Poway pastor encourages others to ignore naysayers in his latest book
Again and again the Rev. Stephen Albert was told “no” to things he wanted to do. But then he went ahead and did them anyway. He was told he couldn’t start Interfaith Awareness Week, but then he did — and it grew around the world.
He was told no, he couldn’t make it through college, but then ended up with a PhD.
“If you have a dream, you can find a way to make it come true” said Albert, co-founder of the Poway Interfaith Team and founder of the World Interfaith Network.
As a college teacher for four decades, Albert saw students cling to the idea that they couldn’t achieve something. He has met hundreds of people who have given up trying to achieve because they were told no, they couldn’t.
So Albert decided to write a book to encourage people to go beyond saying no.
His book, Ignore the ‘NO!’: Empower Yourself to Do the Impossible!, has just come out and is about “how we can go beyond all the no’s we received early in life and remove all the barriers that we might have created in our heads if we want to try something new,” said Albert, who with his wife, Abigail, is co-minister of the All Faith Center in Poway.
“I want to inspire people who are feeling discouraged or unhappy in their lives to know that they can achieve their dreams and beyond,” said Albert, 75.
The 72-page book is Albert’s 20th work and follows his 2020 book A Rainbow for the World. He is also the author of Reboot to Interfaith, which is about finding peace through mutual respect for one another’s differences, and especially differences in beliefs. His other recent titles include Infinite Possibilities & Beyond and From Religious to Spiritual: The New Thought Experience, co-authored with Rev. Hal Lingerman.
Albert weaves in his own experiences of saying no and overcoming negativity.
“I had an inner desire to be an architect when the college advisor told me I wasn’t college material,” Albert said. His parents never went to college; In fact, his father never graduated from high school. But his parents started putting a few dollars each week in a college fund for Albert.
He then earned four degrees, an associate in engineering from Penn State University, a bachelor of architecture from Drexel University and a master of environmental psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a doctorate in religious studies from Emerson Theological Institute.
“Especially during my 44 years of college teaching, I’ve met a lot of young people who grew up saying, ‘Our people don’t go to college’ and ‘You never make it,'” said Albert.
Albert encourages readers to go beyond the “no.” The book talks about miracles and using what Albert calls “Previous Thought,” meaning to think ahead and prepare for the next step.
“We must not allow others to limit us just because they don’t see our potential. And we have to stop limiting ourselves out of fear or because what we want to do hasn’t been done yet,” Albert said.
Albert points out that he had a stroke in 2003 at the age of 55 and had five-way open-heart bypass surgery in 2012, but that hasn’t stopped him from doing some of his most important jobs since then, such as the Started Interfaith Awareness Week in 2017. In 2019 he founded the World Interfaith Network connecting interfaith groups around the world. According to Albert, the network has almost 300 members and is recognized in 107 countries. Its mission is to promote mutual respect between people of different faiths and cultures.
Since 2004 he has been advising rehab patients and their families on how to “restart” their lives for better health. He volunteered at the Palomar Health Rehabilitation Institute in Escondido for 16 years until COVID-19 stopped in-person visits.
“Rev. dr Steve is one of the finest examples of someone who can take adversity and disappointment and turn it into a blessing for all,” said one of the book’s reviewers, Rev. Wendy Craig-Purcell, spiritual leader and founder of The Oneness Center in San Diego.
When asked if the book was spiritual, Albert said, “Everything is spiritual. We believe that everyone is a child of God and each of us has free will to listen to that little inner voice that gives us ideas and dreams that go beyond the beliefs we were raised with or given to us society restricts. Through my inner drive and God’s grace, I have outperformed the naysayers.”
The paperback is $11.95 at barnesandnoble.com and $4.95 for the Kindle edition at amazon.com/Rev.-Albert/e/B088P7F8DG.