WHEATON, Ill.—Crossway is pleased to announce that Megan Hill’s book A Place to Belong: Learning to Love the Local Church (Crossway, May 2020) has been awarded the 2021 Christianity Today Book Award in the Church/Pastoral category. Created to Draw Near: Our Life as God’s Royal Priests (Crossway, January 2020) by Ed Welch was also commended with an award of merit in the Christian Living / Discipleship category.
The Christianity Today Book Awards are presented to books in fourteen different categories, including Theology/Ethics, Spiritual Formation, and Biblical Studies. According to Christianity Today’s website, winners are nominated “for the books most likely to shape evangelical life, thought, and culture.”
“These two books exemplify what we want every Crossway book to be: built on Scripture, written with excellence, with a view toward serving God’s people with grace and truth,” says Justin Taylor, Crossway’s executive vice president of book publishing and book publisher. “We thank God for this encouraging recognition of these two outstanding works from these faithful and trusted authors.”
A Place to Belong invites readers to experience the local church in light of the Bible’s testimony. Considering nine biblical terms for the church—such as beloved, brothers and sisters, saints, and gospel partners—this book equips believers to love and serve one another.
“The truth about the church shaped Paul’s experience of the church,” writes Hill. “The truth should shape us, too, so that belonging to this ordinary gathering of unremarkable people becomes one of the highest joys and greatest privileges of our lives. In the unassuming assembly of our local churches, Christ manifests his glory. Brothers and sisters, come delight in the church.”
Available in trade paperback, ebook, and audio formats, A Place to Belong has received praise from Jen Wilkin (author of Women of the Word), Nancy Guthrie (author of Even Better than Eden: Nine Ways the Bible’s Story Changes Everything about Your Story), and many others.
In Created to Draw Near, Welch shows readers the purpose for which we were created: to be brought near to God as a kingdom of priests. He traces the priestly identity throughout the entire Bible, showing us how holiness leads to closeness to God.
Available in trade paperback, ebook, and audio formats, Created to Draw Near has received praise from a variety of people including Paul E. Miller (author of A Praying Life), David Murray (Senior Pastor, First Byron Christian Reformed Church), and Jeremy Pierre (Dean of Students, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary).
Contact: Lauren Susanto, lsusanto@crossway.org 1 (630) 682-4300, ext. 6031 crossway.org
