WESTMONT, IL — The Center for Disability and Ministry (CDM) at Western Theological Seminary and IVP Academic have announced that they will be partnering together to cobrand a series of books about disability and practical theology. Dr. Benjamin T. Conner and Dr. John Swinton, internationally renowned leaders in disability studies, will serve as coeditors for the series. 

Jon Boyd, editorial director for IVP Academic, said, “We were privileged to publish Ben Conner’s own book Disabling  Mission, Enabling Witness with IVP Academic in 2018. The more I learned about the research, teaching, and community outreach programs he and Western Theological Seminary have been building, the more interested I’ve been to deepen our partnership. The chance to collaborate on books about disability and practical theology is a perfect fit.”

Western Theological Seminary has been on the front end of the conversation about disability and ministry for many years. The seminary developed the first Friendship House, a residence where young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities shared life with seminary students. They also initiated a graduate certificate in disability and ministry, and a disability and ministry doctor of ministry program.

Conner said, “The time seemed right to pursue a publishing partnership to amplify the work done through and stimulated by the CDM, and both John and I felt that IVP Academic would be the best partner because of their commitment to the academic conversation and their capacity to distribute the work.”

The cobranded series provides a platform to share the research and conversations generated by the CDM and the related work of other scholars and authors. Using practical theology as a basic framework for understanding in addition to being targeted to congregations, this book series will seek to initiate a series of conversations around key issues in disability theology with a view to increasing knowledge, creatively and faithfully impacting Christian practice.

Boyd said, “Our new partnership puts us on a really exciting road, I think, allowing both the Center for Disability and Ministry and IVP Academic to do what we each do best, but to envision greater things than we could on our own.”

Conner added, “We hope that this partnership between the CDM and IVP Academic will provide the perspectives and resources necessary for supporting churches to become more inclusive of both the gifts and challenges that the human experience of disability can bring for shaping congregations for faithful ministry to all people.” 

Contact:  Krista Clayton | 630.734.4013 | kclayton@ivpress.com

Dr. John Townsend, a nationally-known leadership consultant, psychologist, and New York Times bestselling author of Boundaries and People Fuel, has launched a weekly Facebook Live event called “Tools for Living in Crisis.” The first event aired Thursday, March 26. Townsend is answering questions and providing practical tips and helpful solutions to help others make it through these challenging days. Future events will be held over the next several weeks on Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time. The events can be accessed at www.facebook.com/events/230794464971305/.

Townsend also recorded an interview with Jen Hatmaker on maintaining boundaries with those you love, which will air on Jen’s For the Love Podcast on Monday, March 30, as part of her Quarantine Queens (and Kings!) bonus series. This series is meant to provide people with tactical ways to care for themselves and their families through the pandemic.

Nashville, Tenn. (March 27, 2020) – Thomas Nelson today announced the company has hired Shannon Marchese to lead Tommy Nelson, the children’s imprint for Thomas Nelson, as v-p, publisher. She will join the organization on April 13 and will report to Laura Minchew, senior v-p, Children’s and Gift Group publisher for HarperCollins Christian Publishing.

In this role, Marchese will be responsible for the long-range strategic plan, leading the team and meeting divisional goals for Tommy Nelson.  She will work to acquire new authors and brands, manage the publishing process, and maximize the extensive backlist. In addition, Marchese will develop and facilitate business and operational strategies throughout the Tommy Nelson portfolio to effectively grow the division and to ensure financial strength and operational excellence.

Marchese has worked in editorial for 18 years, most recently as executive editor at the Christian publishing imprints within Penguin Random House, WaterBrook & Multnomah and Convergent. In this role she led the growth of their children’s publishing division, as well as the acquisition and editorial direction for many of their top authors. Before working in editorial, Marchese spent seven years in publicity, making her a dynamic and strategic communicator.

“What a need our world has for messages that deliver comfort, hope, and reassurance to our youngest readers! I am very excited about joining the incredible Tommy Nelson team and look forward to making meaningful books together,” said Marchese.

 “We can’t wait for Shannon to join us and lead the amazing Tommy Nelson team,” said Laura Minchew. “Shannon has tremendous talent in acquisitions and great experience working with leading authors, developing new products and maintaining strong author and agent relationships. She is passionate about inspirational children’s publishing, and we are delighted to have her lead Tommy Nelson in this important time.”

About Thomas Nelson: Thomas Nelson is a world leading publisher and provider of Christian content and has been providing readers with quality inspirational product for more than 200 years. As part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the publishing group provides multiple formats of award-winning Bibles, books, gift books, curriculum and digital content, with distribution of its products in more than 100 countries. Thomas Nelson is headquartered in Nashville, TN. For additional information visit www.thomasnelson.com.

ATLANTA, GA — Terence Lester is the author of I See You: How Love Opens Our Eyes to Invisible People and founder of Love Beyond Walls, a not-for-profit organization focused on poverty awareness and community mobilization. Out of a deep concern for the homeless during the Coronavirus, Love Beyond Walls has created portable hand-washing stations for those living on the streets. The initiative is called Love Sinks In. In an article for Sojourners, Lester wrote, “It sounds basic, but we wanted to ensure that people had access to this basic human right as a preventative measure against contracting or spreading the COVID-19 virus.” 

The inspiring story has become one of hope amid fear and uncertainty, catching the attention of media outlets like CNN, Good Morning America, Disney, The Weather Channel, International Business Times, NY Daily News, USA News Hub, MSN, Readers Digest and others.

“As the world was talking about sanitizing and washing your hands, I knew there was an entire community of people experiencing homelessness who couldn’t do any of those things,” Lester told Good Morning America.

Lester says that the idea came from listening to a story of suffering from one of their community members named Dmitry. He is in his late 40s and is experiencing homelessness. “He expressed to us his fears about contracting the virus because he did not have a safe place to wash his hands without being put out of a public space,” Lester said. “His story prompted us to think about an entire community of people experiencing homeless who can’t do any of the basic things the news anchors were advising us to do, like wash our hands. A teammate, Johnny Taylor, and I decided that we could do more as an organization.

“That’s when I got a call from my friend Lecrae, a Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist, who wanted to know what we could do. He rose to the occasion and we combined our efforts to create Atlanta’s first-ever homeless sink installation crisis campaign.”

Lester’s heart for the overlooked was penned in I See You, in which he calls people to see the invisible people around us. He writes about personal encounters and real-life stories in an effort to challenge others to become more informed about poverty and homelessness, and to see the poor as Jesus does. Al Hsu, senior editor at IVP, said, “When the world is paralyzed, Terence Lester acts. And his creative and compassionate actions inspire the rest of us to follow his lead.”

Lester said, “Every single woman, man, and child experiencing homelessness has a story and they matter to God. If we truly believe that God has created us all, that means that we should care for the whole community — including people living on the streets.”

The goal of the current “Love Sinks In” campaign is to install as many portable wash stations as possible in the next 2-3 months. Love Beyond Walls wants to continue the initiative through focused collaboration with local stakeholders, governors, mayors, private sector and philanthropic partners. 

He told Good Morning America, “Recognizing those experiencing homelessness as ‘people’ and not ‘problems’ is important. I hope this leads us to think about how we can adequately address this issue nationally.”

Contact:  Krista Clayton | 630.734.4013 | kclayton@ivpress.com

Zonderkidz, the children’s division of Zondervan, has several free resources and downloads for families to enrich their time together at home.  Over the weekend, thousands downloaded free activity kits, curriculum guides and more from the website at https://www.zonderkidz.com/resources/freebies/.  More resources will be added weekly.

The Jesus Storybook Bible (Sally Lloyd-Jones), The Beginner’s Bible and others such as popular picture books like Love is Kind (Laura Sassi) and One Big Heart (Linsey Davis) all have supplemental materials that parents and caregivers can use to encourage the minds of children and keep little ones busy. Several of these resources feature Easter-related activities.

Zonderkidz inspires young lives through imagination and innovation. As the leader in Christian children’s communications, it creates products that awaken the hearts and touch the souls of kids.  For more information, please visit www.zonderkidz.com

After BMI’s webinar last week on how the industry was coping with COVID-19, several people asked if BMI could do more webinars as things develop. We will be holding more candid conversation webinars in coming weeks, but wanted to put something together that could be a resource at all times. In response, BMI is launching http://bookmanufacturers.org/.

This simple online forum will be a place that all people in the book manufacturing industry can do to share resources, ask questions and help each other during this unprecedented time. This site is open to the public, but does require you complete the free site registration. This is a completely stand alone site from the BMI website, so your login will not carry over.

This crisis is affecting all parts of the book industry. It is important now more than ever, that we as an industry band together to help each other and the industry. Please share any resources that you have found valuable. Discuss what steps your business is taking to ensure the lights stay on. Let’s be the rising tide that lifts all boats.

If you have any feedback or questions regarding the website, please contact Matt Baehr at mbaehr@bmibook.com.

ECPA issued a statement last week extending the deadline for submissions to the Christy Award program:

“During this time of crisis, we want to first and foremost extend our prayers that each of you stay well.  This is a season of great disruption and ECPA is prepared to revise our programs accordingly. We continue to believe and support our industry’s mission to create God inspired content and redemptive stories that spread hope and grow faith.  Thus, we are still taking Christy Award submissions but will extend the deadline another month, until April 30.”

“The Christy Award celebration event and writing conference on November 11th in Nashville are still planned, with the hope that we will have much more to celebrate at that time.  Of course, we will always keep you updated of any changes.”

To receive the latest news on the Christy Award program, sign up for updates in the top right corner at ChristyAwards.com.

“Reading Hope in Trying Times”

Writing for Your Life has made the difficult decision to reschedule or cancel all of their conferences planned for this Spring, including Publishing in Color conferences and The Business of Being a Spiritual Writer seminars. Details can be found on the Writing for Your Life and Publishing in Color websites.

But also some good news!  They are launching a new online video series called “Reading Hope in Trying Times” (https://writingforyourlife.com/reading-hope-in-trying-times/) where they feature many of their author partners, each discussing some of their books that might be helpful during the challenging times we currently face. They also welcome publishing house participation!

The series starts this coming Monday, March 23 at 11 AM Eastern and continues on subsequent weekdays at the same time.

Here is the schedule.

• Monday, Mar 23: Diana Butler Bass
• Tuesday, Mar 24: Patricia Raybon 
• Wednesday, Mar 25: Philip Yancey
• Thursday, Mar 26: Amy Julia Becker
• Friday, Mar 27: Jennifer Grant

Week two:

• Monday, Mar 30: Carol Howard Merritt
• Tuesday, Mar 31: Lori Erickson
• Wednesday, Apr 1: Niki Hardy
• Thursday, Apr 2: Natasha Sistrunk Robinson
• Friday, Apr 3: Brian McLaren

Week three:

• Monday, Apr 6: Kathy Khang
• Tuesday, Apr 7: Kate Rademacher
• Wednesday, Apr 8: Kathy Izard
• Thursday, Apr 9: Lisa Crayton
• Friday, Apr 10: Carrie Newcomer “Singing Hope in Trying Times”

Week four:

• Monday, Apr 13: Michelle Van Loon

Rolls out Free ‘Church at Home’ Feature

In Response to COVID-19, Minno launches Free Program Giving Churches and  Families Easy-to-Use Digital Tools to Transfer the Church Experience to the Home, Including Help for Talking to Kids About  Coronavirus

NASHVILLE, March 19, 2020 — Minno-a new, Nashville-based children’s digital media company featuring one of the world’s largest collections of Classic VeggieTales and an expertly-curated collection of media choices for Christian families, is responding to changes due to COVID-19 today with a free resource for families unable to physically attend church. Minno’s free Church at Home program affords families an easy-to-use, home-based digital Sunday School experience.

“Families have unexpectedly found themselves unable to gather with their church communities likely for several weeks. While pastors are doing their best to provide online church for adults, most are not in a position to replicate Children’s Ministry or Sunday School. We immediately asked ourselves what we could do to help leveraging the Minno platform, and our team worked quickly to launch a Church at Home experience. It’s live today all around the world for everyone, and it’s free,” said Erick Goss, CEO and Co-founder of Minno and former senior manager at Amazon. “Using Minno Church at Home, families can worship, learn, pray together, and download activities with the click of a button on Sunday and throughout the week. On weekdays, while children are out of school, parents can take advantage of free daily devotionals, as well as selections from our catalog of programming that is always curated on the foundations of care for others.”

Free Church at Home Features Include:

• Church at Home can be found here: https://www.gominno.com/lp/church-at-home/
• Church at Home features three easy steps: Choose a Worship Song, Watch a Bible Video, and Enjoy More Devotionals.
• Church at Home also features selected content from the Minno Life Blog, such as how to talk to your kids about coronavirus, as well as printable activities to do in the home.
• For families during the week, Church at Home features Minno’s signature “Five Minute Family Devotions.”
• Church at Home is completely free and available around the world.

Press and media information is available here: http://press.gominno.com

---

What Parents Are Saying:

“Thank you very much! We were watching church services live and my daughter was asking for a children service. I was beyond delighted to receive such a timely email in my Inbox. You have truly been a blessing during this time of pandemic. We will continue to use Minno Church at Home daily while schools are closed. I don’t have enough words to express how grateful I am for this ministry and can’t wait to share this with others. God Bless.”

“Thank you so much! This is a wonderful idea and resource for the coming weeks. I am so thankful for you and your work to help families keep Jesus in their lives. God Bless you and your families!”

“Thank you for this! My daughter was sad that we will only be able to watch the adult services online. She and I are very happy about the Minno church online.”
 

---

About Minno
Minno is a Nashville-based children’s digital media company partnering with Christian parents to provide safe, values-based choices for their families. Minno’s offering includes an ad-free subscription-video-on-demand platform Minno Life, an expert-driven parenting blog, Minno Kids, its book publishing division, and Minno store, a digital shopping platform. Minno seeks to entertain, inform and inspire, encouraging kids and parents to laugh and learn together.

CONTACT: 323-379-5180, Press@inspire.buzz
 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As churches across the nation are temporarily halting in-person worship gatherings and on-campus ministry activities in response to the coronavirus outbreak, church leaders are scrambling to figure out how to maintain continuity in their ministries and keep their congregations on the same page.

B&H Publishing is providing a low-cost solution to ministry problems that result from COVID-19 social distancing and quarantines. Focusing on reading books as a way to stay connected, B&H launched an initiative: “Stay on the same page, by reading the same pages.”

Through “Stay on the same page” B&H offers select titles for congregations and small groups to read together at a bulk price of $5 each, along with free, online discussion guides.

These free discussion guides are ideal for groups of 10 or fewer as recommended by the U.S. government, groups that meet virtually, or even individuals for self-reflection.

“The inability to gather corporately is a major problem,” said Devin Maddox, B&H trade book publisher. “We hope by offering our most affordable books designed for congregational and group reading—as well as discounting an assortment of e-books for individuals—we can get resources into the right hands.”

Some of the select book are offered at $5 per book with an order of 20 or more. Others are offered at the same discount price with bundles of 10 or more.

Once bulk orders are delivered to church property, church leaders are encouraged to distribute books using a safe social distance (such as a drive-through option) and share the free online resources that support group book consumption and discussion.

More than 30 titles are offered at a discount bulk price, including:

• “Not Forsaken: Finding Freedom as Sons and Daughters of a Perfect Father,” by Louie Giglio
• “Sing! How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family, and Church,” by Keith and Kristyn Getty
• “I Am Going” by Daniel L. Akin and Bruce Riley Ashford
• “Turning Everyday Conversations into Gospel Conversations,” by Jimmy Scroggins and Steve Wright
• “I am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference,” by Thom S. Rainer

“When ‘I Am a Church Member’ was first published the aim was to design a book to encourage church members to read together for the purpose of deeper discipleship,” said Maddox.

“To date, literally over a million church members have continued discipleship by reading together in separate locations during the week. As COVID-19 keeps us away from our church campuses on the weekend, it seems right to us that we might maintain unity by deploying resources to aid in discipleship.”

Thom Rainer, CEO of ministry coaching firm Church Answers, and former CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, is hopeful about the prospect of many churches reading together.

“I have heard countless stories of pastors who effectively led change in their churches by reading ‘I Am a Church Member ‘with their congregations,” said Rainer.

“During this time of social isolation I think reading any book together would be an effective way for individuals, families and small groups to stay on the same page as the church.”

In addition to the bulk congregational reading offer, B&H has also made available several e-book versions of some key titles at a discounted price.

“Books are like ‘little missionaries,’” said Maddox. “Books can travel to places we could never go. Books can teach on the Amtrak train. Books can comfort a lonely night-shift worker. Books can be smuggled into the home of a teenager whose family is hostile to the gospel, so they can safely hear the Good News in communities where Christians would never be welcome.

“And because books can be deployed safely in places people can’t, we see books as a strategic resource for those of us in social isolation from one another.”

B&H Publishing Group, an imprint of LifeWay Christian Resources, is a team of mission minded people with a passion for taking God’s Word to the world. Because we believe Every Word Matters® we seek to provide intentional, Bible-centered content that positively impacts the hearts and minds of people, inspiring them to build a lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ. Among our print and digital releases for the trade, church and academic markets, titles include “The New York Times” No. 1 bestsellers “The Love Dare” and “The Vow,” No. 1 CBA bestseller “I Am a Church Member,” as well as the newly-revised Christian Standard Bible (CSB) version.

 

By Joy Allmond, a writer for LifeWay Christian Resources