The summer between freshman and sophomore years of high school, “Richard,” one of my best friends shared with me a pocket-sized evangelical tract titled “Holy Joe.”
It’s part of a series I’ve come to call “Evangelism circa 1970s.” A variety of 24-page, small-sized, cartoon-style booklets encourage and specify the path to eternal salvation, which comes exclusively by way of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I currently rely upon and endorse the use of thirty-three pieces hand-culled from offerings by Chick Publications. That essential point must be repeated for emphasis: I read, cross-referenced, and prayed over every tract available before choosing those that I would personally use as part of my ministry work.
These booklets are powerful tools.
But it was important to me that I not simply adopt the perspective of illustrator Jack T Chick, but, rather, select only those that reflect the doctrine to which I ascribe, my desired way of relating with those to whom I share them, and, to the best of my ability, what I understand as direction from The Holy Spirit.*
If you’re new to all of this, I suggest starting with a 130-title “Tract Assortment” sample pack. Then conduct your own due diligence before stocking-up.
For me, twenty-five percent hit the mark. I try to keep a dozen or so of any given issue in a folio that travels with me almost anytime I go out. Switching out to the next in sequence once-a-week (typically on Sunday mornings), has proven to be the right cycle for refreshing.
I’m not sure that I have ever read a positive assessment of Jack Chick and his work, nor that such should be expected — or is ever reasonably supplied in the main. A Smithsonian Magazine obituary in 2016 may be as close as any will get. And yet, after more years than James Bond has been on the big screen, Chick tracks are still in use.
Count me as one of those who continues to unapologetically use them, now over half-a-century after Holy Joe was placed in my hands.
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* My unvarnished perspective in this regard most commonly (at least insofar as the Internet is concerned) under the following Categories on my personal blog.
— Dell Deaton
June 10, 2025
rev January 3, 2026; December 29, 2025; August 24, 2025