Author aims to help people ‘connect again’ in·meaningful relationships in best-seller follow-up

Having co-authored many a related title with Henry Cloud, clinical psychologist John Townsend now offers a follow-up to the book that started it all—1992’s Boundaries, now considered a Christian self-help classic. 

Building on the earlier’s book’s principles, Beyond Boundaries: Learning to Trust Again in Relationships helps those who have set limits in their lives “jump back in the relationship pool and have a good, meaningful relationship and yet not get hurt,” Townsend said.

Much of the author’s time these days is occupied with leadership and executive-coaching work, and so he observed the need for a specific kind of Boundaries book. 

Sharon Ewell Foster

Next release: The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part One: The Witnesses (August).

Publisher: Howard Books.

Who is the historical figure Nat Turner?

He was sort of the slave version of Nathan Hale. In 1831, he led a group of fellow slaves in Southampton County, Va., in a fight for freedom. In fact, Turner—who read, wrote and was called Prophet—is considered to have lead the largest and most successful slave rebellion in American history. His story—or at least what is supposed to have been his story—was published as The Confessions of Nat Turner as told to Thomas Gray.

Who are some of the other historic figures in this work?

The Resurrection of Nat Turner is set, primarily, between 1831 and 1856. Harriet Beecher Stowe has published Uncle Tom’s Cabin and is researching a possible book about Nat Turner. … Stowe figures prominently in the work—she’s sort of the tour guide for readers—as do the abolitionists [Frederick] Douglass and Stowe’s brother Henry Ward Beecher.

Latest project: The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace (Northfield Publishing/Moody Publishers).

How did your success with the Love Languages books spur you on to write about appreciation? 

Chapman (pictured left): I knew and have known for a long time that the concept that people feel loved and appreciated in different ways was a valid concept, so I’ve wanted to do this book for a long time and have had a number of people who have volunteered in writing such a book, and I just never quite felt I had the right person till I met Dr. White.

Dr. White, how did you and Dr. Chapman learn to appreciate each other?

White (pictured right): It’s been a great process. … I pursued Dr. Chapman because I thought that the concepts of the five love languages would apply to workplace-based relationships, and it had helped my wife and I personally.

Joe Lieberman—the U.S. senator from Connecticut who in 2006 turned Independent—has taken another unpopular stand by keeping the Sabbath. An observant Jew who prays mainly in Orthodox synagogues, he has learned to not only obey, but also to celebrate the day of rest, a joy he shares in The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath (978-1-451-60617-1, $22, Aug. 16), from Howard Books.

“I love the Sabbath and believe it is a gift from God that I want to convince everyone who reads this book to accept,” he writes in the Author’s Note.

Seeking to share more than just his opinion, he aims to communicate “the distillation of a great and ancient tradition,” in part through the wisdom of rabbis and scholars. A gift “desperately needed” in our time, the Sabbath, in Lieberman’s tradition, forbids 39 categories of labor, “all creative activities that imitate God’s creativity in the first six days,” including cooking, handling money or lighting an electric light.

Through his years in the Senate, Lieberman has never driven a car on the Sabbath, which on the Hebrew calendar runs from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. The book tells of one rainy Friday night when Lieberman walked home 4½ miles accompanied by the Capitol Police after staying for a Senate vote.

Gateway leader aims to present a balanced view of the Trinity’s third person

Megachurch pastor and best-selling author Robert Morris didn’t talk much about the Holy Spirit growing up in the faith. In fact, he was afraid of Him, he admits in The God I Never Knew: How Real Friendship With the Holy Spirit Can Change Your Life, releasing this month from WaterBrook Press.

Morris has come a long way since then, but says: “I just kind of had that concept that if you talk about the Holy Spirit very much or believe in the Holy Spirit, He’s going to make you into kind of a weird person and so I always had a fear. … Some of us have the concept that He’s a little crazy or a little beyond our personality, and that causes us not to get to know Him as the wonderful person that He really is.”

Some denominational leaders treated the Holy Spirit “a bit like the crazy uncle who shows up at Thanksgiving once every few years and horrifies everyone with his inappropriate behavior,” Morris writes. “You can’t help being related to this uncle, but you hope that if you don’t mention his name or send him a Christmas card, he will stay away.”

While he addresses some of the misconceptions Christians have about the third person of the Trinity, Morris also offers a biblical view of the Spirit as a “wonderful, compassionate and gentle person” and reminds readers that He is, in fact, God. 

Morris urges believers to develop a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit because He is a person, not an “it.” Scriptures shows that the Spirit has thoughts, will and emotions, he said. 

“There are even some theological persuasions that would not see Him as a person but as a force,” he said. “If you don’t see Him as a person, then you’ll never develop a personal relationship with Him.”

As a pastor gave them instruction, Morris and his wife, Debbie, learned about and began to experience more of the Holy Spirit.

“It was just amazing to see how many scriptures are about the Holy Spirit and how the disciples in the New Testament had an ongoing vital passionate relationship with the Holy Spirit all through the book of Acts … as He began to reveal that to us and show us in Scripture, I think our fear and our trepidation (dissipated).”

Morris learned not to be daunted by what God might do through the Spirit. “I don’t think the baptism of the Holy Spirit is anything we need to be afraid of at all,” he said. “We simply need to open up and receive and say, ‘Lord, I want you to fill me and immerse me completely and totally in the Holy Spirit so I can have the power to be the witness that you want me to be.’ ”

Morris also believes that the gifts of the Spirit are for every Christian. “Every gift is for every Christian as the Holy Spirit wills and as we need those gifts,” he said.

Leading Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, Morris has a very large church with non-Christian visitors present every weekend. In that light, he is careful that there is biblical order in the congregation. 

“We’re doing everything we can to bring them to a point of accepting Jesus as their Savior, so we would not have a tongue in that type of a setting because of our desire to see people come to know the Lord, and they’re unbelievers and they wouldn’t understand,” he explained. “We may have a prophecy, but that prophecy would not be like someone yelling real loudly and shouting like some people have done.”

Life-changing heart attacks leave Angus Buchan with 'no time to waste'

Plain-spoken evangelist-farmer Angus Buchan gained international attention through his book Faith Like Potatoes and the subsequent film adaptation, which told of his conversion to Christ and the miracles that followed. 

After two heart attacks during one of his Mighty Men Conferences (MMC), he was reminded to live in light of eternity, a perspective he brings as a father in the church to readers of Come of Age: The Road to Spiritual Maturity.

After speaking before thousands at an event in 2009, Buchan collapsed with a heart attack. He recovered, and the medics thought the collapse was due to the heat. But after being taken to his house, he collapsed again and was airlifted to the hospital.

"As the helicopter took off I looked down on the multitude of men with their hands raised up in prayer, he said. "I will never forget that as long as I live. When we arrived at the hospital, about 60 kilometres away in Pietermaritzburg (South Africa), I was healed. The heart specialist said there was nothing wrong with me and I was discharged. I preached the next morning. Obviously I felt like I had been run over by a Mac truck, but God did indeed heal me."

Considering why it happened, he said: "Possibly God was humbling us as a body of men. After my two heart attacks, the whole spirit of the event changed significantly. There was a tremendous brokenness and an attitude of humility that overtook the men in general."

In 2003, Buchan had sensed God directing him to cancel all of his preaching appointments and focus on mentoring men. "I thought this meant a few men, but this is when the MMC phenomenon was birthed," he said. "After MMC 2010, the Lord instructed me that this was to be the last MMC on the farm and that I must pass the baton on to the younger men, and MMCs are now taking place all over the world."

In his 60s now, Buchan disciples and encourages men toward spiritual maturity. Buchan's simple faith was highlighted in Faith Like Potatoes and is presented again in Coming of Age. "Having put our trust in the Lord, we have physically seen Him answer our prayers many times," he said. "The Bible tells us that without faith, we cannot please God."

With a gift for communicating the truth in love to ordinary men who wouldn't normally darken the door of a church, Buchan does not "Bible punch" them.

"Many of these men that we are mentoring are more theologically correct and qualified than what we are. "

Although Buchan speaks of keeping short accounts, not second-guessing God and other lessons he's learned, his main message now relates to how short this life is.

Out of his heart attacks, "I learnt about the brevity of life," he said. "We do not have time to waste in arguing and being self-centred and selfish because time is of the essence. The Lord has been telling me for many years that life is but a vapor and I understood this after this experience."

Understanding that life is fleeting, he also knows how critical it is for people to submit their lives to Christ. "It doesn't matter how good a person you are," he said. "Unless you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, there will be no eternal life for you. To see the mighty harvest that is coming in through so many different aspects of life is really striking me."

A 384-page softcover book, Come of Age is available from Kregel Publications. To order, call 800-733-2607.