I have owned businesses and worked for others in diverse industries, from insurance to construction, venture capital companies to telecom, contract work to food processing whatever was needed to help feed and house my growing family. The following year, I met and married Kim Warren and for a time worked on staff at a large suburban church while attending seminary.
Completing my undergraduate degree in Religion, I graduated summa cum laude from Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon. at Fellowship House, an international guest house. I spent one summer in the Philippines and another touring with a drama troupe before working in Washington D.C. I paid my way through Bible College working as a radio disc jockey, lifeguard and even a stint in the oil fields of northern Alberta. My father worked as a Pastor for a number of small churches in Western Canada, and by the time I graduated, I had already attended thirteen different schools.
In the middle of a school year, my family unexpectedly returned to the West. By the time I was flown away to boarding school at age 6, I was in most respects a white Dani. Although at times a fierce warring people, steeped in the worship of spirits and even occasionally practicing ritualistic cannibalism, they also provided a deep sense of identity that remains an indelible element of my character and person. These became my family, and as the first white child and outsider who ever spoke their language, I was granted unusual access into their culture and community. I was the eldest of four, born May 11th, 1955, in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, but the majority of my first decade was lived with my missionary parents in the highlands of Netherlands New Guinea (West Papua), among the Dani, a technologically stone age tribal people. I thought the way I grew up was ‘normal,’ but I think most would probably agree that my history and journey have been a bit unusual. For each of us, where and how we grew up plays a foundational role in our sense of ‘normal,’ and only when we begin to experience the ‘bigness and diversity’ of the world are we tempted to evaluate our roots. We live in a world where ‘normal’ does not truly exist except as an idea or concept. It is a book about the healing mercies available to all. His latest novel, Eve (Howard Books, 2015) also a NY Times Bestseller, explores harmful assumptions we have about ourselves and the relationship initiated by God with us in the Garden of Eden. The Shack has been included in the PBS list of America’s 100 best-loved books.
With nearly 23 million copies sold and 49 consecutive weeks at # 1 on the New York Times Bestseller list, The Shack has inspired conversations about God around the world. Paul Young is the author of the worldwide bestsellers, The Shack and Crossroads.
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