A La Carte (June 26)
I love a good loyalty program, and Westminster Books has just launched one. It’s worth a look!
Today’s Kindle deals include some good resources from Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: A Faithful Mother’s Love)
Christian Friendship is the Sweetest of all Connections
Michael Haykin has a sweet reflection here on Christian friendship.
Should Pastors Preach on Political Issues? (Video)
I appreciate Burk Parsons’ handling of a tricky issue in this Q&A.
The Prodigal Swine
“We all have a prodigal inside us, an embarrassing drive to satisfy ourselves, even at the expense of those who love us most. And so we leave others behind. We leave God behind. And we put ourselves first. That path leads to the trough, the lowest of lows, where we beg for what others consider garbage.”
A Theological College Principal’s Pastoral Wisdom and Prophetic Prayer
Mikey Lynch remembers the principal of a theological college who had some prescient wisdom at the beginning of the Young, Restless, Reformed movement.
When God Woke Up Wales
“The work in Wales was manifestly a work of mercy and grace. Little in the country at the time commended it.” Jeremy Walker recounts God’s work in Wales at a time of revival.
Finding My Place in the Battle
“My mom was very formative in teaching me how to manage my fears and anxiety. She knew that the enemy was the source of that fear, that sin and brokenness in this world were a result of the fall, and she gave me my armor and dressed me for the fight…”
Flashback: Tell God the Unvarnished Story
…if we are to confess our sins before him, we need to confess them all, for he knows them anyway. These words from F.B. Meyer encourage you to tell him the truth—the unvarnished truth.
The happiest and holiest children…are the children whose fathers succeed in winning both their tender affection and their reverential and loving fear. And they are the children who will come to understand most easily the mystery of the fatherhood of God. —John Piper
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A Batch of New Books for Kids (and Teens)
Every month I put together a roundup of new and notable books for grownup readers. But I also receive a lot of books for kids and like to put together the occasional roundup of these books as well. So today I bring you a whole big batch of new books for kids of all ages (up to and including teens).
Board BooksWhat Are Eyes For? and What Are Ears For? by Abbey Wedgeworth. These are entries in the growing “Training Young Hearts” series and are for the youngest of children. The series “addresses the attitudes of the heart that underpin behavior and explains how the gospel of grace enables us to change. Parents, teachers, and other loved ones can refer back to these resources when specific behaviors need both to be corrected and to be connected to forgiveness, grace and growth.” (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
God Cares for Me (For the Bible Tells Me So) by Kristen Wetherell. “Everyone’s a theologian—even your little one. Each board book in the For the Bible Tells Me So series offers kids ages 0-4 an introduction to key facets of the gospel and a glimpse at the joy found when children embrace Christ as their Lord and Savior. In God Cares for Me, author Kristen Wetherell explores God’s creation and providence, revealing his abundant care for the things he has made—including his children!” (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
Books for Little ChildrenCoop Messes Up by Sarah Reju. “Coop Wheelie is the youngest in his family, and like many little ones, he has a problem obeying the rules–and there are a lot of them! When Coop runs out of gas, his sister, Lucy, tries to help him learn to follow the rules, but finds herself right in the middle of the trouble too. Through Coop’s story, kids will discover that making mistakes can be an important way to learn about forgiveness and the gospel. The first in The Wheelies series, written by Sarah Reju and illustrated by Tania Rex, Coop Messes Up will teach children ages 3-8 about God’s unconditional love for us.” (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
David: Finding Jesus in the Story of David by Alison Mitchell. “Moments in David’s story when David is a little bit like Jesus are signposted with symbols that children need to spot, helping them to understand the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. This fun, interactive resource will give children skills to read the Bible as they connect the stories and learn that the whole Bible is about Jesus. Great for parents or grandparents to give children aged 4-7. Can also be used as a homeschool resource or for children’s ministry in church.” (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
Lucy and the Saturday Surprise by Melissa Kruger and Charlie and the Preschool Prodigal by Ginger Blomberg. This is a pair of new entries in the growing TGC Kids series for children 4-7. The first “the dangers of envy and the joy of contentment” while the second introduces children to the dangers of self-righteousness. (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
My First ABC Book of Bible Verses by Jonathan Gibson. “Jonathan Gibson helps toddlers and preschoolers learn key Bible verses along with their ABCs. Each letter of the alphabet has a bright, captivatingly illustrated page with a short, foundational Bible verse to be memorized and a simple sentence that helps explain the verse.” (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
The Story Of God Our Savior by Kenneth Padgett & Shay Gregorie. “The Story of God Our Savior worshipfully surveys God’s loving acts of deliverance across the vista of the biblical story–with the Cross of Christ lifted up on the highest peak. Take your family on this journey. Ponder together the exodus, remember God’s exile-ending kindness, and meditate on Jesus’ triumph over sin and death! By the end of this story your family will know this about God: He’s abounding in love, a Savior who mends. Always and forever, world without end.” (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
How Do I Get to Heaven?: Questions and Answers about Life and Death by Nancy Gorrell. “In simple terms, this attractive, full–colour illustrated hardback paints a beautiful picture of heaven and explains what heaven will be like. It also explains that the only way to heaven is by trusting in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Each spread includes one question or topic, a brief explanation, and a Bible verse that can be used as a memory verse. There are also explanations of words which might be new to readers, like salvation, resurrection, and substitute.” (Amazon)
Older ChildrenSusannah Spurgeon: The Pastor’s Wife Who Didn’t Let Sickness Stop Her by Mary Mohler. “Do Great Things for God” series. “This beautifully illustrated children’s biography of Susannah Spurgeon (1832-1903) features stylish illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos. It is part of a series designed to show kids that God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.” (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
Risen Hope: The Church Throughout History by Luke Davis. This is a series of five books that are meant to help explain church history to younger readers. Each book covers a different era. “If you’re looking for a narrative-driven, engagingly-written history of the church for young teens, the Risen Hope series is for you. Meet some of the key people who God used to shape His Church, and see how He has been at work throughout history.” The age range is roughly 8-13. (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
Big Questions Series (6-Volume Set) by Chris Morphew. “Christian Studies teacher and school chaplain Chris Morphew has been answering tough questions from young people for over a decade. Big Questions is a series of fun and fast-paced books walking kids aged 9-13 through what the Bible says about life, helping them to grow in confident and considered faith. Now you can get all six books in this stylish slipcase.” Each of the six volumes addresses a different big question: What happens when we die? Why does God let bad things happen? And so on. (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
Trailblazers. You’re probably familiar with the “Trailblazers” series of short biographies for kids. The series continues to grow year by year and must now exceed 50 volumes, many of which have been bundled up into themed box sets. I believe more than a half million volumes have been sold. The newest volumes are biographies of John Wycliffe and Polycarp with notables like David Livingstone and Charles & John Wesley coming a bit later this year. The biographies are excellent and are often written by biographers who have prepared full-sized works for an adult audience (e.g. Vance Christie on David Livingstone). The age range is roughly 8-9 for read to me and 9-14 for read yourself. (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
Bible Investigators: Creation by Danika Cooley. “Bursting with 90 brain-teasing puzzles, 40 Bible passages, and 30 concepts regarding God’s creation, this lesson-and-activity book will give kids aged 8-12 skills to investigate the Bible for themselves—like a real investigator! As kids apply logic and solve challenging puzzles, they will dive deeply into Scripture and examine the Bible’s account of creation, picking up lots of skills for reading and interpreting the Bible. As well as lots of puzzles, there are journaling boxes for kids to reflect on, interpret, and apply what they have learned.” (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
TeensThe Dream Keeper Saga by Kathryn Butler. This fantasy series for young teens has now reached its fourth volume, The Quest for the Guardians. “Even though she’s only 12 years old, Lily McKinley already feels the weight of the world’s brokenness. She’s seen it in her mother’s exhaustion, her grandmother’s illness, and the cruelty of Adam, the bully at her school. But most tragically, she experienced it two months ago when her father died in a terrible accident.As an artistic daydreamer, Lily has a brilliant imagination to help her cope, but that imagination often gets her into trouble. One day, it transports her to a fantasy world called the Somnium Realm, where her father’s secret history embroils her in an epic quest. With the help of a dragon guide named Cedric, Lily battles evil shrouds, harpies, and other creatures to find her way through grief, rescue the world from evil, and discover the power of redemption.” (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
New Morning Mercies for Teens by Paul David Tripp. This is “a daily gospel devotional” that has been adapted from his ultra-popular daily devotional. “This updated edition of Paul David Tripp’s bestselling book New Morning Mercies features 366 engaging daily devotionals, adapted for teenagers. Each day includes a one-sentence, gospel-centered reading and an extended meditation, Bible verses, and a prompt for discussion or personal reflection. Tripp also includes a bonus Q&A chapter in which he briefly answers questions around relevant topics including anxiety, gender, social media, and spiritual disciplines. Focused less on behavior modification and more on helping teenagers encounter the living God, this book helps young people to fall in love with Jesus, find freedom and joy within his boundaries, and live for his glory―day in and day out.” (Amazon)
A Student’s Guide, edited by John Perritt. The “A Student’s Guide” series has been underway for some time now and, in the next month or so, will reach 18 volumes. Each of them addresses a particular issue of Christian doctrine or living. So there have been volumes on glorification and missions and volumes on dating and technology. The volumes coming along very soon deal with politics, rest, and living out Reformed theology. (Amazon, Westminster Kids)
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Listen to the Church in China
Christians in the West hear a lot about the church in China. We hear of its growth, of its strength, of its suffering, of its perseverance. We admire it and often laud it, yet in truth know very little of it. Though we often hear about the church in China, we rarely hear from the church in China (for at least a couple of reasons: There is a need for many of those believers to keep a low profile and, of course, there is a language barrier).
Faith in the Wilderness: Words of Exhortation from the Chinese Church addresses this sad oversight with a series of exhortations—a series of translated “sermonic letters”—from Chinese Christians meant to teach and encourage. Together, they teach Christians specifically how to endure suffering, trials, and persecution, topics near and dear to the heart of Chinese Christians.
Context matters and the context of Faith in the Wilderness is two-fold: persecution and pandemic. In her introduction, Hannah Nation says that “for the majority of Western Christians, the topics of persecution and pandemic might seem disparate. On the one hand, pandemics have been long removed from our lived experience, so when it is discussed, if it is discussed, we categorize it under natural evil and the suffering we experience living in a broken world. On the other hand, persecution tends to be siloed from other topics of suffering, and neatly tucked into the great theological debates of church and state.” Thus these topics tend to sit apart from one another. Yet this is not the case for the church in China—at least for the “underground” house church movement that sits apart from the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement.Within the theology and preaching of many of China’s urban house churches, persecution and pandemic have become two sides of the same coin, two parallel points under one familiar topic—suffering. If you had the opportunity to hear a house church pastor preach today, you would likely hear them discuss Christian suffering and you would have a fifty-fifty chance of them focusing on either suffering through persecution or suffering through the pandemic. Often, to your surprise and perhaps confusion, they would interchange these two topics.
The reasons are many and beyond the scope of this brief review, but they do lead to a fascinating collection of exhortations from China’s Christian leaders. These are divided into meditations on brokenness, meditations on redemption, and meditations on hope. And often, as Nation says, these leap seamlessly between pandemic and persecution. Between them they teach a theology of suffering deeply grounded in our union with Christ—a union that reveals the brokenness of the world, that reveals the way of the cross, and that reveals that God’s kingdom is at hand. Between them they minister comfort, encouragement, and perhaps even a measure of rebuke to Christians in the West.
“Marginalized themselves, the house churches understand Christ’s care for the weak and suffering, and rejoice at preaching the good news to anyone who has ears to hear. As the Chinese house church knows, our hope is not in princes and power, but rather in the Savior who unites us to himself, his death and resurrection. Our strength is in bearing his cross, and our joy is in his suffering.”
Faith in the Wilderness is a powerful and moving collection of sermonic letters and I am glad to recommend it. I am quite sure that if you take the time to read it, you will be both blessed and encouraged. Best of all, you will be better equipped to endure pandemic, persecution, and whatever else providence may have in store for you and for all of us.Buy from Amazon
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Behind-the-Scenes: Christian Publishing
I have given behind-the-scenes looks at book endorsements and conference speaking and thought I’d wrap up this little series with a look at publishing. I’m familiar only with Christian books so will keep my comments focused on that small corner of a much larger industry. From my perspective, here’s a look at how Christian publishing works.
Agents
Most authors are represented by a literary agent. This is an individual who represents authors to publishers in return for a percentage of the profits (typically around 15%). Authors will usually sign an exclusive contract with a particular agent for a set period of time. This contract means they can only write books for which that agent has represented them. Some publishers prefer not to work with agents (typically smaller ones) while others will only work with agents (typically larger ones). At their best, agents add a lot of value to the publishing industry by matching authors with the best publishers for their books and by helping authors get the best terms from the publishers. They also suggest ideas and topics to authors, help shape proposals, provide advice on contracts, and may even be involved in suggesting strategies for marketing, and so on.
There are a lot of good and credible agents and agencies. Unfortunately there are some poor ones as well who will take advantage of prospective authors. Authors should do their homework and, if approached by an agent, ask for references. (Please don’t ask me to refer you to an agent as I cannot and will not do that!)
Many publishers will accept proposals from authors who are not represented by agents, but typically this process takes longer and has a lower chance of success. The exception, of course, is when the author has a personal relationship with someone within the publishing company. As always, a lot comes down to who you know.
Money
Some Christian publishers are businesses and some are ministries. But in either case, they need to at least break even. This means there are almost always financial terms involved with the publication of a book. There are generally two major negotiable financial components to a contract. The first is the royalty and the second is the advance.
The royalty is the percentage of the book’s sale price that the author will receive. This is based on the wholesale rather than the retail price, so usually around half of what you might pay in the store. Often there are gradations so that royalties on the first X copies are fairly low, but then they increase as more copies sell. (X might be 10,000 for a small book or 100,000 for a major book.) An average royalty on a softcover or hardcover book might be 20% or so. When you consider that most Christian books sell fewer than 10,000 copies, yet take months to write, you can see that very few people can make a living as a Christian author.
The advance is the amount the author will be paid before the publication of the book—often one part of the advance when the contract is signed and the remaining portion when the manuscript is complete and accepted by the publisher. It is important to note that this is actually an advance against royalties which means that the author will receive no royalty payments until he has “paid back” the advance through royalties the book has earned. A first-time Christian author might get an advance of $5,000, though some publishers do not offer them at all. A major Christian author might get many multiples of that.
Of course there can be a host of other factors that are written into contracts—film rights for works of fiction, different rates for audiobooks depending on whether the author reads it or turns it over to a hired professional, foreign translation rates, future paperback editions, and so on.
One way to understand publishing is to see at it as a balancing of risk, with two parties each wanting the other to accept the higher risk. Authors have to invest a lot of effort in writing a book that may not earn back their investment in time, effort, and expertise. Publishers have to invest a lot of effort in acquiring, editing, and printing a book that may not earn back their financial investment. Hence authors will push for a high advance and high royalty while publishers will push low.
Some authors write books on behalf of their ministries and have the proceeds absorbed by them. Others write books personally and keep the proceeds as income.
Most publishers send royalty reports (and potentially royalty payments) either semi-annually or quarterly. The reports are generally long, printed statements that include how many books have been sold in all the various formats and at all the various price breaks. These are notoriously difficult to decipher and, even after all these years, I still struggle to make sense of them.
Authors
There was a time when publishers would be heavily invested in helping authors grow their “platform”—their reach to the people who might be interested in reading their book. Today, though, publishers tend to expect authors to already have a significant platform, often measured in social media followers, conference appearances, church attendees, or other metrics. This reduces the risk for publishers as they integrate authors. However, it makes it more difficult for lesser-known authors to get a proposal accepted. It’s far easier for a poor writer with a large platform to get a contract than for a great writer with a small one. That is unfortunate on the one hand, but also perhaps not surprising since publishers are (generally) not charities.
Publishers
There are quite a number of Christian publishers and each tends to have their niche, though there is a fair bit of overlap between them.
Some are independent while others are owned by massive mainstream publishing houses. Some will only publish authors who write from a particular theological perspective while others will publish authors who write from nearly any theological perspective. Some have large marketing and publicity departments while others have none at all. Wise authors and agents get to know the options so they can know where their books may fit the best.
Self Publishing
There was a time when self-publishing was considered vain—a way to get your name on the cover of a book without going through the accepted process of publication. I don’t think there is the same stigma today, especially after so many books in both the mainstream and Christian markets were initially rejected by publishers, were then self-published, and went on to be bestsellers. That said, the standard process does add a lot of value and many authors will struggle to make their self-published books reach the same levels of quality in editing, design, layout, marketing, and so on. The advantage of self-publishing, of course, is that the author can move as quickly as he likes, avoid all the gatekeepers, and make a higher percentage of profit per copy sold. Companies like Amazon make it easier than ever to self-publish and to have books available for purchase through the world’s largest marketplace. The entire industry has changed a lot in the past couple of decades and there is undoubtedly much more change to come.
Process
The process of publishing a nonfiction Christian book will usually go something like this.
An author will present an idea to an agent and they will begin to co-create a proposal. The proposal will usually include a thorough description of the book, a table of contents, and a chapter or two of writing. Most publishers prefer not to receive a complete manuscript as they like to help shape the book from its formative stages.
When that proposal is in good shape, the agent will send it to acquisitions editors at the publishers he deems to be the best fit for the project. The acquisitions editors will read the proposal and either reject it immediately or take it to an internal committee that makes decisions together. If they are interested in publishing the book, they will send a proposal to the agent who will in turn present it to the author. That proposal will usually include financial terms as well as a description of how the book will be published (e.g. hardcover or softcover, page count, quality of paper, and so on). Publishers will sometimes ask authors to sign contracts for multiple books at once and will generally offer them better terms if they do so.
Once the contract has been agreed upon and signed, the author will have a set period of time to submit the manuscript. That will often be about a year. In that time he will have access to the acquisitions editor to share ideas, receive feedback, and so on. That said, writing is a solitary and often lonely process that mostly sees the author sitting alone staring at a screen while desperately searching for reasons to procrastinate.
When the author is finished with the manuscript, he will send it to the acquisitions editor who will do a thorough edit, focusing on the ideas, the flow, and the wording. He will then send back a Word document with hundreds or even thousands of suggested changes, some of which may be minor and some of which may take weeks of work. The author will often have a month or so to respond to those changes. When that has been done, the acquisitions editor will send it to a second-level editor who will continue the work of shaping it. It will then often go to a third person who will look carefully for typos, errors in punctuation, and consistency with the appropriate style guide. Some books will also receive a theological edit by a trusted theologian. At this point it will be sent to potential endorsers so they can read it and write their blurbs.
When all that is done and the manuscript is considered complete, the book will enter into a design phase during which the text will be laid out in book form, the fonts will be chosen, and the page layout will be finalized. The title and cover will usually be finalized somewhere in this timeframe and added to catalogs and other advance marketing material. Eventually it will all be sent to a printer (often overseas) who will print the book and ship it to the warehouse from where it will be distributed.
Finally, perhaps a year after the author submits the manuscript to the editor, the book will be formally released. The author will usually assign a publicist to the book and his job is to arrange interviews, media appearances, and perhaps conference speaking. There will often be a lot of these immediately before and after the release date, and they will then slowly tail off.
The process generally moves quite slowly and very methodically. But it is proven and effective and results in the books you have come to know and love.