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Inspirational publishers explore new territory
REVIEWS BY MIKE PARKER Christian publishing is veering away from the traditional. Once the sole province of devotionals and Bibles, the shiny catalogs from today's religious presses now contain business advice books, media critiques and biographies of contemporary figures who inspire us all. The Easter season is the perfect time to highlight a few of these new offerings. Making business personal
By John C. Maxwell Nelson Business, $24.99 272 pages, ISBN 0785260897
Lessons from a life well lived
In her book, The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers, Amy Hollingsworth reveals a highly educated, eloquent, complex man of simple faith and pleasant disposition. Fred Rogers, Hollingsworth writes, liked to take his time. He believed hurrying caused a child's soul to become hard and resistant, while going slow nourished the soul. In our hurry-up world, Rogers' message rang true for toddlers and mommies alike. Hollingsworth, who first met Rogers during a television interview and went on to become close friends with him, writes with a smooth familiarity that makes the reader feel that he is hearing about a mutual friend over a hot cup of coffee. The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers is a fitting tribute to a true pioneer in the field of children's television.
By Amy Hollingsworth Integrity, $19.99 224 pages, ISBN 1591452295
Getting to know God
By John Ortberg Zondervan, $18.99 208 pages, ISBN 0310253497
Finding Jesus in the media
By C. Marvin Pate and Sheryl L. Pate Baker Books, $13.99 224 pages, ISBN 0801065488
Mike Parker writes from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
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Few people have had the impact on the American business community that John C. Maxwell has had. The founder of the Maximum Impact leadership events, Maxwell writes with authority about the need for business people to embrace a new paradigm for success. To achieve success in any venture, whether professional or personal, it is imperative that you learn to work with people, he writes in his latest book,
Winning With People: Discover the People Principles that Work for You
Every Time. Here, Maxwell offers 25 "People Principles" that anyone can learn to help create win-win relationships. Each "People Principle" comes with discussion questions to help readers examine how well they relate to the people in their lives. The most important principle, the "Big Picture Principle," is to recognize that the entire population of the world, with one minor exception, is composed of others. In other words, it all begins with a relationship.
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Perhaps the world's largest neighborhood was the one invented by Fred Rogers. You, of course, know him as Mister Rogers, and for half a century his neighborhood was the kind of place you wished you had grown up in. But there was more to Fred Rogers than his cardigan sweater, blue boat shoes, perpetual smile and soothing voice. Behind the persona was a genuine person who actually believed everything he espoused on television.
Author John Ortberg insists that God Himself is eager to reach out His hand and touch you. He quotes a passage by the writer Frederick Buechner: "There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not." Ortberg takes this as the thesis statement for his book,
God Is Closer Than You Think. To Ortberg, God is not some unknowable, amorphous being. He is a heavenly Father who is deeply interested in everything about us. If we could just grasp that concept, he says, we could enjoy a vibrant, moment-by-moment relationship with him. Shot through with examples from life, the Bible and the great thinkers of history, God Is Closer Than You Think makes a convincing argument for pursuing intimacy with the Almighty.
Were Jesus and Mary Magdalene lovers? Does the Bible Code reveal the date of the end of the world? Does the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy have anything to say about Christianity? Husband-and-wife writing team C. Marvin Pate and Sheryl L. Pate believe Jesus is being
Crucified in the Media, and have set out to find the real Jesus amid today's headlines. Using scholarly research techniques, the Pates examine such media-hype fodder as Dan Brown's best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, the Jesus Seminar's radical approach to color coding the words of Jesus, the apocryphal gospel such as the Gospel of Thomas, the James Ossuary and other headline-grabbing events.