In 1951 Clyde Harris shocked the world by donating his multimillion-dollar empire of forests, sawmills, and assembly plants to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists—“lock, stock, and boards.”

Clyde’s employees wondered if he’d lost his mind, his heirs fumed, and when the story hit the newsstands, Time and Life magazine readers around the globe buzzed with skepticism about his staggering display of generosity. Why would a man walk away from his life’s work—a business that led the world production of unfinished furniture with assembly plants around the U.S. that provided employment, Sabbath privileges, and Christian education opportunities for millworkers—and leave it in the hands of inexperienced preachers?

Lock, Stock, and Boards is the inside story of Clyde Harris and an unprecedented offer that thrust the Seventh-day Adventist Church into the lap of controversy. Was this shocking gift a leap of faith or a lapse in judgment?