Zondervan Blog

---

• Use These Outreach Books (5 Zondervan Authors Honored with Outreach 2012 Resources of the Year Awards)
• On Ash Wednesday: Remember the Dust [Excerpt by Walt Wangerin, Jr.]
• Kingdom Dreams to Live by [Excerpt on Frederick Douglass, Justice, & Hope]

Use These Outreach Books (5 Zondervan Authors Honored with Outreach 2012 Resources of the Year Awards) Posted: 22 Feb 2012 02:45 PM PST   The 2012 Outreach Resources of the Year were announced today in a press release from Outreach magazine, honoring twenty evangelism-themed resources from the last year. Five of these resources are by by Zondervan authors. The Outreach Resources of the Year series celebrates of "the best outreach-oriented books and curricula," says the magazine, which selects titles in "areas such as evangelism, compassion and justice ministries, missional living and cross-cultural ministries." Here is the magazine's Editor, Brian Orme, on the goal of the series: These resources deserve accolades, but Outreach Resources of the Year is about more than that... We strive to help churches share God's love, reach their communities and change the world. Drawing their attention to the best resources available each year is one way we do that.   We at Zondervan couldn't agree more with Orme. Of course we're thrilled for our authors when they receive awards — we love our authors, and it's exciting to see their excellent work honored by others. But the chief reason we celebrate today is this: we're blessed to work with authors who help people share God's love and transform the world.   Here's the scoop on these five award-winning Zondervan authors and their books: USE THESE BOOKS: Five 2012 Outreach Resources of the Year 1. Evangelism The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited by Scot McKnight (@scotmcknight) Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to the message of personal salvation. This book makes a plea for us to recover the old gospel as that which is still new and still fresh. (From the synopsis) Read Excerpt Learn More about The King Jesus Gospel 2. Church & Culture Half the Church: Recapturing God's Global Vision for Women by Carolyn Custis James (@carolynezer) James unpacks three transformative themes in the Bible that raise the bar for women and calls them to join their brothers in advancing God's gracious kingdom on earth. (From the synopsis) Read Excerpt Learn more about Half the Church Visit James's Blog 3. Children's Outreach The Nature of God: Ocean Adventures Book & DVDs by Peter Schriemer (Follow @peterschriemer) With rich and age-appropriate content based on & supplementing the presentations of Peter Schriemer in the DVD collection Nature of God, readers learn more about God's creation of eco-systems, flora, and fauna specifically found in the Hawaiian Islands of the United States. (From the synopsis) Learn More about Ocean Adventures Book Visit "The Nature of God" Page on Facebook 4. Youth Outreach Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids by Kara Powell (@kpowellfyi & @stickyfaith) Based on Fuller Youth Institute findings, this easy-to-read guide presents both a compelling rationale and a powerful strategy to show parents how to actively encourage their children's spiritual growth so that it will stick to them into adulthood and empower them to develop a living, lasting faith. (From the synopsis) Learn More about Sticky Faith Visit the Sticky Faith Website 5. Small Group Curriculum Muslims, Christians, and Jesus DVD: Gaining Understanding and Building Relationships by Carl Medearis (Follow @carlmedearis) Medearis, an international expert in the field of Arab-American and Muslim-Christian relations, provides American Christians background info on Islam and tools for sharing Christ with their Muslim neighbors. (From the synopsis) Learn More about Muslims, Christians, & Jesus DVD If you would like to send one of these authors congratulations on their achievement, leave your comment on Zondervan's EngagingChurch Blog. My coworker, Andrew Rogers, has graciously volunteered to forward everyone's messages to the authors! The full list of 20 award winners are featured in the March/April 2012 issue of Outreach. Now we've covered five of Outreach's favorite books on evangelism. What's your favorite?   - Adam Forrest, Zondervan. Big tip of the hat to Andrew Rogers.   (This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives; the writer's opinions are his own, and are only intended for information purposes. To receive new blogposts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

On Ash Wednesday: Remember the Dust [Excerpt by Walt Wangerin, Jr.] Posted: 22 Feb 2012 09:28 AM PST   This Ash Wednesday excerpt is taken from Reliving the Passion: Meditations on the Suffering, Death, & the Resurrection of Jesus as Recorded in Mark (eBook) by Walt Wangerin, Jr.   Dust to Dust "Remember," the Pastor has said for centuries, always on this day. "Remember," the Pastor has murmured, touching a finger to ash in a dish and smearing the ash on my forehead — "Remember, thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return."   Ash Wednesday, the day of the personal ashes, the first of the forty days of Lent: Like a deep bell tolling, this word defines the day and starts the season and bids me begin my devotional journey: Memento! "Remember!" ...   It's annoying to find the easy flow of my full life interrupted by the morbid prophecy that it shall end... But that sounds old in a modern ear, doesn't it? Fusty, irrelevant, and positively medieval! Why should I think about death when all the world cries "Life" and "Live"? The priest of this age urge me toward "positive thinking," "grabbing the gusto," "feeling good about myself." And didn't Jesus himself promise life in abundance? It's annoying to find the easy flow of my full life interrupted by the morbid prophecy that it shall end...   Nevertheless, Memento! Tolls the ageless bell. In spite of my resistance, the day and the season together [say]: "Remember!" ... This is as simple as it gets [says the Lord]: if you do not interrupt your life with convictions of the death to come, then neither shall your death, when it comes, be interrupted by life...   Ancient is this warning of the church... Ancient, likewise, is the season of Lent, when the Christian is encouraged to think of her death and the sin that caused it – to examine herself, to know herself so deeply and well that knowledge becomes confession. But ancient, too, is the consolation such an exercise provides, ancient precisely because it is eternal.   It is this: that when we genuinely remember the death we deserve to die, we will be moved to remember the death the Lord in fact did die – because his took the place of ours. Ah, children, we will yearn to hear the Gospel story again and again, ever seeing therein our death in his, and rejoicing that we will therefore know a rising like his as well.   Remember now that thou art dust... My death and Jesus' death, by grace conjoined. Remember now that thou art dust... My death and Jesus' death, by grace conjoined. Memento! – because this death, remembered now, yields life hereafter. And that life is forever.   Ah, dear Jesus! I feel the ashes of mortality upon my heart. Give me, please, the courage to acknowledge them; then give me the faithful sight to see them on your forehead; for you have died the death in my stead, my Redeemer and my Lord! Amen. - Walt Wangerin, Jr. Learn More Learn more about Reliving the Passion eBook. (Image from Reliving the Passion. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's personal opinions are shared only for information purposes. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

Kingdom Dreams to Live by [Excerpt on Frederick Douglass, Justice, & Hope] Posted: 21 Feb 2012 12:44 PM PST   This excerpt presents a day of prayer taken from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, by S. Claiborne, E. Okoro, & J. Wilson-Hartgrove. // Perhaps it's easiest to do good deeds when we're spurred on by a vision of the Kingdom of God?   Dreams to Live by Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland. His mother died shortly after his birth, and he was raised by his grandparents. A resourceful youth, he learned how to read and write by giving away food in exchange for reading lessons from neighborhood kids. Before long he was able to teach other slaves to read the Bible through weekly Sunday schools.   Frederick Douglass photographed circa 1879. In 1838, at the age of twenty, Douglass escaped from slavery by impersonating a sailor and went on to become one of the most famous abolitionists and leaders in US history. He was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant. He was fond of saying, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." ...   Lift us by awe at the things we see : to set our minds on none but thee.   Psalm 104:25–31 [Text to be spoken aloud, with bold text spoken by all present.] O Lord, how manifold are your works! : in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Yonder is the great and wide sea with its living things too many to number : creatures both small and great. There move the ships, and there is that Leviathan : which you have made for the sport of it. All of them look to you : to give them their food in due season. You give it to them; they gather it : you open your hand, and they are filled with good things. You hide your face, and they are terrified : you take away their breath, and they die and return to their dust. You send forth your Spirit, and they are created : and so you renew the face of the earth... [Today's Scripture Reading] Genesis 37:12–24 // Hebrews 10:11–25 Frederick Douglass wrote in his autobiography [of pre-abolition America, in 1845], "Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference... I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason ... for calling the religion of this land Christianity." Jesus, even in our waking, grant us dreams by which to guide our lives. Make us to dream of justice for the oppressed, reunions for those torn from loved ones, hospitality for immigrants, and the healing of all wounds. Amen. - Claiborne, Okoro, & Wilson-Hartgrove Question: Hebrews 10:14 says, "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." What's one way someone has spurred you on to good deeds? Leave your comments on this post.   Learn More Learn more about Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, and the Common Prayer Pocket Edition. Visit the Common Prayer website at www.commonprayer.net - Adam Forrest, Zondervan (Image & some styling above are web-exclusive features and not included int the text of Common Prayer. Image by George K. Warren (d. 1884). [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's personal opinions are shared only for information purposes. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

You are subscribed to email updates from Zondervan Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610