Welcome to A Journal of Champions the official blog site for Institute of Champions! My name is Dr. Gary D. Knouf and I want to tell you a little about the beginning and development of the Institute of Champions through the years as well as where I see this endeavor going in the future.

I was raised in a Christian home, graduated from Ballard High School in Seattle, and spent 6 ½ years in the military during the Viet Nam era before attending Bible College in Seattle.

I then found myself pastoring a church in a small logging town in the State of Oregon. I thought, “I have my Bible, I have the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit, I am ready to go capture a town for Christ.” But when I found myself in the middle of starting out with just five people, I thought, “okay, just how do you do this?” No one had shown me how to build a Church from scratch, and I learned nothing in Bible College about just how you make a success of this project.

I prayed a lot, and struggled forward, and then a Pastor Cox from John Day Oregon changed my life when he gave me a copy of Zig Ziglars cassette tape series on “Motivation.” I listened carefully and repeatedly to each cassette, and I was in awe! I had never heard these concepts in Church, in youth groups, and camp, and certainly not in Bible College.

I began to search the Scriptures and found out that these were really Biblical principles that man had secularized for the business world. Every concept that I found in Zigs tapes I could also find in the Bible! I began to study more and more, spending time reading “self help” and “personal development” books that were written by Christian authors and IT WAS LIFE AND MINISTRY CHANGING!

I began to teach the concepts with the Biblical basis to my church people because they needed help just like me. We began to set “Godly goals”, and developed “Spirit led plans.” I would literally go to the mountains and pray and plan, sometimes fasting and praying for days, and then I would come back to the people and announce what I thought the Lord wanted us to do. That’s also when I first started the Institute of Champions and began developing materials to take these life changing Biblical principles to as many people as I could.

Oh my goodness! That church grew from five people to a peak attendance of over five hundred in four years in a town of just 1800 people! During that time I finished my Masters Degree in Christian Counseling, and as the Lord added to our family I started teaching the Biblical principles of human motivation to our children from day one, and continued to study and teach these principles for all these years.

Along the way, I have been criticized by the “Holier than Thou” crowd. Some of the most negative and judgmental people are “the brethren” themselves. But I studied, prayed, and walked with God, and the Lord just kept blessing and blessing. I instilled these principles in our children. Later, I wrote my own book and produced my own cassette series, entitled “Biblical Motivation for Personal Victory” and distributed thousands of copies.

I completed my PhD In Psychology and Counseling. My dissertation was on human motivation and the scriptures. I also wrote trainings and books for marketing companies, and began to speak in Churches, Colleges, and Corporate events. I found an eagerness on the part of audiences to have the tools to produce lasting change, and be “Champions for Christ”.

I look at my children who are now all grown and all serving the Lord in full time Christian service. I know it’s the “Grace of God” that any child can grow up Godly and Spiritually healthy in the terrible environment of the 21st century world that we live in, but I believe that if we will teach the Biblical principles of “being over-comers” and “victory living” and being “champions for Christ through faith” then we will persevere and enjoy the abundant life that Jesus promised for those that believe in Him!

Now I know that there has been much abuse of the word “Success” but the word is in the Bible, and I’m sure that anyone with a cognitive mind would rather be a success than a failure, and certainly God who loves us would rather usbe a success than a failure.

Let me share with you what I believe the Biblical meaning of success is. We cover this in our new book Power Motivation for Bible Believers which can be purchased on the Institute of Champions web site.

True, Biblical Success is to:

1. Know God’s will for your life,

2. Do God’s will for your life,  and

3. Bear “much fruit” in God’s will for your life.

If you can do those three, you will accomplish Biblical success and please your heavenly Father.

Today my wife and I serve the Lord at Apache Creek Deaf and Youth Ranch in Reserve New Mexico. We travel and speak in churches and organizations in order to raise money to help dis-advantaged youth. Now having spoken publicly in conferences, TV, radio, colleges, schools, camps, business and corporate events, over 12,000 times, God still has given us a message of encouragement and empowerment. Wow! Can you believe it? Starting out humbly and ignorantly so many years ago in that little town, and now every Sunday, there is a Knouf singing, preaching, and teaching in at least 6 states! And now the Grand children are popping up and the legacy will multiply.

God is so good! This blog is to help people get Biblically motivated and to stay motivated by discovering the wonderful “miracle of motivation”. I look forward to hearing from you and sharing winning concepts and life changing principles that we all might enjoy the victory of success (God’s way) and experience all the abundance that God has for us.

May God Richly Bless You and Yours!

Dr. Gary D. Knouf
Institute of Champions