Charisma Media introduces new word-for-word translation to Christian retailers at special launch event

Charisma Media invited more than 20 key independent and chain-based Christian retailers to its Lake Mary, Fla., headquarters  May 22-23 for an event launching its new Modern English Version (MEV). Send The Light Distribution, Anchor Distributors and Ingram also were represented at the launch of the most modern translation produced in the King James Version (KJV) tradition in the last 30 years.

Releasing this fall under Charisma House Book Group’s Passio imprint, this word-for-word translation maintains the beauty of the KJV language, yet provides fresh clarity for a new generation of Bible readers.

Retailers will have ample opportunity to become acquainted further with the MEV at the June 22-25 International Christian Retail Show in Atlanta. Samplers of selected MEV passages also will be distributed.

Charisma Media plans a significant promotional campaign around the new Bible, including CBA store promotions; trade and consumer advertising in major magazines; product seeding to key pastors and ministry leaders; social media giveaways, blog tours; and drivetime Christian radio and TV spots promoting biblical literacy and engagement. Devotionals also will be delivered via email to more than 200,000 consumers, and an MEV mobile app will be created for users on the go.

Charisma Media also is involved in a strategic partnership with Bible Gateway, which will add the MEV to its online translations. Part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Bible Gateway reaches more than 14 million unique visitors per month.

Several MEV editions are coming out this fall, including the SpiritLed Woman Bible in printed casebound ($44.99) and lavender leatherlike ($64.99), releasing Nov. 4; the MEV Thinline Reference Bible in jacketed hardcover ($19.99), black and cranberry leatherlike ($29.99), releasing Sept. 2; and the KJV-MEV Parallel Bible in jacketed hardcover ($39.99), releasing Oct. 7.

Luke Wordley
LATEST PROJECT: The Fight (9781414389493, $14.99, May).
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers.

What is the premise of your first novel, The Fight?
The story is about a teenage boy called Sam, who suffers a life-shattering family tragedy. As a result, he becomes incredibly angry, fighting everything and everyone around him. One day, a street fight leads him to a boxing club run by a Christian boxing trainer called Jerry, who has dedicated himself to helping kids like Sam. But Jerry quickly realizes that Sam’s fighting talent, fueled by his anger, sets him apart as a potential champion boxer, leaving Jerry with a cruel dilemma. He wants to help Sam overcome his anger issues and discover God’s peace, yet he knows Sam’s anger could propel them both to the stardom and riches that Jerry himself had missed out on. It’s a tough, yet inspiring story, and one that I think makes most of us question what we would truly do in the same circumstances.

What types of characters are Sam and Jerry?
Sam is a wounded, angry, yet talented young man—like so many disadvantaged kids in our inner cities. Jerry is a man of God trying to do the right thing, but is deeply flawed, like most of us. I love them both as characters. 

What research did you conduct for this story?
I grew up just outside London, so [I] am familiar with where the story is set. I spent my teenage years following boxing, which gave me a background knowledge of the sport. The editor of the main U.K. boxing magazine helped me ensure the final draft was authentic.

How long did it take you to write The Fight, and what was its journey before it was scheduled for release in the U.S.?
The Fight actually took me 10 years to complete! I started in 2002, writing the first half whilst traveling overseas. Then the book was put away for seven years before I got it out and finished it.

Partly inspired by The Shack [by William P. Young] and also wanting to support prison ministry in the U.K., I decided to self-publish The Fight in early 2012. It was critically well-received and reached No. 2 on a U.K. Christian best-seller chart. I was introduced to an agent, Chip MacGregor by the novelist Davis Bunn, who had picked up a copy of The Fight whilst in the U.K. A few months later, I signed a deal with Tyndale House Publishers to help bring The Fight to a wider audience.

What has been the reception of your book in the U.K.?
Incredible. The Christian/inspiration fiction market in the U.K. is tiny compared to the U.S., and sometimes not taken very seriously as a genre—strange considering our spiritual fiction heritage with C.S. Lewis and John Bunyan. But The Fight is very different to most of the available Christian fiction over here and seems to have captured the imagination. It has also been used widely as an evangelistic tool and as a home and men’s group resource, which is why I have written some discussion points in the back of this edition. It is exciting and humbling to see God use something I have written to challenge people spiritually.

Since both main characters are male, do you see this as a book for men only?
Although I wrote the book with men and teenage boys in mind and the subject matter is quite masculine, still most of my readers have been women! I’ve had plenty of feedback starting, “I bought this for my husband and would never normally read a book about boxing, but. … ”

I’ve also loved hearing stories about how sons and husbands who would never normally read a Christian [novel] have been so intrigued to see Mum glued to a book with a boxer on the front cover that they have lined up to read it after her!

I understand that the book has been used as a tool in prison ministry. How did that come about?
When I first finished The Fight, I gave it to a friend involved in prison work. He loved the book and pressed upon me how valuable it could be in prison ministry. So when I self-published, I sold the book on a “Buy One, Give One Free” principle, with the free book going to prison ministry. We’ve now distributed around 1,000 copies of The Fight to around 80 prisons in the U.K., and I have had some amazing feedback about how prisoners have enjoyed the story and it has helped them on their journey of faith. To date, I have spent all my proceeds from the book, including my advance from Tyndale House Publishers, on giving books and developing this prison book ministry.

I pray this latest launch is just another step in getting appropriate books, including other people’s titles, into prisons in the U.K., the U.S. and elsewhere. I hope to be publishing how we are going to do this and how in the future booksellers might participate through my website at lukewordley.com.

What other information might assist Christian retailers in getting the word out to their customers about The Fight?
Although they must receive thousands of books, I hope and pray Christian retailing staff will find the time to read The Fight for themselves. In the U.K., we found that when staff read the book, they immediately began recommending it to men and women (often to buy for their men folk!), and it became one of their best-selling books.

Fiction Releases: June

CHILD OF MINE
David and Beverly Lewis
Bethany House (Baker
Publishing Group)
hardcover, 416 pages, $19.99
9780764212598

Flight instructor Jack Livingston has been raising his 8-year-old adopted niece, Natalie, since the accident that took her parents’ lives. When he travels, Natalie is cared for by her Amish nanny, Laura Mast, who loves the little girl as her own.
Eight years ago, Kelly Maines’ baby was kidnapped. Determined to find her child, Kelly has tirelessly pursued every lead to its bitter end. And now, with the clock ticking, one last clue from a private investigator ignites a tiny flame of hope: Just a few miles away lives a young girl who matches the profile. Can this be, at long last, Kelly’s beloved daughter?
Child of Mine is also released simultaneously in softcover and large print.

HACKER
Ted Dekker
Worthy Publishing
softcover, 368 pages, $14.99
9781617952753
Seventeen-year-old Nyah Parks is a genius hacker who makes a living by cracking the firewalls of the world’s largest corporations. But when the biggest job of her life goes wrong, she’s plunged into a desperate situation with only one way out: one last hack that will either save her or kill her. So begins Hacker, a modern-day parable that examines the seen and the unseen, and reminds the reader that there is far more to who we are than meets the eye.

THE LAST QUEEN OF SHEBA
Jill Francis Hudson
Kregel Publications
softcover, 384 pages, $14.99
9781782640974
Against all odds, Makeda, daughter of an obscure African chieftain, is chosen as queen of Sheba. Recognizing her inexperience, her cousin Tamrin, a wealthy merchant and narrator of the novel, persuades her to visit Solomon, king of Israel. Solomon falls in love with her and tricks her into sleeping with him. She becomes pregnant and bears a son Later, when he  visits  his father, Solomon is a broken man, and Israel is no longer the nation of his youth.

THE MIDWIFE
Jolina Petersheim
Tyndale House Publishers
softcover, 400 pages, $14.99
9781414379357
Since the day Rhoda Mummau was baptized into the Old Order Mennonite Church and became the head midwife of Hopen Haus, she’s been torn between the needs of the unwed mothers under her care and her desire to conceal the secrets of her past. Contact with the outside world could provide medical advantages, but remaining secluded in the community gives her the anonymity she craves.

Graduate student Beth Winslow is on a path she never would have chosen. Heartbroken after surrendering a baby to adoption, she devotes herself to her studies until she becomes pregnant again—this time as a surrogate. But when early tests indicate possible abnormalities, Beth is unprepared for the parents’ decision to end the pregnancy—and for the love she feels for this unborn child. Desperate, she flees the city and seeks refuge at Hopen House.

Past and present collide when a young woman named Amelia arrives to the countryside bearing secrets of her own. As Amelia’s due date draws near, Rhoda must face her past and those she thought she had left behind in order for the healing power of love and forgiveness to set them all free.

T.D. Jakes, New York Times best-selling author of more than 30 books, explains how to rediscover one’s God-inspired instinct to be fruitful and multiply in Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive ($25). Drawing from personal, historical and biblical insights, the founder and senior pastor of The Potter’s House church outlines what is needed to live one’s life successfully according to God’s design. FaithWords releases Instinct in hardcover on May 6.

Kyle Froman and Billy Mauldin, leaders of Motor Racing Outreach, share lessons they’ve learned as part of the NASCAR community about being faithful to one’s personal mission in life in The Race: Living Life on Track. NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Darrell Waltrip has contributed anecdotes to the book, which give insights into his career and faith. The Race is available May 15, retailing at $15.99 in softcover from B&H Books.

The 16th book from best-selling author Frank Viola releases May 1 from David C Cook. Jesus Now: Unveiling the Present-Day Ministry of Christ ($14.99, softcover) examines the impact of Jesus’ ministry throughout history and in the world today. Reflecting on Jesus’ incarnation in the new book, Viola continues the conversation he began in Jesus: A Theography, which he co-authored with Leonard Sweet.

For 30 years, the foundation of Ron Phillips’ ministry at Central Baptist Church (now Abba’s House) in Chattanooga, Tenn., has been believers coming into agreement with one another and building strong relationships. Phillips and his son, Ronnie Phillips Jr, who is also a pastor at the church, describe the type of harmony and unity that brings forth God’s kingdom in The Power of Agreement: God’s Secret for Your Successful Relationships With Friends and Family and in the Workplace (Charisma House). This softcover book ($15.99) is available in stores May 6.

 Edgar Harrell, USMC, is one of the last survivors of the USS Indianapolis, which was struck by     Japanese torpedoes in 1945 and sank in the Pacific. In Out of the Depths: An Unforgettable WWII Story of Survival, Courage, and the Sinking of the USS Indianapolis, Harrell tells his story, co-written with his son, David Harrell. His memoir describes the four days of dehydration, exposure and shark attacks before he was rescued against all odds. Out of the Depths (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group) retails for $16.99 and releases in May.

Based on more than seven years of research and investigative reporting, best-selling author Shaunti Feldhahn (with Tally Whitehead) asserts that what most Christians believe about the divorce rate and marital happiness is inaccurate and destructive to marriages. Feldhahn’s Multnomah Books title The Good News About Marriage: Debunking Discouraging Myths About Marriage and Divorce ($15, hardcover) presents rigorously supported facts to set the record straight and change the cultural mind-set about marriage.

Written by well-known pastor and author Matt Chandler and counselor Michael Snetzer, both from The Village Church in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel-Saturated Perspective on How to Change (B&H Books) focuses readers squarely on the gospel not only for salvation, but also for sanctification and as the true means of personal change. The B&H Publishing Group title is available this month in softcover for $16.99.

Drew Dyck, managing editor of Leadership Journal and author, addresses the human hunger for transcendence in Yawning at Tigers (Thomas Nelson). Subtitled You Can’t Tame God, so Stop Trying, the book looks at the tendency to domesticate a holy, awe-inspiring God, but reveals that what people seek when they look for meaning in life is available by knowing and worshiping the dangerous God of Scripture. Releasing May 13, the book retails for $16.99.

Before the U.S. Air Force deployed neurosurgeon W. Lee Warren to the largest theater hospital of the Iraq war, he was already burdened by heartbreaking personal struggles. In No Place to Hide: A Brain Surgeon’s Long Journey Home From the Iraq War, Warren recounts his experiences operating on soldiers, civilians and terrorists alike in a tent hospital with limited supplies, surviving more than 100 mortar attacks and finding meaning amidst the ravages of war.

Each day he treated numerous massive injuries, sometimes performing surgeries around the clock, whereas in his practice in the U.S., he might treat only a handful of such complex cases in a month. The job he had to do and the conditions in which he had to survive and save lives were impossible for him to imagine before going to Iraq.
In the book’s afterword, author Philip Yancey writes that Warren’s story is distinctive, offering the unique perspective of “a specialist who, devoted to healing, found himself plunked down in the vortex of destruction.”

Yet, early in his deployment, despite his habit of self-sufficiency, God began to change him.

“The war had taught me more about life in one week than I’d learned in thirty-five years before it,” he writes.

Warren chronicled his days and sent his writings via email to what started out as a small mailing list but which grew to thousands of readers each day. His book includes several of these emails.

The conditions wore on Warren: the never-ending stream of broken bodies, little sleep, nightmares and the constant barrage of mortar and rocket attacks.

Through assisting in the worship band on base and through his encounters with a variety of people along the way—both Christians and non-Christians—he felt something shifting inside and he knew he would never be the same.

“I began to see outside my own problems, outside myself,” he writes.

Toward the end of his 120 days in the war zone, he was caught crouched near a wall, unprotected and completely vulnerable during a particularly aggressive attack. It was a pivotal point in his spiritual development as he was learning to relinquish control and trust God.

Warren returned home with his faith strengthened to face not only the problems he had left behind, but also the re-entry into daily life and the demons of post-traumatic stress. Still, his story demonstrates how,  through Christ, he moved from loss and despair to courage and victory.

To order, call 800-727-1309, or visit zondervan.com.

Jase Robertson credits his relationship with Jesus for his ‘carefree attitude and joy for life’ in new book

Fans of the popular A&E TV show Duck Dynasty have shown at the cash wrap that they’re still voting for the Robertson family. This month a new book from the second-oldest son in the Robertson family, Jase Robertson, joins the growing number of works others in the family have written. Howard Books adds to the stable of titles with Good Call: Reflections on Faith, Family, and Fowl, which offers a similar blend of antics, humor and philosophy show viewers have come to expect, though Good Call explores Robertson’s faith in greater depth.

Known for his dry humor and competitiveness, not to mention his signature beard, Robertson explains what he considers to be some of the good calls he has made in life, and he’s not referring only to the duck calls he builds for his family’s business. Each chapter in the book describes an aspect of Robertson’s life such as his first hunt and the birth of his children, as well as related spiritual insights.

“I hope that by reading this book you discover that my carefree attitude and joy for life come from what I have found in Jesus Christ,” he writes.

He goes to explain that his belief system “does not come from a religious denomination or creed. It comes from the Bible,” and he refers to Scripture often.

Throughout the book are contributions from Robertson’s wife, Missy, and an abundance of hunting and fishing tales. On his second date with Missy, she helped load heavy tubs of days-old fish heads into his truck, and he had an inkling that their relationship might work. Through the years, she has been tolerant of his long hours hunting and fishing and his frog cleaning in the kitchen sink, which is important given that Robertson loves frog hunting so much he skipped his high school graduation for it. 

Robertson also opens up about his early childhood when his father, Phil Robertson, drank heavily and about the dramatic change in his family after the patriarch became a Christian. When the family moved to their current home, and Robertson spent his days hunting, playing hard with his brothers, attending church and enjoying his mother’s cooking. The family was not materially wealthy, but Robertson writes: “Once we moved to the banks of the Ouachita River, I wouldn’t have traded my childhood for anything.”

At 14, Robertson accepted Christ as his Savior. Although he was shy at that age, he talked about salvation before large groups of teens. Then, after high school, he attended seminary. In their first year of marriage, he and Missy baptized more than 100 people, and they continue to share the gospel liberally.

Regarding his family’s fame, Robertson writes: “In my opinion, fame is not about being recognized. It’s about recognizing that the God who made you makes us all famous.”

Robertson’s writing partner, Mark Schlabach, also has coauthored other books with the family members, including Happy, Happy, Happy; Si-cology 1; and The Duck Commander Family, all New York Times best-sellers.

To order Good Call, contact Howard Books at 800-858-4109. Learn more at simonandschuster.com.

Grandmother of Oklahoma City bombing victims tells story of befriending co-conspirator Terry Nichols

Kathy Sanders’ life was turned upside down April 19, 1995, when a bomb destroyed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Okla. She tells her story of truth, tragedy and triumph in Now You See Me: How I Forgave the Unforgivable (FaithWords, $25), releasing in hardcover April 8.

Minutes earlier she and her daughter, Edye Lucas, had dropped off her grandsons, Chase and Colton, in the daycare center of the Federal Building. The two were working one block away when they heard and felt the explosion. 

Bolting down the street, they were some of the first civilians on scene, but were unable to find the babies. After hours of searching and holding vigil at the hospital, they received the unwanted confirmation. Both boys had lost their lives in the bombing that killed 168, including 19 children. By day’s end, Sanders and Edye drove home with empty car seats to an empty house.

“The silence was suffocating,” Sanders writes.

In the following weeks, she struggled through grief and despair, even contemplating suicide. After questioning God’s existence, she decided to turn to Him and chose life. 

Sanders began to believe that the whole truth about the bombing hadn’t yet come out to the public. She launched her own investigation, which took her into dangerous places, including a federal prison and a compound of the Aryan Nation. 

Most importantly, her search led her to forgive those who had hurt her.

“I never made a conscious decision to forgive. … It just happened,” she writes.

She attributes her ability to forgive to her long relationship with Christ and “God’s mysterious and majestic process of transforming hate and revenge into love and forgiveness.”

While in court one day, she noticed defendant Terry Nichols’ mother looking “hopelessly out of place,” she writes.

Realizing they were both victims of the bombing—each had lost loved ones that day, one to death and the other to prison—she decided the mother was not guilty just because her son was being tried. So, Sanders introduced herself and expressed sympathy.

This was the first of many olive branches she extended to demonstrate God’s love and to seek help uncovering the truth. She also reached out to all of Nichols’ family and to Nichols himself, as well as to co-conspirator Timothy McVeigh and his sister. McVeigh never consented to contact with Sanders, but others did, including Nichols. An unlikely relationship then forged. 

Sanders showed forgiveness and kindness to Nichols and his family. In turn, Nichols demonstrated trust and confided in Sanders. Now You See Me includes never-before-published letters between the two, reveals new information and underscores the freedom found in the exercise of forgiveness.

To order, call Hachette Book Group at 800-759-0190.