William Samuel Strain

W. E. Samuel Strain grew up in a home where ministry was never far away. His father planted churches, there was an evangelist in the family, and his grandfather was a Christian musician. With five children in the house, it was probably inevitable that one of them would end up in the work. He was the one. He served first in children's ministry, then in First Nations ministry in Ontario, and later founded a First Nations ministry in Treaty Four territory in Saskatchewan, working mostly with young adults.

Ministry was never his only vocation. He signed his first municipal contracts and opened his first retail store at sixteen. Over roughly twenty years he has led teams in manufacturing, agri-nutrition, multi-site retail, wholesale distribution, media and the nonprofit sector. Along the way he picked up a habit of asking uncomfortable questions about how people are actually treated at work. Management Malpractice: Leading Without Losing Your Soul came out of those questions. It rests on a simple conviction: management is moral work, and authority carries a real duty of care.

He had long been uneasy with the habit of running a church like a business and measuring success by how many names were counted. Among First Nations communities he saw something more human: people are relational, and faith takes root through trust, presence and love. Reading the Church Fathers gave him words for what he had already seen. St. John Chrysostom was among the first he read with a shock of recognition, and that road led him home to the Coptic Orthodox Church. Crown of Love: 10 Steps to Becoming an Amazing Husband grew from the same soil.

He lives in Ontario with his wife, Marina, to whom Crown of Love is dedicated.