Soul Survivor Bible in One Year

Have you done it? Read the entire Bible within the space of one year?

If not then perhaps now is the time to start, joining in with the thousands of young people across the country who have committed themselves to the Soul Survivor Bible in One Year project.

Even if you don’t plan to join in yourself, at the very least you should think about stocking this Bible, available from STL UK (hardback | paperback) or, of course, direct from HodderFaith; and if you’re not sure what it’s all about, here’s Soul Survivor’s Andy Croft on a mission to persuade:

I confess that I have my reservations about the project, and I tweeted as much from the LST Bookshop:

Finding it difficult to get enthusiastic about the Soul Survivor ‘Bible in One Year’ scheme when it’s based on the NIV *sigh*

But back came a reply in very short order, from @bexp66:

be enthusiastic, my kids are talking bout readin the bible!! Tho they wanted The Message version! What wud you suggest?

Said I:

I just wish Soul Survivor had got together with a range of Bible publishers instead of going for something as flawed as the NIV

and

This could have been such a wonderful opportunity for Bible publishers to work together!

Said she:

agreed, esp. with the flawed comment. Inclusive should have been essential as well.

There’s no doubt about it: the NIV is, to quote Tom Wright, “a visibly and demonstrably flawed translation”, biased in its translation “to make sure that Paul should say what the broadly Protestant and evangelical tradition said he said” — not only on justification, the particular topic Bishop Tom is referring to here, but also in terms of reinforcing misogyny rather than encouraging equality and inclusivity. If it had to be NIV-based, why not at least get into the early 21st Century with the TNIV??

But setting those reservations aside momentarily, it can surely only be a good thing for these youngsters to get to grips with the whole Bible rather than the decontextualised snippets most daily devotionals tend to offer. One can only hope that rather than spoon-feed them pre-packaged evangelical perspectives, the organisers will encourage their young (and not-so-young) conversation partners to read Scripture critically and intelligently, with their eyes wide open to its human origins and foibles: to not blindly affirm, “This is the Word of God” but to ask, “Is this the Word of God?” — and if it is, to ask, “What does it mean for us today?”

Andy Croft’s comments on today’s readings have even got Emma Jane going, and that’s definitely no bad thing. Nice one Emma!

St Andrew Press was faced with the threat of closure earlier this year as part of a controversial cost-cutting exercise by the Kirk which led to John Brown, brother of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, stepping down in protest from his position as a lay member of the Kirk’s Publishing Committee when redundancies left the Press with just one member of staff to oversee operations.

According to the official Kirk announcement, three bids were considered for St Andrew Press and the Mission and Discipleship Council, which is responsible for the Press, felt that the bid from HM&A was “the best option” with a final decision due to be made by the Council of Assembly. The Revd Mark Johnstone, Convener of the Mission and Discipleship Council, described it as “a win win situation for the Church as we get to retain our valuable St Andrew Press brand, increase our market reach and raise money for the Church, all at no cost to us.”

Perhaps he is right, if that’s what winning is about. The press release makes no mention of what a handover of operations to HM&A might cost the sole surviving member of staff or what the implications might be for booksellers in terms of trade representation: at present St Andrew Press is represented by the SPCK-led Christian Publishers Representatives (CPR) team.

If — as seems likely — the deal with HM&A goes through then St Andrew Press would seem set to become part of the growing Norwich Books & Music distribution portfolio alongside Church House Publishing and Darton Longmann & Todd, amongst others. Whilst it will remain possible to place orders via the PubEasy network, it will no longer be possible to pay invoices or process returns via batch.co.uk as NB&M have yet to sign up to batch.

If you, beloved reader, are a batch.co.uk user, perhaps now would be a good time to contact NB&M and gently encourage them to join.

Reports Elsewhere

• Kirk proposes new publishing deal: Church of Scotland Press Release, 26/08/2010
• Kirk proposes plan to save the St Andrew Press: Ekklesia, 26/08/2010
• U-turn may bring 11th-hour reprieve for Kirk’s publishing arm: The Scotsman, 27/08/2010

Barbara Roberts, Author and Publisher at Maschil Press

Regular readers may recognise Barbara Roberts’ name as an occasional commenter here — but she’s also an author and publisher. Here she tells us the story of her journey from abuse through divorce and remarriage to freedom and the tough decision to publish her own book when no established publisher seemed willing to take it on board…

Barbara writes: Maschil Press came into existence when I couldn’t find a publisher for Not Under Bondage: Biblical Divorce for Abuse, Adultery and Desertion (ISBN 9780980355345; I offer great deals for small booksellers)

The subject of Not Under Bondage is a hot potato to say the least. Domestic abuse is heavy stuff, and the doctrine of divorce is likely to raise contention, with personal experience tending to colour whatever is read.

Maschil Press aims to expose and advocate against sub-biblical views which have caused pain and grief to the Christian community and the wider population. Why Maschil? It’s a Hebrew word which is thought to mean prudent or insightful and I hope that’s what I’m doing: giving insight into the little-understood scriptural dilemmas of the victim of domestic abuse, and how those dilemmas can be resolved when the scriptures are rightly understood.

How did I get into writing about domestic abuse? I wrote Not Under Bondage because there was a gap in the market. When I  left my abusive husband for the last time, I couldn’t find a book that adequately answered my questions about divorce for domestic abuse.

Not Under Bondage: Biblical Divorce for Abuse, Adultery and Desertion

Here’s the back story: I became a Christian in 1981 but for a long time had minimal biblical teaching and lingering confusion due to a swag of new age beliefs I had soaked myself in for years. Becoming sidetracked into other areas soon after my conversion, I didn’t get to church for nearly 14 years. I wouldn’t recommend taking such a long time in the wilderness!

Unaware that Christians should avoid marrying non-Christians, I married an unbeliever in 1989 and we had a daughter. The marriage gradually became abusive and I occasionally took refuge in a women’s refuge. My marriage was the most common type of abusive marriage (according to the research on abusive marriages) –  my husband was violent several times a year, but there was an undercurrent of emotional abuse from him all the time. There were also elements that I’d categorise as social abuse (isolation from friends and family) and sexual abuse.

In 1994 I left my husband with the help of a protection order from the courts, and started attending church and reading the Bible seriously. That was when I became a professing Christian. A family court battle eventually led to me being granted custody and my husband granted fortnightly access to our daughter.

After four years my separated husband made a profession of faith and we reconciled as a married couple. The abuse recurred, this time with the added element of spiritual abuse, because my husband learnt to twist scriptures against me. I separated for the last time in 1999, divorcing a few years after that.

In 2001 the stress in my household diminished markedly when access visits between my daughter and her father ceased. It’s a long story.

We have a few chooks in the back yard and a cute black dog who has a lot more emotional empathy than some Christians.

I am working on a second book – a companion volume to Not Under Bondage – that will deal with other scriptural dilemmas which Christian victims of domestic abuse face apart from the divorce dilemma. I live in Ballarat, Australia, and am now happily married to a wonderful man who suffered domestic abuse in a former marriage. We have a few chooks in the back yard and a cute black dog who has a lot more emotional empathy than some Christians.

After praying not to become a publisher, I’m rather glad to be a publisher because I have full control of my work. When not writing, I’m advocating for victims of domestic abuse, and trying to educate the Christian world so they are better equipped to respond to victim/survivors. My website has lots of links and articles that are helpful for anyone dealing with domestic abuse in a Christian context.

Previous Posts (most recent first)

• Not Under Bondage: Update: Phil Groom, 23/07/2009
• How ‘Not Under Bondage’ came to be written: Barbara Roberts, 29/01/2009
• A Hot Potato: Barbara Roberts, 04/12/2008
• Not Under Bondage: Review by John Wilks, Reviews Editor, Evangelical Quarterly, 25/11/2008

Not Under Bondage
Biblical Divorce for Abuse, Adultery and Desertion

Barbara Roberts
ISBN 9780980355345 (0980355346)
Maschil Press, 2008
£11.95

Trade Stockist: STL UK

One Pound Classics from Rickfords Hill Publishing

Geoff writes: Rickfords Hill Publishing have just released 6 more titles in their One Pound Classics series. The books include Pilgrim’s Progress, and books by Andrew Murray, Roy Hessian, Torrey and others.

The good news is that they are now all available from CLC Wholesale.

If shops are struggling with sales then stocking these books would really help. The new titles were only published in August but at Maranatha we have already sold nearly 100 copies across the 6 titles and more with the previous titles. They outsell our other books all the time.

Most of the customers who buy them buy copies for themselves and more copies to give away. We have sold 100s of copies of the previous 6 titles including 360 copies of Hungry for More of Jesus and 325 copies of Hallowed Be Thy Names (both by David Wilkerson and both superb books)

We devote a whole shelf to these books and they are the most popular shelf in the shop. At £1 they are amazing value especially as some of the books are over 260 pages long.

• Find Maranatha on facebook
• Follow Maranatha on twitter @MaranathaUxb

In the meantime, for those who may be wondering about the situation at the LST Bookshop and for your amusement: Tears of Joy in Northwood as Deranged Christian Bookshop Manager’s Ten Year Reign of Terror Draws to a Close

American Patriot's Bible: The Word of God and the Shaping of America

I first came across this Bible courtesy of our cousins across the pond at STL USA (who themselves now face the indignity of being put up for sale by Biblica, with reassurances from Doug Lockhart that sound eerily reminiscent of Keith Danby’s reassurances about STL UK last year — but that’s another story…).

I hoped and prayed that it was some sort of sad joke — after all, who (apart from Israel) could truly lay claim to the Bible as part and parcel of their national heritage? But no, this aberration, complete with USA flag blended into the cover, is all too real; and now — according to a recent report in Christian Retailing — The American Patriot’s Bible has reached the terrifying position of being one of North America’s bestsellers, reaching No. 5 on amazon.com’s bestseller lists. Despite the title, there really is more than one American patriot.

In an age of global terror threats, when we should surely be seeking ways to bridge the gap between different cultures rather than to push them further apart, the last thing the world needs is a Bible branded with America’s — or any other country’s — identity. If the Bible is the Word of God, it is surely God’s Word for all people, for all nations. Is that not what scripture itself, what Jesus himself, teaches us? No doubt Thomas Nelson’s marketing people had only the best of intentions in mind in their shaping of this nightmare: to encourage the American people; but are their minds really so detached from reality that they can’t see the message that something like this conveys to the rest of the world?

If the “de-Christianisation” of Living Oasis means making a clean break from this sort of insanity, then I am so with Andy Twilley now; but if product such as this is the true face of Christianity in the 21st century then I am, indeed, ashamed of the Gospel. Becky Garrison is right: this must surely be one of those things that makes Jesus look at his Dad and go, “I died for this?”

I suppose we should be thankful for small mercies: they could have featured US Army tanks invading Iraq or Afghanistan on the cover…

Update 25/08/2010: Not US Army tanks, just a specially packaged pocket version for the troops, cunningly designed to match the uniforms. From the Nelson Newsroom:

A condensed pocket edition, bound in the new official MultiCam^® fabric used on the U.S. Military’s uniforms and packs, minus the government’s infrared technology, is also available to inspire today’s modern-day patriots in the trenches.

— The American Patriot’s Bible Editor Joins Glenn Beck Events

Janet Evans, Dernier Publishing

JANET EVANS is another person I met online via the Christian Authors, Booksellers and Publishers facebook group — and she’s my kind of publisher: not satisfied with the usual round of advance info sheets, catalogues, emails or press releases, she posted an invitation on the Support your local Christian Bookshop group wall:

Any bookshops who have not already received a free sample pack of Christian youth fiction books from Dernier Publishing, get in touch and we’ll send you one! More info: www.dernierpublishing.com or find our FB page and contact us there!

“Yes, please,” I said — and within a couple of days an attractively packaged little bundle of books arrived tied up with a red ribbon. I’ll tell you more about them another time; for the moment, I’ll simply say this: if you’re a bookseller who has yet to respond, what are you waiting for? You won’t be disappointed.

I invited Janet to tell us more:

I’m nervous about writing this, it makes it sound like I have delusions of grandeur. “Oh yes, I started a new publishing company, for Christian youth fiction, you know.”

Mm. Well, if you’re still reading this, let me assure you that it’s only me, not to worry, it may be slightly embarrassing, but it’s true!

You know how an idea won’t go away? At first I ignored the call, it seemed too ridiculous (having three children and been in youth work since I can remember, I saw the need, I just didn’t think I could do it), but then a few years ago, my husband died, suddenly. The stark realisation hit me that none of us know how long we have on this earth… if the Lord had called me to publish youth fiction, then I’d better get on with it.

Dernier Publishing

So I gradually got myself, and the business, together: Dernier Publishing was born.

Having started with two of my own books (just to make sure I didn’t ruin anyone else’s great stories while on that sharp learning curve), last autumn we released Beech Bank Girls, a brilliant chick-lit novel by Eleanor Watkins, a respected name in youth fiction. Now, nearly a year later, we have six books out, for 8-11s and 12 +, with three wonderful authors on our books and more in the pipeline! When I look back at how far we have come, I can scarcely believe what the Lord has done; it’s nothing short of a miracle, and by His grace alone … well, that grace does include an exceptionally gracious and wonderful team of people, including editors, production, design, IT and many more, for whose input I am extremely grateful.

So what’s so amazing about youth fiction? (I’m assuming you haven’t read our books… ) Well, for one thing, since Harry Potter burst on the scene, children are reading. According to an article in the Bookseller.com, 75% of children read for pleasure. That’s a lot of kids. Plus, Jesus told stories! Not fibs of course, not that kind of story-telling! He told stories to illustrate a truth. All were rooted in the culture he lived in at the time – farmers and seeds, bread and yeast, a Samaritan who was kind to a stranger. People could understand what Jesus was talking about because his stories made things “come to life”. That’s the aim of our books! One girl wrote to tell me that The Treasure Hunt (mystery adventure involving four Christian kids) was the best book she had ever read. Another 12-year-old recently came to know the Lord after reading our books. They loved our books, because they spoke to them, just where they are.

We can not overestimate the power of good stories to make kids think, to sow seeds and even change lives, and everyone can be involved; you don’t have to be a youth worker to give a child a present! (By the way, buy with confidence, we only produce excellent, fun, exciting novels; nothing threatening, cringy, preachy or boring.)

We also produce posters and prayer booklets – you can find them all on our website, www.dernierpublishing.com. And of course, you can buy our books from good bookshops everywhere! (Kingsway and Gazelle distribute for us.)

However, we only have a small window of opportunity before our children, grandchildren, neighbours’ and colleagues’ children, well, all children, grow up… freedom of speech is being eroded in our land too. Who knows how long we will still be able to freely distribute books to children that state that Jesus Christ is the only way? Our aim is to produce as many books as we can, while we can, to encourage and inspire young people in their faith and show non-church kids what they are missing. Every now and then we hear more depressing statistics about young people leaving the church; anything we can do to show them that it’s great to be a Christian has got to be good and according to Gavin Calver of Youth for Christ, three out of four committed Christians come to faith before they are 20, so we can’t afford to be complacent.

Our children’s faith is priceless. One day “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.” We so want our kids to be there.

From the Cornerstone website:

We plan to be different in many ways, offering the finest Fair Trade coffee, really excellent light bites using locally sourced supplies, and home made cakes.

There will also be a selection of books, locally made crafts, greeting cards, gifts and more. There are other facilities including a meeting room and – most important – there will always be a warm welcome.

We want Cornerstone to be a place for good conversation and social interaction amongst our customers and between customers and staff. We expect it to be a place where the sun will shine even on rainy days, a place that’s colourful, relaxing, welcoming and fun.

Discover More…

• Facebook event: Opening the shop to customers
• Facebook group: Cornerstone St Neots
• twitter: @cornersn

Becky Garrison

Becky Garrison, author of Jesus Died for This? kindly invited me to the facebook launch event for her book — so I invited her right back to tell us all about it. Here, in an excerpt adapted from the book, Becky reflects on her pilgrimage to the UK and Ireland where one of her highlights was connecting with Grace, a London-based Christian alternative worship community/network:

Discover More…

• “Jesus” for Sale @ Killing the Buddha
• Follow Becky on twitter: @jesusdied4this
• beckygarrison.com
• Review by Jonny Baker: jesus died for this? – becky garrison is on a quest

Jesus Died for This?
A Satirist’s Search for the Risen Christ

Becky Garrison
ISBN 9780310292890
Zondervan, August 2010
£9.99

Trade Suppliers: Gardners | STL

• Publishers: new and, to be more precise, Publisher Profiles: a growing library of information from publishers telling us who they are and why. If you’re a Christian publisher who hasn’t been featured yet, you’ll probably be hearing from me soon, but if you’d like to get a head start, please feel free to get in touch…

• Trade Notes: resurrected, hopefully self-explanatory, but to clarify, it’s simply a place where you can leave (or find) notes about supplier address changes, new distribution arrangements, the appointment of new cleaning staff or the departure of a CEO: odd snippets of useful info that don’t necessarily warrant a blog post but are worth knowing about.

To make room for these, I’ve archived the Swap Shop page: it hasn’t seen much use recently, but it’s still available if anyone does want to avail themselves of it; and likewise the Wesley Owen pages, archived but still available.

Suggestions for new sections and/or features are always very welcome; and if at any point you lose track of where things are, please visit the Q&A page.

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UKCBD is a free online resource which exists to promote the Christian faith by providing a two-way service to the Christian community: an easy way for visitors to find their nearest Christian Bookshop, and an easy way for Christian Bookshops to develop their online presence.

My aim with UKCBD is to provide as comprehensive and up-to-date a guide to the UK’s Christian Bookshops as is humanly possible, with this blog running alongside the Directory as a forum for discussion, news, reviews and trade information.

Every shop listed is indexed by name and by location, and every shop whose entry has been updated during the last couple of years has its own dedicated page. Some are bare-bones entries, others are fully descriptive with contact details, opening times, shop logo and links to their own websites, facebook pages and twitter. I’d like to bring every entry up to date and up to the same standard, and your subscription will help to make this possible.

As well as helping to support the site’s ongoing development, however, subscribing shops benefit directly as follows:

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