Two Exciting Developments in Publishing

As you may know, I had the great opportunity to attend the International Christian Retail Show in Atlanta with my wife a few weeks ago. We had a blast! She learned a lot and was energized with some new ideas for Faith & Life Bookstore http://www.facebook.com/pages/Faith-Life-Bookstore/401215141978 in Newton. By the way, stop by this week for some of her downpour deals of the day.Link
As I walked around the show, two developments (I am not going to call them trends because I hope they last longer than a trend) seemed to emerge. The first (which has been building recently) is a call for fathers to lead their homes spiritually. This is not just being a good dad by providing and protecting, but teaching your children about God in the home. This is probably fueled by the release of Courageous on Sept. 30th. Courageous is a great movie (I've seen it twice now) about fatherhood and faith. It has a great balance of humor, action, and drama. But connected to Courageous are several publishing companies that have in recent years started publishing a ton of books about parents passing on their faith to their kids. Companies such as Randall House (D6 Conference), David C Cook, & Regal are releasing great books to challenge the church and home. Go and visit your local bookstore to see these great titles for fathers, parents, grandparents, and church leaders.

Another development is understanding the Bible as a whole rather than a bunch of individual stories. Zondervan is releasing a new curriculum for the church called "The Story" which has teaching available for children, youth and adults. It is a 31 week study that ties Scripture together so believers can better understand how individual stories contribute to a more complete picture of God. Michelle Anthony (David C Cook) has written a great children's book called The Big God Story (I read it last night during our family worship) which in a wonderful way shows how the Old Testament stories are part of the Big God Story. No story is meant to stand alone, but help us better understand God as Rescuer, Redeemer, Hero, and Promise Keeper. Anthony also has a great book that falls in the category above called Spiritual Parenting.

I am encouraged by these developments (praying they won't be trends) because they are areas that the church needs to consider. I fear we have trained young people who know a lot of stories, but do not see God as the main character (thanks Erma Prutow of Sterling College). They can tell us the stories, but do not understand how the Old and New Testaments are connected. I also think dads (and parents in general) have received enough bad press. Fathers, we need to man up and step up. It is not the church's job to train your children spiritually, but yours. As a pastor, I look forward to partnering with and equipping moms and dads to be the spiritual leaders in their homes. Thankfully the publishing companies are seeing these needs too and producing great resources to help the church and parents!

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