must never stop what you are doing. You must never stop doing what you did here today.” Again, shaking his head, he retreated, overcome with his feelings.

Louisiana State Prison, Angola, Louisiana

The minister said, “I don’t usually do this. Today, in this place, at this time, I am. Word has come back to me that some of you have received Christ during our time together this week. I want to give you the chance to make that public. I want to give you the chance to let everyone know that you have encountered the Lord Jesus Christ, and that your life is changed forever. “We are not going to sing 52 verses of ‘Just as I Am.’ I don’t want heads bowed, eyes closed and Christians praying. I want all eyes open and looking around. I want everyone to see you. This thing is not to be a secret. We are not hiding from anyone. If you do what I am going to ask you to do, everyone in this room will see you. All your friends, all your cellmates, all the guys who hate your guts will know what you have done. You will give them reason to hate you more, to insult you and humiliate you. If you do this, it is going to cost you. You know, far more than I know, just how much it will cost you.

“Beginning now, you have 30 seconds to come and stand with me in front of this crowd, and in doing so, you declare publicly that you are a Christian, a child of God, and from this day forward, you belong to Jesus Christ.”

30 seconds. No music. No ritualistic, religious manipulation. Just 30 seconds. At the end of 30 seconds, only four men remained in their seats.

Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, Minnesota.

Morris stands six feet, two. The man standing angrily glowering down at him stood six five; muscular, hands on hips, determined, black, dressed in prison fatigues. “Ain’t no use you comin’ in here white boy. You ain’t gonna ‘mount ‘t ‘nuthin. I run this place. Evry’ body knows that. You better git used to it, too.” With that he turned and walked away.

A week crammed with 31 lectures and small group sessions goes by. Final gathering. Graduation. The tall, mean-looking black man makes his way to the podium and takes the mike. “You all know who I am. You better know. I run this place.” Then his voice broke and his cheeks wet as the following words stumbled out, “I just want this man (Morris) and you all to know . . . from now on, Jesus runs me.” Crowd explodes with yells and applause.

Folsom Prison, Folsom, California

Maximum security. A prison inside a prison. After the lecture, a black man approaches him. Biceps like telephone poles, chest massive, head stood on his shoulders like a fireplug. A strange combination of linebacker and offensive lineman. He grabs Morris around his body, pinning his arms to his side. He lifts the minister off his feet, all 250 lbs. of him and crushes him to his chest. "I loves you, man!" he exclaims.

"Yes. Well, I love you, too," Morris squeaks almost unable to breathe.

Read Paul's BLOG by clicking HERE.

To invite Paul to speak at your church, college or organization. Contact him through this LINK, or phone: 800.218.8189.

I have discovered that Jesus was “blue collar,” with carpenter’s callouses, probably laughed a lot and preferred to hang out with water-front toughs, rather than the aberrant, jellyfish religious leaders of his day. I affirm masculinity in men; indeed, I perceive Jesus as the model of that masculinity." -- PDM

Dr. Paul Morris and his wife, Bonnie, live in Marietta, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. They have six children between them, and ten grandchildren.