Success and failure—Max Lucado has tasted both. He is widely known for his best-selling books The Applause of Heaven, Six Hours One Friday, and No Wonder They Call Him Savior. He is pulpit minister of Oak Hill Church of Christ in San Antonio, Texas, a congregation that averages over 1,000 in Sunday morning attendance. On top of that, as his most recent book cover says, "He is the father of three terrific daughters and the husband of a one-in-a-million wife."

But he has also known discouragement. After serving a church in Miami, Lucado (it rhymes with "tomato") became a church-planting missionary in Brazil. He returned to the United States after three years of "the most challenging time in my ministry."

On the kind of day you expect in San Antonio in January, strong sunshine with a warm blue sky overhead, LEADERSHIP editors Marshall Shelley and Brian Larson visited Max and found him with his tie loosened, his smile broad, and his heart ready to ...