June 2025 | Lisle, IL—InterVarsity Press (IVP) is pleased to announce that two IVP titles have been honored with 2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards. These awards celebrate the outstanding books published in 2024 by small, independent, and university presses.
As part of its mission to discover, review, and share the best books from university and independent publishers, Foreword Reviews hosts an annual awards program. More than 2,400 entries spread across fifty-five genres were submitted for consideration. Foreword’s editors selected approximately twelve finalists per genre, which were then presented to individual librarians and booksellers entrusted with the challenging task of determining the Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorable Mention winners.
IVP’s Our Church Speaks: An Illustrated Devotional of Saints from Every Era and Place by Ben Lansing and D. J. Marotta received the Bronze INDIES Award in the Religion category.
Our Church Speaks offers a beautifully illustrated devotional that bridges the teaching of Scripture with our everyday lives through the lives of great men and women from throughout the history of the church. Illustrated by Ben Lansing, these saints, from every continent and century of church history, illustrate God’s faithfulness in all times and demonstrate the historic church’s relevance for Christians today.
“In a world captivated and mesmerized by the cult of celebrity, this book helps us to reorient our hearts to experience the saints as ones that not only speak to our past but also shine the light and guide the path to our future,” said J.R. Briggs, founder of Kairos Partnerships and author of The Art of Asking Better Questions. “We stand on the shoulders of brothers and sisters in the faith who’ve faithfully shown us the way—and this resource helps make them accessible and relevant to our everyday lives. Our Church Speaks is a useful tool full of stunning artwork and meaningful prayers to help us to sit at the feet of saints young and old and learn from those who are a part of the great cloud of witnesses. For the past few years, I’ve been shaped and formed by these visuals online. I’m thrilled this collection has been published into a book we can now hold in our hands!”
The other IVP INDIES Award honoree was The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary, which was named the Honorable Mention title in the Reference category.
Historically, Bible commentaries have focused on the particular concerns of a limited segment of the church, all too often missing fresh questions and perspectives that are fruitful for biblical interpretation. The New Testament in Color is a one-volume commentary on the New Testament written by a multiethnic team of scholars holding orthodox Christian beliefs. Each scholar brings exegetical expertise coupled with a unique interpretive lens to illuminate the ways social location and biblical interpretation work together. Theologically orthodox and multiethnically contextual, The New Testament in Color fills a gap in biblical understanding for both the academy and the church. The general editor for this volume is Esau McCaulley, and associate editors include Amy L. B. Peeler, Osvaldo Padilla, and Janette H. Ok.
“Reading the New Testament, intentionally, through one’s ethnic point of view (African American, Asian American, Hispanic, or Native American) does not violate an objective, traditional reading of Scripture. Rather, reading the Bible in and out of one’s location exposes the bias of the (formerly so-called) ‘objective’ reading as a Euro-white reading and, at the same time, offers to the traditional readings fresh perspectives,” said Scot McKnight, New Testament scholar and author of The Second Testament. “Over and over, I thought the essays were worth the price of this book, but I was wrong. The commentaries interact with the essays in a manner that makes this book a required desk companion for anyone who wants to hear all the Word of God has to offer. A must-have for all Bible teachers and pastors.”
For a complete list of IVP award winners visit ivpress.com.
Contact: Krista Clayton | 630.734.4013 | kclayton@ivpress.com
