Bill Hybels’ Teaching Pastor Steve Carter Launches First Book

One of the highlights of my week is watching the weekend services from Willow Creek Community Church in Northwest Chicago. It doesn’t matter to me whether Bill Hybels or Steve Carter is teaching; either way it’s a win. Furthermore no two Willow services are like each other. Each begins with a fresh vision; each is an event.

So sight unseen, I want to recommend Steve Carter’s This Invitational Life. It’s available now from David C. Cook as a paperback book, audio book, study guide and curriculum kit. If I have an opportunity to review it, I’ll mention it again here. In the meantime, here’s the book trailer:

Publisher marketing:

Willow Creek Community Church Teaching Pastor shares the story of how he learned to “dominate life.” Are you afraid of being seen as “that” type of Christian? The person people avoid because they think you’ll try to “sell” Jesus? Challenging you to step out and risk your faith, Carter helps you overcome your fears, initiate non-threatening conversations with seekers, and sensitively share your beliefs through Scripture and your own story. 224 pages, softcover from Cook.

 

Adam Hamilton – Appearing at Willow Leadership Summit

The Willow Creek Leadership Summit happens this week in Chicago and live by satellite in hundreds of locations.   This event is a catalyst for creating interest in authors and titles you may not have carried before.

One of these is Adam Hamilton, author of When Christians Get it Wrong (Abingdon) and senior pastor of the 17,000 member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. It is the largest United Methodist congregation in the United States, measured by weekend attendance.

Publisher marketing:

When young adults talk about the problems they have with Christianity and the church, they name attitudes and behaviors: judging others, condemning people of other faiths, rejecting science, injecting politics into faith, and being anti-homosexual. Adam Hamilton tackles these issues and addresses Christians getting it right when it comes to being Christ in the world. Gain a different way of understanding the issues that keep people away from Christianity and keep Christians from living a more compelling faith. Because if we don’t start getting it right, we may lose an entire generation.

To learn more about other speakers at the Willow Summit, click here and use the pull-down menu under ‘speakers.’

NOTE:  If you’d like to watch a longer version of this interview, click here.  It runs about 10 minutes.   If you’d like to include a dynamic book trailer for this in your store’s YouTube playlist, preview it here.

TO LEARN MORE:  Check out my piece on Adam Hamilton at Thinking Out Loud.

Sophmore Title from Shauna Niequist

I tend to include book trailers here for books that are already landing on your shelves, though many companies issue these well in advance.   I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but if you’ve ever uploaded a video to YouTube, then you have an account and can create your own playlist of book, music and DVD trailers and just leave it running in your store.

This title actually releases mid-July.  Bittersweet is Shauna Niequist’s second non-fiction title with Zondervan, a follow-up to Cold Tangerines, with a similar one-colour cover theme.  It’s a book about the wisdom and growth that happens in seasons of pain and chaos.

Shauna is married to Aaron Niequist who directed worship for several years at Mars Hill Grand Rapids (Rob Bell) and now does the same at Willow Creek.   The latest move is no surprise since Shauna is the daughter of Bill and Lynn Hybels.

Canadian stores:  What rights do you have in firing people whose beliefs or lifestyle undergoes major changes after you’ve hired them?   It’s a question that Christian bookstores — whether or profit or non-profit — often have to consider.   The Ontario Divisional Court ruling in the Christians Horizons case is therefore significant.   Read the latest in this story at the May 20th post at Thinking Out Loud.