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February 23, 2011 in Writing with 67 Comments

Advice for Christian Authors

25 Tips for Authors: Established, New, and Pondering

This post was provoked by the many people who have asked me questions about authoring and publishing books over the years. So I thought I’d jot down my answers in one post for ease of future reference.

I’m no expert when it comes to writing books, selling books, or the book publishing industry. So this advice may be about as valuable as the ink it took to publish it on this screen.

Presently, I’ve written over seven books published by five different publishers. And thankfully (surprisingly), each one has done well. So while I claim no expertise in this area, I can write from what I’ve experienced so far.

A few of the points below apply only to first-time authors. But most apply to all authors, aspiring and established.

Due to the length of this piece, you may want to print it out and read it off-line. Then come back online and click on the embedded links. Continue Reading…

February 22, 2011 in Reviews with 21 Comments

Blogging Through Bonhoeffer: Part I

I’m a student of history. And the more I look at it, the more I recognize a certain pattern. God sends spiritual giants who change the course of church history in waves.

One wave was made evident around 1926 and continued through the 1940s. In three different countries.

Three choice vessels of God began publishing then. They had lots of similarities in the testimony they bore regarding the supremacy of Jesus Christ and His church.

Those three vessels were: Continue Reading…

February 20, 2011 in Writing with 16 Comments

I Was Wrong About Book Endorsements

Previously, I had thought that very few people bought a book based on endorsements.

(By endorsements, I’m referring to the endorsements that appear in the first pages of a book and on the back cover.)

I assumed that book blurbs were highly overrated, and in the main, ineffective for three reasons:

1) I don’t ever recall buying a book because of an endorsement. I buy books for one of two reasons. One, I know and like the author. Two, I am interested in the subject that the book treats. That’s all.

2) My experience with superb books. Many of the best books I’ve ever read either didn’t have endorsements or the endorsements were written by people that I’ve never heard of.

3) The consensus of experts. The marketing gurus I have read have clamored (rather loudly) about how book blurbs aren’t that important. Continue Reading…

February 17, 2011 in Reviews with 29 Comments

Defending the Hebrew God & How Effective Are Book Blurbs?

Have you ever read the Old Testament and thought to yourself, “Whaaa!!?” “Haaaa?” “No way!” “You’ve got to be kidding me?”

Granted, there are many stories in the Old Testament that just don’t jive with our modern/postmodern world, culture, and mindset. To the modernized, Enlightenment thinker, much of it is nonsensical, absurd, and (at first blush) in contradiction to the teachings of Jesus Himself.

Ah but . . .

Paul Copan has just written a book. The book that I’ve been searching for since I’ve been a Christian. Continue Reading…

February 16, 2011 in Mission with 10 Comments

Are You Missional?

There’s a lot of talk today about “mission” and being “missional.” But a terribly important question that rarely gets asked is: What is the Mission of God exactly?

Upon that question hangs the Law and the Prophets.

There’s hardly a consensus on this specific query among missional theologians and practitioners right now. But I believe it will set the tone and shape of the discourse about “missional” over the next 5 years. Continue Reading…

February 15, 2011 in Reviews with 6 Comments

Two Essential Resources for Understanding Your Bible

The Scriptures weren’t written in a vacuum. The 66 books of the Bible were penned at very different times in very different cultures, long, long ago. Therefore, understanding the social and historical background to the biblical text is essential for understanding the Bible in the 21st century world of cell phones, Facebook, and iPods.

Two outstanding resources in helping you in this area are: 

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament

Both volumes provide helpful insights into the historical background behind each text. They draw upon secondary and primary sources to shed light on the given passages they treat. They are both written in a non-technical fashion, so they’re accessible to every reader. Craig Keener is the editor for the New Testament volume. 

IVP is a superb publisher for Bible research tools. They’ve put out the seminal Dictionary of the Bible series (the volumes I use the most are listed here), which I find highly valuable.

As far as Biblical tools go, you’ll want to have these resources. Just click the links above to order the volumes at a great discount.

February 10, 2011 in Writing with 33 Comments

Tips for Bloggers

A number of you have asked me how to increase traffic to your blog. Now I will candidly admit that I’m no expert on this, but I can share with confidence the following tips that will help you in this area:

1. Join Twitter, follow the people you know and like to read, and tweet your blog posts. I’m still amazed at how many people who use Facebook, read emails, but who aren’t on Twitter. Twitter is a microblog. If you’re a blogger, you shouldn’t be without it. It’s free to join. You can follow my tweets here. I’d also recommend that you read 10 Twitter Mistakes That Make You Look Clueless.

2. Subscribe to other people’s blogs and make comments. These two go together. If you look at the blue text at the bottom of yesterday’s post, I talked about why you want to subscribe to the blogs you like. Case in point: Yesterday, many of you got free publicity for your blogs to thousands of readers because you read my post and commented. There are many bloggers who regularly read my blog, but they didn’t see my post yesterday. Why? They haven’t subscribed yet. Making comments increases your blog’s visibility because you’re participating in the conversation. Continue Reading…

February 8, 2011 in Rethinking with 12 Comments

The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

~Theodore Roosevelt, excerpted from the speech “Citizenship in a Republic” delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910.

February 8, 2011 in Rethinking with 11 Comments

Rethinking Church Planting and Apostles

I grew up in the charismatic stream of Christianity. Those are my early roots. When I was in that movement, I heard all about “apostles.” Constantly. I heard about “the coming apostolic move.” About “the new apostles.” About “the restoration of the apostolic gift.” Etc. etc. etc. [Cough.]

As I grew in the Lord and began to research church history and what the New Testament had to say about the apostolic commission and church planting, I came to some very different conclusions from what my charismatic friends taught me.

I also grew highly allergic to the word “apostle” (which is a poor translation of the Greek word, which means “one who is sent.”)

When I was 23 years old, I left the institutional form of church. And I found an experience of the body of Christ . . . and an experience of the Lord Jesus . . . that wrecked me forever. Continue Reading…

February 6, 2011 in Rethinking with 19 Comments

A Fact You Probably Don’t Know

I know a lot of very well-known teachers and preachers. Some of them are good friends.

What’s interesting is that many of them don’t belong to any church. None at all. And neither do their families. Nor are they part of any ministry team wherein there is close-knit fellowship and mutual submission.

Some of them have confessed to me behind close doors: “I don’t attend [institutional] church because I find it boring. It’s the same thing all the time. And I have many friends in ministry who feel the same way. I agree with what you’ve written about the modern church, but don’t tell anyone I said all this.” Continue Reading…

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