Alberta Author Invites Readers to Embrace Life and Hope

Embrace Life, Embrace Hope: Cultivating Wholeness, Resilience and Margin Through the Unexpected

From the forthcoming titles list at Ingram:

Fern E.M. Buszowski invites you to consider ways to embrace life and embrace hope through the unexpected.

Is life not turning out the way you planned?

Do crises push out all hope making it seem impossible to grasp?

Drawing from personal stories the author invites you to consider ways to Embrace Life, Embrace Hope through the unexpected. Whatever crisis you or your loved ones are going through, she extends an invitation to join her as she shares her walk toward hope and wholeness. She uniquely weaves concepts and practices from different fields to help you learn new ways to:

• cultivate sacred space for your soul;
• be inspired to live well even in difficult places;
• create space for your heart, body, mind, and soul to flourish;
• build resilient ways, uncover wholeness and hope; and
• not just survive but thrive.

A cancer survivor, counsellor, and retired pastor of counselling and soul care, Fern has dedicated her life to equipping and empowering others to grow, develop, and find hope. She has written and designed training programs and resources: Soul Care Companioning, Unstuck, Sojourning, and peer-led programs for leaders. Fern lives with her husband Steve in Alberta…

Visit her website at www.hopeblooming.ca.

---

186 page paperback | Word Alive Press | $14.99 US; $19.99 CAN | 9781486623693

Stormie Omaritian: Praying Wife Crosses 10 Million Mark

Congratulations are in order to Stormie Omartian and Harvest House Publishers on the receipt of the ECPA Diamond Sales Award for 10 million copies sold of The Power of a Praying Wife.

The book joins a very select list of titles to reach this milestone. In addition to a number of Bibles, the books include:

• Purpose Driven Life 
• The Shack
• Prayer of Jabez 
• Heaven is for Real
• Jesus Calling
• More than a Carpenter
• The Bible Promise Book (Barbour)

Some of the books are so iconic that as dealers, we have acronyms for them such as PDL, PPW, and HiFR; and naming authors seemed rather unnecessary!

See the complete list at this link.

Alberta Author: Meeting Jesus in the Middle of ALS

Canada’s population is spread out along a thin line and communications are always challenging. We found out about this book and its author browsing the Ingram listings for Christian books releasing in March. I’ll let author Stephanie Morales-Beaulieu tell you about this autobiographical book herself:

Anything But Ordinary is a refreshingly vulnerable real-life story of the broken road that led an ordinary Filipino immigrant and mechanic to a life-changing encounter with Jesus that was anything but ordinary, providing insight into what living by faith looks like when life isn’t working and a spotlight on the legacy of faith my father left behind when he passed away from ALS.

The Author Spotlight page at Word Alive books states:

Stephanie Morales-Beaulieu is a lover of God’s Word and shares that passion online, from the stage, in her living room, and anywhere else God opens the door.

Through losing her dad and learning how to hold onto God’s promises came a passion to make the transforming power of the Word accessible to those new to it, overwhelmed by it, or longing to be changed by it.

Her first book, Anything But Ordinary: Finding Faith that Works When Life Doesn’t, won the 2022 Braun Book Award for Non-Fiction from Word Alive Press.

She is the creator of Bite-Size Bible Study® and has authored A Roadmap to Trials: Journey through James, Walk in Love: Ephesians, and most recently The Flourishing Life: The Parable of the Sower. She is a born communicator with a contagious love and enthusiasm for Jesus.

As a wife to Mike and mom of four littles, she shares from her wealth of relatable stories that will inspire you to see everyday life through the lens of truth. She is authentic and funny and you will wish she lived next door.

Stephanie and her husband are planting a church in Airdrie, Alberta. She is a coffee-sipper, brunch enthusiast, and crafter. When she’s not writing, you can find her building Duplo, visiting with friends, or playing a game with her family.

The page also contains an interview with Stephanie about her writing and about the book.

Anything But Normal: Finding Faith that Works When Life Doesn’t, a 352-page paperback, is available through Word Alive for Canadian stores at $20.99 CDN or through Ingram at $20.99 US using ISBN 9781486623211.

The book blurb concludes:

For anyone feeling discouraged and blindsided by life’s difficulties…
For anyone struggling with their humanity who thinks heroes of the faith don’t…
For anyone thirsting for a genuine encounter with a God who is real…
For anyone looking for not a perfect, but a faithful example of following Jesus…
For anyone yearning to know perfection isn’t required in order to have impact…

There is hope.

This book serves as a powerful reminder that the birthplace of inspiring faith is often the soil of impossible struggle, and when life isn’t working, you can hold onto the God who always is.

 

 

Calgary Author Confronts ‘Christian Materialism’

Wesley Hynd is a church planter and pastor in Calgary. He holds an MDiv from Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando and according to his bio, “loves to think deeply and challenge the status quo.” He is involved there with a cross-cultural Christian organization serving new Canadians.

His book, Jesus Take All of Me: Learning to See God as Beautiful in Every Part of Life, is self-published an available to retailers through Ingram at full trade terms. The back cover blurb describes its aim:

What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Is it just a set of intellectual facts about the cross, forgiveness of sins, and an afterlife? Or is it something more than that? Why is it that the lives of Christians and those who are not Christians seem to look so similar at times in the Western world? If someone followed you around live-tweeting your daily decisions and values, who would they say that you follow? These are some of the questions Wes Hynd has been wrestling with for 15 years as he has sought to identify some of the ways in which Western culture has subtly influenced our Christian faith, including in our:

Time
Career
Family
Friendships
Money
and Emotions

Released date: December 1; 284 pages, paperback; 9781738717019; $21.99 US; 90-second book trailer on YouTube. Book website: jesustakeallofme.com.

Bestsellers in a Local Community

Most of you know that I take a few hours at least twice a year to compile a chart of bestsellers in my store. It appears on our store website, in our store newsletter, on Facebook, and is posted in two places in the store itself, one of which is the store window. The reason for the window is that I want people who peer in when the store is closed to still get an idea of a representative sample of our books, and in the event it resonates with them, they will come back.

I know a lot of you don’t bother doing this, and frankly, I hope it’s because your store keeps you busy doing other things that more relevant to your situation. But I’ve done it for 27 years now.

It’s not entirely scientific. Adjustments are made for bulk orders, and yet I still try to squeeze them in. And our #4 is a local pastor, though I have recommended the book to you a few months ago and hope you’ll consider it, as it’s available through Ingram. 

What’s performing well at your store? I’d love to see even a top ten, and include a few of them here.

A Prayer Companion to the Psalms

Years ago I was tasked with writing a review of a daily devotional. I did read a number of the entries and made some general comments about the book overall. It occurred to me that even if I were to binge read the entire thing, I would never have the experience of doing so over the course of a year, the way the book was intended.

So also with Sheltering Mercy: Prayers Inspired by the Psalms by Ryan Whitaker Smith and Dan Wilt, I chose to focus on their rendering of the Psalms with which I had a lifelong familiarity as well as a few I did not.

In the introduction they State their goal.

…They are not translations or paraphrases. Neither of us pretend to be qualified for such a task Rather, they are responses — prayerful, poetic sketches — written in harmony with Scripture. We’ve taken to calling them free-verse renderings, which is just another of saying they are impressionistic poetry without the limitations of meter or rhyme…

What that did not prepare me for was the delightful discovery of how their iterations of prayers inspired by the Bible’s hymnbook were informed by other passages of scripture, including New Testament phrases which would have been unfamiliar to the Psalmists, as well as other writings. These are annotated in footnotes, though not all are. Perhaps a few of the citations were simply too obvious.

The book covers Psalms 1 to 75, so a second volume is definitely in view. One could read this in tandem to reading the book of Psalms or on its own. It could be used as a springboard for one’s own prayers, or even read devotionally.

I suppose few reviewers will omit to mention that Ryan Whitaker Smith is the son of Michael W. Smith. He is also a filmmaker who worked on the movie The Jesus Music, which I reviewed here a few months back. Dan Wilt has devoted his life to worship music, and all things related to that pursuit, including training others.

Again, rather than binge read my way through this, I want to keep the book handy where I can simply pick it up from time to time and be inspired by its words, even those pertaining to the Psalms I already covered in its pages; perhaps even seeing it as a resource, not unlike a commentary.

The video linked below is one of the readings with background music. Enjoy.

---

Thanks to Martin Smith of Parasource, the Canadian distributor for Brazos press for making me aware of Sheltering Mercy.

Vancouver Author Offers 3 Phrases That Can Change the World

What if learning to have three phrases always at the ready could make a gigantic relationship in our interactions and inter-personal relationships? A new title — releasing this week — from a Vancouver author may provide the key.

A lifetime ago, I remember years ago hearing some friends speak very highly about Rod Wilson when he was involved with the counseling program at Ontario Theological Seminary (now Tyndale Seminary) in Toronto. I’m sure people at the seminary were disappointed when he was suddenly off to Vancouver, where he became President of Regent College from 2000-2015. His bio states,

Rod currently works with Lumara Grief and Bereavement Care Society, A Rocha, the Society of Christian Schools in BC, and In Trust Center for Theological Schools, and maintains an international teaching and mentoring ministry. He is also a Senior Writer for Faith Today.

I wanted to share this book release information with readers here, so in the absence of a review copy, here’s the publisher information from NavPress.

Thank You. I’m Sorry. Tell Me More: How to Change the World with 3 Sacred Sayings

We all believe that saying, “Thank you,” “I’m sorry,” and “Tell me more” will help us become better people, friends, partners, employees, neighbors, and global citizens. And yet, having been brought up on rugged individualism, we often slip into self-centeredness and a corresponding sense of entitlement. We have lost the ability to speak with gentleness toward one another. We have replaced kind words that connect us to one another with ones that divide, isolate, and hurt. Everywhere we turn there is deep conflict.

In this simple yet profound book, clinical psychologist Rod Wilson introduces us to the sacredness of these familiar but forgotten sayings. What impact do these sayings have on our relationships?

■ When we say, “Thank you,” we acknowledge the way others impact us.
■ When we say, “I’m sorry,” we acknowledge the way we impact others.
■ When we say, “Tell me more,” we acknowledge the way we impact each other.

As you engage with these three phrases more thoughtfully and speak them more frequently, you will enjoy a life full of deeper friendships and joy.

9781641584470 | 208 pages paperback | 12.99 USD / 17.49 CDN

 

Books of the Year

December is the month when Christian media confers awards of all types on Christian books. The choices are made by reviewers who inhabit an entirely different reading universe than both pastors and Christian retailers, tending to choose esoteric titles, and it’s probable that many of their selections are not available for sale in your store.

For example, check out the Fiction winners in the Christianity Today list, and the tied winner and the named finalist are both from publishers with which I am personally unfamiliar. Ingram lists 699 titles for She Writes Press, but Bookmanager confirms no designated Canadian distributor. One Bird Books has only two listed titles and they are short-discount.

CT has no such issues with the titles it recommends, simply providing Amazon links for all winning books.

At Englewood Review of Books, there’s no year-end list, but you see that same gathering of eclectic titles so popular with online reviewers. The write-ups are always engaging and believe me, if a store could toss economic considerations to the wind, some of these books deserve to be must-carry titles. It’s a question of finding the right audience.

The list at the Evangelical Christian Publisher’s Association (ECPA) is a reminder to look before you leap when consulting these lists, as their 2021 awards are actually for books published in 2020 or, as in a surprising number of cases, 2019. The list you want is the 2022 list, and CT designates its lists the same way. It’s list takes longer to materialize and doesn’t appear until May, and considers “titles published between October 2020 and October 2021.” Last year’s winner was Be the Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation, (WaterBrook) by Latasha Morrison. Again, not a title you may have carried, and probably more U.S. interest than Canadian.

Oddly, it was at ECPA’s news page, Rush to Press, that I learned that Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren was CTs Book of the Year.  So I went back to the CT winners list and sure enough, at the very bottom there is something that says, “Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year,” so I suppose there’s more to that header that one needs to know. The author is certainly deserving, especially after having her previous title hijacked by book pirates at Amazon, but hopefully IVP will eventually bring out a paperback for Prayers in the Night, at the very least for the international market, as some stewardship-minded consumers are still holding out.

Whether you’re a fan or not, you have to credit The Gospel Coalition for at least naming their awards in the correct year. Unless you’re in a strong Reformed market, you still may not have many of these, and the considered titles are going to be theologically narrower, but if there is a customer request, they are at least from publishers and distributors with whom you work closely.

Finally, for fiction lovers, The Christy Awards winners were announced at the end of October with a contemporary title, The Edge of Belonging by Amanda Cox (Revell) taking top honours. Click the list for yourself and you’ll see an absence of Amish titles, and the fiction that I call “futuristic” (which we classify as subset of “suspense” and “mystery”) they call “speculative.” Isn’t all fiction somewhat speculative?

Well-Researched Pastor Ignites Passion for Christian Books

I first met Jon Rising when we moved to our present home about 32 years ago. A native of Port Huron, Michigan, Jon has lived in Cobourg, Ontario, in Florida, and several years ago moved to Vancouver in order to complete a Masters degree in Theology at Regent College. Over the years, Jon has proven to be an excellent resource person on Pentecostal history (particularly the Latter Rain Movement) and Bible reference material. He’s been sharing a number of personal reflections on Facebook, and I thought that this one, with his permission, deserved to be here as well.

by Jon Rising

I started buying and reading books – lots of books – roughly 50 years ago. Few things have brought me as much pleasure. And I remember exactly how it got started.

It was prompted by the ministry of Pastor James Beall… [T]hough he was well-read, it isn’t that he advocated rushing to the bookstore and buying armfuls of books.

His ministry stimulated an interest in reading because I could tell his sermon preparation was more extensive than other preachers. He had information in his sermons that they didn’t.

In Pentecostalism, there are plenty of preachers who work themselves into a lather, but if you listen closely, that kind of preaching is trite and thin on insight.

If we make an analogy to eating, it’s like getting served nothing but boiled potatoes at every meal. Nourishing to a degree, but lackluster and with nothing to make you look forward to the next meal.

Pastor Beall, just like the great evangelical preaching mentor Haddon Robinson, knew how to set out a gourmet meal. The basics were always present, but it was also the presentation and spices that brought delight.

Biblical background information comprised a lot of his ‘extras.’ And I knew instinctively where he got that stuff – books. I mean, you can pray all night, but the Lord is not going to download the historical setting of ancient Middle Eastern people into your mind. The same with the literary devices they used or nuances of the languages they spoke. You get those extras – and much more – from books.

Since you and I didn’t live 2,000 years ago, we need the expertise of those who have carefully researched those times so that we may have a better sense of what the Biblical messages meant when they were first written.

It must have been that I said things to my mother and my pastor, Belle Barber, that alerted them to the fact that Jonnie was starting to think about things other than baseball cards and batting averages. I don’t really recall.

But, what I do recall is that on my birthday both of them bought me an uncommon gift for a 15-year-old (this happened without them consulting each other).

From my mother I received the Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary and from Pastor Barber I received Adam Clarke’s one-volume commentary on the Bible. Those were good foundational resources for a teenager to begin serious study of the Bible. And I couldn’t have been happier.

That’s the sweet spot of gift giving, isn’t it?! When you give someone something that is both unexpected and yet the perfect item for them.

And so it began. After buying myself a Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, additional acquisitions were determined as the result of thumbing through books in Bible bookstores and taking home what seemed to provide answers to questions that arose in my Biblical studies.

But, a novice book buyer might not know whether he’s taking home the writing of a fair-minded scholar or that of a polemicist with a theological ax to grind. Such a buyer might also have a difficult time discerning expert scholarship from shoddy scholarship so poor it does not deserve the label, scholarship.

In time, books by Joseph Allison, Cyril Barber, and David Bauer would become like trusted, constant companions. All three of them had written books recommending worthwhile Biblical study resources. That trio are not (and were not even then) the final word on what are worthwhile and trustworthy resources, but their books were a place to a start (especially so I would not go broke drilling, as it were, dry holes – i.e., buying books that just collected dust on the shelf).

Two big breakthroughs in the building of my library occurred when I acquired books by Edward Goodrick and Gordon Fee (I was an adult by this time).

Goodrick’s book, enticingly named, Do It Yourself in Hebrew and Greek: A Guide to Biblical Language, did not make me an expert in Hebrew or Greek, but it did, in addition to the rudimentary language information, point me in the direction of F. F. Bruce, who was back then the foremost evangelical Biblical scholar.

Goodrick said he bought everything Bruce wrote. I began to do the same and was never disappointed. My Biblical studies and library now had some traction…

This is part of a series which continues with Jon reflecting on the of influence Gordon Fee.

Will 9/11 Anniversary Impact Christian Publishing?

September 11, 2001 I was a few minutes late to open the store. The car radio was tuned to 680 News Toronto so I could hear the tone and measure my exact lateness, and as they came up the hour — my definite signal that I was truly late — they didn’t do their audio logo to kick off the next half-hour cycle. That signified to me that they were following an important breaking story.

I pulled into our parking lot and fortunately nobody was waiting, so I sat in the car an extra minute to try to discern what was being described. A plane flew into the World Trade Centre. I couldn’t wrap my mind around that at all. I heard the words, but it didn’t seem real.

Instead of starting up the CD-player in the store, I switched to the radio. One station, and then another. After about 25 minutes, I phoned my wife who was at home. “Turn on the television;” I told her.

She asked what station.

“It won’t matter;” I responded. “You’ll see it.”

…

Hard to believe it’s been 20 years. With the pandemic uppermost in our minds, I didn’t consider that we were reaching that anniversary. A number of books were published in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy with the cover images you would expect. Other books dealing with God’s place in the midst of suffering saw a resurgence. Where indeed was God when it hurts? It was a fair question.

But on Monday I noticed a reference to it in the timing of the newest release —non-fiction this time — from Joel Rosenberg. It’s no coincidence that Enemies and Allies releases just days earlier, on September 7th. The subtitle will prove too long to include in most advertising, but for the record it’s An Unforgettable Journey Inside the Fast-Moving & Immensely Turbulent Modern Middle East.

Tyndale House advance publicity reads:

Do recent changes in the Middle East signal peace? One Arab country after another is signing historic, game-changing peace, trade, investment, and tourism deals with Israel. At the same time, Russia, Iran, and Turkey are forming a highly dangerous alliance that could threaten the Western powers. Meanwhile, the U.S. is drawing down its military forces in the Mideast and focusing on matters closer to home. Where’s it all heading?

New York Times bestselling author Joel C. Rosenberg, based in Jerusalem, skillfully and clearly explains the sometimes-encouraging, sometimes-violent, yet rapidly shifting landscape in Israel and the Arab/Muslim world. Enemies and Allies will take readers behind closed doors in the Middle East and introduce them to the very kings and crown princes, presidents and prime ministers who are leading the change.

Yes, Canadian store owners and managers, there is an ITP for this title, available through WordAlive using ISBN 9781496463081.

It was a quote from Rosenberg himself that connected the dots between 9/11/01 and 9/11/21 and you can read that fuller interview at Monday’s edition of Rush to Press.

“What happens in the Middle East – for better or worse – affects the entire world,” said Rosenberg. “The Middle East and North Africa are the epicenter of the momentous events that are shaking our world and shaping our future. Two decades after the horrific terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, which shifted our focus to the Middle East yet again, the region is undergoing sweeping, historic, tectonic transformations. We ignore them at our peril…”

”…What is needed is context. That is why I wrote this book. I will take you inside Royal Courts and capitals and introduce you to the most powerful figures in the region. Love them or hate them, these are the players driving the change. These are the leaders to keep an eye on.

There was also a helpful summary of Rosenberg’s work:

Having started his career as a political aide in Washington, D.C., today Rosenberg, an evangelical Christian with a Jewish heritage, lives in Jerusalem. He is a New York Times bestselling author of 15 novels and five nonfiction books and serves as Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the news platforms, All Israel News and All Arab News. He also hosts the podcast, “Inside The Epicenter With Joel C. Rosenberg.”

Guelph, Ontario Author on The Father’s Love and How We See Ourselves

My first contact with Jonathan Puddle came when he was  overseeing the Catch The Fire bookstore (now Attwell Books) in Toronto. More recently, I checked out his podcast, The Puddcast, after Hamilton author and pastor Kevin Makins described it as his favourite interviewee experience to date. Other guests have included Brian Zahnd, Kim Walker-Smith, Priscilla Shirer and Wm. Paul Young.

Jonathan was born in New Zealand, lived in Finland for five years, and then moved to Toronto. Today he calls Guelph, Ontario home. He writes about marriage relationships and parenting, does business consulting and support for pastors.

However, the major theme in his new book release is knowing and experiencing God’s love and then, knowing that we are loved by the Father, being able to love ourselves. You Are Enough: Learning to Love Yourself the Way God Loves You is being self-published but is available to retailers through Ingram/Spring Arbor at standard trade terms or in bulk from the author.

Here’s the marketing info about the book:

If I asked you to name your favourite things—the things you love—how long would it take for you to name yourself?

Drawing from Scripture, trauma-informed therapy, Christian inner-healing, breathing and embodiment exercises, and silent prayer & contemplative spirituality, You Are Enough is a 30-day holistic healing journey towards abundant life. Daily readings are easy to understand, with practical exercises to help you embrace the truth of your beloved-ness in every part of your mind, body, soul and spirit.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve tried to love God and love others without thinking too much about yourself. Wanting to avoid self-centeredness, I doubted myself and condemned myself—I even hated myself—until I noticed the ancient words of Mark 12:31, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” A gentle whisper led me in a new direction and everything in my life began to change.

In You Are Enough, Jonathan Puddle teaches how to:

• Love your body and embrace the space you take up.
• Discern God’s presence and feel safe with your creator.
• Get to know your emotions and inner life.
• Encounter love in the most scarred, scared, and sacred places of your heart.
• Love your whole self the way God does, with gentleness and compassion.

The 222-page book can be consumed in one sitting but is intended to be read following a 30-day format with each bite-size chapter being only six to eight pages in length.

Every Market is Different: Here’s What’s Selling in Mine

Anything here surprising you? What would be tops in your store over the past 3-4 months?