LATEST PROJECT: The Sinners’ Garden (9781401687380, $12.99, Dec. 17).

PUBLISHER: Thomas Nelson.

How would you describe The Sinner’s Garden?  Nowhere is it written that God was going to quit doing His miracles 2,000 years ago. Moses had his staff. Fourteen-year-old Andy Kemp has his iPod.

Who really is Gerald Ripley?  “Rip” reminds me quite a bit of a guy named William Sirls. Both have spent time in prison, and they are each unfortunate examples of what can happen when we use the gifts God has given us for our own good instead of for His glory. Fortunately, these two are also examples of God’s unending grace and forgiveness, and both are extremely anxious to share their stories and talk to people about it.

How have your life experiences contributed to this book?  “God must be in prison, because that’s where so many people seem to meet him.” I sort of felt like I’d be doing both myself and Rip’s character a disservice if I didn’t mention that quote somewhere in the book, mostly because it’s partially true. Prison gave me both the opportunity and the time, a word I now respect more than ever, to slow down and realize what’s important. And as my faith grew, I became increasingly anxious to share life lessons I learned in terms of faith, forgiveness, patience and, most importantly, grace, so I figured what better way to do that than to sprinkle these things amongst characters in my writing? 

What do you hope readers will take away from this story?  I think any author wants to entertain readers, but as a Christian author with a checkered past, it’s particularly important to me that readers come away from the story feeling closer to God. There are many ways for us to feel closer to Him, but to me, forgiveness is the key and is arguably the biggest aspect of our short time here on Earth. I want readers to understand that in order to truly live free, we need to offer our best forgiveness to others and to ourselves, because God offers perfect forgiveness to us. 

How would you suggest Christian retailers promote The Sinners’ Garden?  I get a tremendous amount of feedback from readers who seem to be interested in the fact that I spent three years in federal prison. The bad guy that was saved by God’s grace seems to be grabbing people’s attention because at the end of the day, we’ve all experienced some form of prison in our lives—things like addiction, abuse, depression, fear, resentment—the list goes on and on. And whether we ourselves [are] or someone else is responsible for the terrible things that can happen to us in life, the only true healing that can take place from these events can be found in The Sinners’ Garden. 

Latest project: The Power of a Half Hour: Take Back Your Life Thirty Minutes at a Time (9780307731845, $22.99, WaterBrook Press), which releases Dec. 17. 

What is the half-hour power principle? You can tell what a man’s or woman’s life is like by how they spend their half-hours. Are they wasting time? Waiting at the airport for a plane? Or waiting for a half-hour at the doctor’s office?  

How did you come to understand the power of a half-hour? As my church and sphere of influence began to grow and I needed more time, I discovered there was a whole new world of additional time in the wasted half-hours.

Why does how we use our time matter so much? Because time is a gift that only God can give and is not a gift to be wasted. God has given us this precious jewel in a coffer that we call life and we can’t waste it. ... A half hour can determine the course of a person’s life.

You write that your day is “built on half-hour modules.” What are some of the ways you spend your half-hours? Several years ago I made a promise to God that before I spent any time of my day talking to people, I would first talk to God for 30 minutes, then listen for Him to talk to me for 30 minutes. I program in my day a half-hour for a counseling session, conduct a staff meeting for 30 minutes, [use a] 30-minute segment in preparing a sermon [and] write thank-you and encouragement notes [in half-hours]. Even this book was written in half-hour increments. Half-hours can be achieving moments.

Could you explain how The Power of a Half Hour is organized? Every chapter is written so you can read it in about a half-hour. There is a study guide in the back that is also made for half-hour small group meetings. It’s designed so readers can use it for prayer meetings, mentorship meetings, mentoring kids, men’s meetings and women’s meetings. 

How do you handle tough problems that you can’t solve in 30 minutes? Rarely do I have a tough problem that can’t be solved in a 30-minute period. I meditate on it prayerfully on the mountain behind my church. And if there is no immediate answer, I put it on hold and then later give it another half-hour. Usually by the time I get to the next half-hour, the problem has taken care of itself.  

Is there anything else retailers should know about The Power of a Half Hour? This is the secret of being able to pastor two of America’s largest churches while turning the large Queen of Angels hospital into a Christian Rehabilitation Center and serving as chancellor of a Christian university. Because I spend many hours on planes traveling to speak, with many pressures, challenges and financial hurdles, I have learned how to face my days and times without sacrificing my health and family. This book will enable and change the life of the person who is busy, including overwhelmed leaders, entrepreneurs, families and anyone who feels occupied by life challenges. In addition to the ministry and the Dream Center, the half-hours have been the secret to having three children lead successful ministries. Because of the half-hour principle, I have time to talk with them, play a game together, go out for ice cream, listen and show interest in their interests.

Daniel Ryan Day asked his wife three years ago a question that turned his world upside down: “What if making a difference in the world is as easy as walking into a business meeting without shoes?”

Working at a summer camp for orphans in Romania in 2005 sparked Day’s desire to make a difference. As a result, he decided to go without shoes for 10 days and blog about the experience to increase awareness about children going without shoes throughout the world. 

The blog struck a chord, receiving more than 2,000 views in the first month alone. Soon people began joining Day in giving up things such as coats, media and waste. 

Today, Day is director of content for Axis, an organization that aims to reach the next generation for Christ. His 10 Days Without: Daring Adventures in Discomfort That Will Change Your World and You (97814601424679, $13.99, Multnomah Books) chronicles his adventures going without certain things and serves as a handbook for others to act similarly, growing closer to God as a result.

Day says being born in America is more than a blessing, but “also a responsibility,” he writes. “Those of us with voices have an obligation, a duty, a charge to stand up for those who don’t.”

To learn more about the book, visit www.waterbrookmultnomah.com. To order, call 800-733-3000.

Best-selling author of ‘Where Is God When It Hurts?’ offers sequel to his first book more than 30 years late

With book sales topping 15 million copies worldwide, Philip Yancey has written on many topics, but the question “Where is God when it hurts?” remains top of mind. That question was the title of his first book, which sold more than 1.5 million books. Now, more than 30 years later, Yancey has written its sequel.

In The Question That Never Goes Away, which Zondervan releases in January, Yancey again leads readers to find faith in the midst of pain and suggests practical ways to help those who suffer.

The author’s own experience with pain includes the loss of his father to polio when Yancey was young and a life-threatening auto accident. In 2012, Yancey addressed three groups dealing with extreme circumstances: the Japanese who had been slammed by the 2011 tsunami, Sarajevans who had endured four years of warfare and genocide, and residents of Newtown, Conn., who had experienced the slaughter of 20 first-graders and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

As Yancey traveled to Newtown shortly after the massacre, Zondervan temporarily offered his first book as a free download. When the number of downloads passed 100,000 in a few days, Yancey saw just how much people grapple with questions about why bad things happen, so he made the subject a priority.

“We live on a fragile planet, marred by disease, floods and droughts, earthquakes, fires, wars, acts of violence, and terrorism,” he writes. “Whether catastrophic or commonplace, suffering always lurks nearby … If Christians have good news to share, some message of hope or comfort for a wounded world, it must begin here.”

Yancey says biblical authors assume we will suffer in this world ruled by Satan, and the New Testament passages on suffering focus not on the causes, but on the response. 

He points out that Christians place their hope on a time when pain and death will be overcome. Through the story of Jesus, “which includes both death and resurrection,” we can see “what God will do for the entire planet,” he writes. 

While God does not remove human freedom nor prevent evil, He does redeem for good what some intend for evil, Yancey argues. 

He also exhorts Christians to serve those who are suffering.

“If the church does its job, people don’t torment themselves wondering where God is,” he writes.

To order The Question That Never Goes Away, call 800-727-1309, or visit www.zondervan.com.

Illusionist Harris III stars in the new autobiographical dramatic documentary Entangled: For Everything, There Is a Key... (793573209986, $14.99), releasing Nov. 19. The Destiny Image Films release integrates Harris’ personal story with scenes from his live show. 

Is Entangled a movie or a documentary? 

People have been asking us for years at our shows. People come up and ask if they can see a full show, hear the message, because what we do is so unique. So we set out to make a live show DVD. But then we thought, “Let’s make it more creative, and this old Vaudeville style theater rented out, and do big illusions, such as the water tank escape and sawing the lady in half. The story we tell throughout the show—we thought it would be fun to make a film that goes along with it, so we kept writing this little screenplay and we ended up making a full film and combined it with a live film. You’re watching a movie and it fades to the show—it goes back and forth through the entire film—to tell one story. It’s kind of unique. No one’s really done anything like that as far as we know. 

What do you say when someone asks what  an illusion has to do with the faith message? 

It’s a common question. With the water-torture illusion, I could do an entire show with a message-based approach to it. I believe I use the greatest tool in the world to teach people how they are deceived. People are tricked into believing lies about themselves, and they affect our decision-making processes. All these things in the Bible tell us to live our life not by what we see or feel. I can’t think of a better tool other than the art form of magic and illusion as a way to teach people that seeing is not believing. 

What is your story, which is portrayed in the movie? 

I was doing megachurch shows, corporate events and doing pretty well. A few months later, we found ourselves in other countries. We realized we were deceived and tricked into believing all these lies about success. When I started digging, I discovered the process of how I was deceived, how I was tricked by the world. It is the art of misdirection. All of these principles of misdirection are universal. The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. As illusionists, we temporarily blind the audience by taking away their senses and the way they think. I teach people how they are deceived and how they can spot lies in their lives and how the truth sets them free. The story in the film, my personal testimony, is shared throughout the live show. It’s about this magician who was deceived in the world and it almost cost him his life—and how the truth can set us free. 

Do you reveal your secrets?

I prefer not to give away the actual secrets of how the illusions work. I show the audience how something works and in the process of showing them, I fool them again to keep everyone on the edge of their seats, to keep them guessing. Sometimes I do tricks where the audience can clearly see what’s going on, but I get a volunteer on stage who doesn’t. The situation where the audience can see it, but someone else can’t see it, and he’s completely baffled and amazed. It’s a powerful moment for the audience to realize that. 

You did a Kickstarter campaign to finish the project and raised $26,000. How did that happen? 

We knew what we needed to get the movie done. It was like a football game, and you’re at the 10-yard line and it’s almost done, but we needed another $20,000 to get the ball to the finish line. We matched our goal and raised more than $6,000 extra. It was humbling to be a part of it and realize there were that many people out there to get behind the project. 

How do you feel about the finished product?

We are getting some positive feedback about how the gospel is presented. It’s not super confrontational or cheesy. I just did it the way I’ve been doing it for years. Before you know it, you’re listening to the gospel. I believe we succeeded at our goal in making something that’s high quality and professional. It has been reaching a broader audience, and some super-critical people are saying, “This is well done.” Christian families can sit down with their neighbors and watch it and have conversations about the gospel. That’s awesome.

November musical offerings run the gamut from history to heavy metal

Family Reunion

The Cathedrals

StowTown Records (Provident Distribution)

643157426998

Nov. 12

As one of the pioneering groups in Southern gospel music, the Cathedrals have had a rich legacy of songs and voices, including some late legendary singers. Family Reunion is a tribute to the group and features not only some of the group’s most popular alumni, including Ernie Haase, Danny Funderburk, Gerald Wolfe, Mark Trammell and Scott Fowler, but also the voices of George Younce, Glen Payne and Roger Bennett digitally mixed into new studio songs. 

Songs on the project include “Can He, Could He, Would He,” featuring Mark Trammell; “Search Me, O God,” featuring George Younce and Glen Payne; “Champion of Love,” featuring Gerald Wolfe; and new radio single “We’ll Work.” The project will debut at a two-day Cathedrals event in Fort Worth, Texas. 

To order, call 800-333-900 or visit www.thep.com. 

No More Hell To Pay

Stryper

Frontiers Records

Capitol Christian Music Group (Capitol Christian Distribution)

024391062227

Nov. 5

Christian heavy metal band Stryper returns with a new project of original songs, No More Hell To Pay. Dubbed by producer and frontman Michael Sweet as the “heaviest record,” the album is a sequel to the group’s popular breakout album, To Hell With the Devil, which released in 1986. That album provided the group’s first video to hit MTV, “Calling on You.”

Songs on the new release include “Saved by Love,” “Jesus Is Just Alright,” “Water Into Wine,” “Marching Into Battle” and the title track. 

“Every song has a hooky guitar riff,” Sweet said. “Everything is in minor keys, so it’s a little darker sounding and a little tougher.”

Along with Sweet, the group comprises Oz Fox, Tim Gaines and Robert Sweet. Stryper has sold more than 10 million units and was the first band to have two songs in MTV’s Top 10 simultaneously. 

To order No More Hell To Pay, contact Capitol Christian Music Distribution at 800-251-3052 or visit www.capitolchristiandistribution.com. 

Nothing Is Impossible

Shout Praises Kids

Integrity Music (Provident)

000768532720

Nov. 19

The newest release in Integrity Music’s Shout Praises Kids line, Nothing Is Impossible features Australia’s Planetshakers Kids performing high-energy yet age-appropriate worship for children.

The album features Planetshakers songs such as “You Are Good,” “Healer,” “Put Your Hands Up,” “I Call You Jesus,” ”Great Is Your Love,” “Get Up,” The Anthem (Full Song),” “Limitless” and the title track. 

To order Nothing Is Impossible, call 800-333-900 or visit www.thep.com. 

Withholding Nothing

William McDowell

eOne Music (eOne Distribution) 

099923930525

Nov. 5

Worship artist William McDowell, ASCAP Award winner and Dove and Stellar Award nominee, releases Withholding Nothing, a live double-disc praise celebration, this month. Known for hits such as “I Won’t Go Back” and  “I Give Myself Away,” McDowell enlists the help of friends such as Steve Crawford and Da’dra Greathouse, Danny Gokey and Nicole Binion for a two-hour worship experience with more than 30 tracks.     Songs include “Expecting,” “Through Christ,”  “We Will Prevail,” “I Surrender All” and “I Wanna Go Deeper (Show Me Your Face).”

To order, visit us.eonedistribution.com.