Former prime minister Scott Morrison has written a Christian-themed memoir about his political career which he says will be “quite unlike any other book written by a prime minister”.
The 288-page autobiography titled Plans for Your Good – A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness will be released next May by Thomas Nelson, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Mr. Morrison confirmed the manuscript was “basically done” and with his editors.
The former PM said the memoir would be marketed in the booming US religious publishing market where sales of faith-based books reached A$1.175 billion last year, after a 15% sales surge between 2019 and 2021 credited to the pandemic.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports him as saying: “It has been written with a broader audience in mind. It hasn’t been written to be available only in bookshops in Canberra. Particularly in the US, but beyond that too. This is me telling about how my faith has sustained me through my life. It has applications for people who share my faith and not just for people who go to churches such as mine; it’s for anyone with a Christian faith or broader spiritual interests. People may have been aware of how important faith was in my life, and this is a much longer version of that.”
The publisher is promoting the book as: “A unique insider’s account of a Christian who was open about his faith and operated at the top level of politics for more than a decade. During one of the toughest periods since the Second World War, covering drought, wildfires, a global pandemic and recession, he chronicles God’s faithfulness throughout, win or lose, public criticism or public success.”
“Less political memoir and more pastoral encouragement, Morrison is passionate about encouraging others to discover how they can access and see the many blessings of God in their own lives, no matter their circumstances, drawing on Jeremiah 29:11, that God’s plans are for our good and not our harm, to give us a future and a hope,” the publisher adds.
“Morrison’s honest, vulnerable and reflective answers offer a unique lens to better understand your relationship with God and the blessing that can flow from such a relationship,” the blurb continues.
The Australian Associated Press observes the former PM who remains in parliament as a backbencher, sets out a series of questions such as “Who am I?” and “How should I live?”
Scott Morrison was Australia’s first Pentecostal prime minister, declaring the coalition’s 2019 election win a “miracle”, before his term was dominated by the pandemic and he went on to lose government at the 2022 poll.
In his last public appearance as PM at Horizon Church in the Sutherland Shire, he observed: “God calls us, whether you’re a prime minister or a pastor or running a business. We are each called to trust and obey.”
Last Sunday while presenting a 20-minute sermon at the Pentecostal Encounter City Church in Perth, he told the congregation that: “The Christian journey is not linear. Ever. I know. It’s up, it’s down, it’s around.” He urged worshippers to be resolute: “Especially in the world today, which is increasingly hostile and more overt about it. For us, as believers, I think it’s important for us to stand and to hold fast.”
