Johnnie Moore wrote his first book, What Am I Supposed to Do with My Life?, based on his experiences working with college students as vice president of Liberty University. At Liberty, Moore became friends with TV producer Mark Burnett, who asked Moore to move to California to be his chief of staff. We talked about that change in our last conversation together.

But Moore was experiencing another tug on his life—a growing concern for Christians in the Middle East. His most recent book, Defying ISIS, chronicles the threat of the so-called Islamic State militant group to Christians and what we can do about it. We talked about his book last month in New York City.

How did you decide to write a book about ISIS? I believe that God gives you experiences for a reason. About a year before ISIS took over Mosul, Iraq, which was a city that had a Christian population going back almost 2,000 years (now, by the way, there are no Christians left in Mosul) … I happened to be traveling with my mentor, Rick Warren, and we attended a meeting in Jordan that was convened by the king of Jordan. The subject of the meeting was the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. In the meeting were three Catholic cardinals, five orthodox patriarchs and a number of Protestant and evangelical leaders. I sat in the back of that room and I listened as all of these leaders predicted exactly what we’ve seen happen in the Middle East. I just decided that because I knew that was happening, and it appeared that more was going to happen, that I had a responsibility to raise my own voice. I’ve progressively, slowly, and to a greater degree raised my voice over the last year.

Source: Warren Cole Smith, http://www.worldmag.com