2021 Press Releases

IVP Announces New Podcast Partnership with the Release of Get in The Word with Truth's Table

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 22:44:00 GMT

InterVarsity Press (IVP) is pleased to announce its newest podcast, Get in The Word with Truth’s Table. Produced in partnership with the popular show Truth’s Table, the podcast will feature daily Bible readings and prayers narrated by Dr. Christina Edmondson and Ekemini Uwan, two cohosts of Truth’s Table. The first episode will release on January 1, 2022, and will cover the entire canon of the Bible over the course of the year.

“This is a dream that has been a long time in coming,” said Helen Lee, IVP’s director of Product Innovation. “Nearly two years ago, we first met with Ekemini regarding her deep desire for Christians to hear the voices of women of color reading the Word of God. I’m so delighted that we have reached this point of the imminent release of a podcast that not only features the Holy Scriptures, but that does so through the unique and distinctive voices of Ekemini and Christina. I believe that many listeners will come to experience the truth of God’s Word in a new way through this podcast, and I’m so grateful to be in partnership with Truth’s Table to bring Ekemini’s original vision to reality.”

“The Word of God is living, active, and dynamic, yet when people choose to listen to the Bible, their ears are often met with homogeneity, as most of the options available to them are the voices of white men,” Uwan said. “The church and the world miss out when the beautiful tapestry of ethnic diversity within the kingdom of God is veiled in this way. The church in America and the global church desperately need to hear Black women and non-Black women of color read the full canon of Scripture. Get in The Word with Truth’s Table will help provide a much-needed biblical resource.”

The podcast will use a fresh and unique approach to moving through the Bible, featuring the Bible Study Together reading plan created by Peter Schrock. The reading plan goes chronologically through the Old Testament and makes relevant connections between the Old and New Testaments along the way, “interweav[ing] the New Testament and Old Testament together in a single tapestry so that Old Testament stories, psalms, and prophecies connect as much as possible to New Testament teaching without losing their original context” (from Bible Study Together).

Get in The Word with Truth’s Table will also feature the New English Translation of the Bible, “a completely new translation of the Bible with 60,932 translators’ notes . . . completed by more than 25 scholars—experts in the original biblical languages—who worked directly from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts” (from NetBible.com).

Get in The Word with Truth’s Table is one of a growing number of projects underwritten by IVP’s Every Voice Now initiative, which seeks to amplify and elevate voices of color. “IVP’s growing commitment to diversity and equity in Christ is visible among its dynamic and thoughtful authors of color and well-respected executive leaders of color,” said Edmondson, whose IVP book Faithful Antiracism, coauthored with Chad Brennan, will release in March 2022. “Truth’s Table, a leader in African American podcasting, is honored to partner with our siblings in Christ at IVP to make the Word of God accessible to a diverse audience.”

For more information regarding this new podcast, please contact Krista Clayton, associate director of Publicity (kclayton@ivpress.com), or Helen Lee, director of Product Innovation (hlee@ivpress.com).

Prayer in the Night Named Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of the Year

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 17:27:00 GMT

Christianity Today has announced its 2022 Book Award winners and has named Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren the CT Book of the Year and the recipient of the Beautiful Orthodoxy Award.

The Book of the Year honor is Warren’s second Beautiful Orthodoxy Award. Her first book, Liturgy of the Ordinary¸ was also chosen as the top title for the 2018 CT Book Awards. Framed around one ordinary day, Liturgy of the Ordinary explores daily life through the lens of liturgy, small practices, and habits that form us. Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep centers around a nighttime prayer of Compline and explores human vulnerability, suffering, and God’s seeming absence as Warren recalls her own experience navigating a time of doubt and loss.

“Prayer in the Night was an important book for me when I read it while sheltering in place in late March of 2020,” said Warren’s editor, Cindy Bunch, IVP Vice President, Editorial. “Tish Harrison Warren’s reflections on what it means to reckon with our human vulnerability are both profound and prophetic for such a time as this. I am grateful that she points us to the way in which liturgy sustains and upholds us through the darkest of times. Despite its deep dive into the darkness, her narrative thread and beautiful prose make this book an enjoyable read. Struggle is never far from the human experience. I believe that this book will offer hope to many generations of readers who find themselves praying in the night.”

Warren is a weekly contributing newsletter writer for the New York Times and writes a monthly column for Christianity Today. She has worked in ministry settings for over a decade as a campus minister with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries and as the writer-in-residence at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Comment Magazine, the Point, and elsewhere.

James Bryan Smith, author of The Good and Beautiful Series, said, “Good writers, Frederick Buechner once told me, ‘pay attention to their lives.’ By this standard, Tish Harrison Warren is a very good writer indeed. She tells stories from her own life—sometimes commonplace, sometimes heartbreaking—with great detail, and even greater insight. Using the brilliant, time-tested words found in Compline, a service of evening prayers used before sleep, as her outline, this well-written and deeply honest book will inspire you to begin using these prayers in your own life. It did for me. Reading this book was like having a meaningful conversation with a friend over a crackling fire and having a clear sense that you are the better for having engaged in it. Tish is far too young to be this wise. I am grateful for her life, for her searching faith, and I am very grateful for this special book.”

Four additional IVP titles received 2022 CT Book Awards of Merit. Justin Paul Lawrence, IVP’s Vice President, Sales and Marketing, said, “I am pleased to see IVP continue its long history of thought leadership in areas such as Politics and Public Life with We the Fallen People and Culture and Arts with Reading the Times. It’s even more pleasing when we can be recognized in such crowded spaces as Church/Pastoral Leadership with Winsome Conviction or Theology/Ethics with The Doctrine of Creation. These works are stars that light the way for the church to understand the way of Jesus better each day.”

Culture and the Arts Award of Merit

Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News by Jeffrey Bilbro invites readers to take a step back and gain some theological and historical perspective on the nature and very purpose of news. Bilbro reflects on how we pay attention, how we discern the nature of time and history, and how we form communities through what we read and discuss.

“There may not be any greater need in this moment—for both the church and the larger culture—than a practical theology of the news,” said Karen Swallow Prior, author of On Reading Well. “Reading the Times is a book that addresses a discipleship crisis of our day. It may be a generation too late, but it’s not a moment too soon.”

Politics and Public Life Award of Merit

We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy by Robert Tracy McKenzie presents a close look at the ideas of human nature to be found in the history of American democratic thought, from the nation’s Founders through the Jacksonian Era and Alexis de Tocqueville.

John Fea, professor of history at Messiah College and author of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?, said, “In the spirit of Reinhold Niebuhr, Tracy McKenzie places original sin at the center of American political history. We the Fallen People weaves American history, historical thinking, and public theology into a compelling narrative that forces readers to rethink the meaning of our democratic experiment.

Church/Pastoral Leadership Award of Merit

Winsome Conviction: Disagreeing Without Dividing the Church by Tim Muehlhoff and Richard Langer offers a guide to help Christians navigate disagreements with one another. In today’s polarized context, Christians often have committed, biblical rationales for very different positions. How do we discern between core biblical convictions and secondary issues? How do we cultivate better understanding and compassion for those we disagree with? Muehlhoff and Langer provide lessons from conflict theory and church history on how to avoid the dangers of groupthink and how to negotiate differing biblical convictions to avoid church splits and repair interpersonal ruptures.

“This book could help us turn this world right-side up with meaningful conversations filled with kindness, grace, truth, and welcome,” said Sharon A. Hersh, licensed professional counselor and author of Belonging. “If you’re tired of debating and the ensuing division, here’s an alternative to change the conversation!”

Planting a Church Without Losing Your Soul: Nine Questions for the Spiritually Formed Pastor by Tim Morey was one of the finalists in the Church/Pastoral Leadership category. Featuring real-life stories from leaders plus practices and discussion questions, this book is a practical guide to spiritual formation geared to the unique needs of church planters and teams.

Theology/Ethics Award of Merit

The Doctrine of Creation: A Constructive Kuyperian Approach by Bruce Riley Ashford and Craig G. Bartholomew develop the Kuyperian tradition’s rich resources on creation for systematic theology and the life of the church today.

Jessica Joustra, of Redeemer University, said, “Here is a faithfully Reformed yet distinctly contemporary work on the doctrine of creation. It is a welcome addition to the badly needed, and now happily emerging, literature applying the giants of the neo-Calvinist tradition to issues of doctrine for the English-speaking world. But it is no sleepy doctrinal tome. This is a book of theology that answers questions the church is actually asking. Widely read, richly cited, and ecumenically minded, Ashford and Bartholomew mine the Reformed tradition at its best and place its treasures before the church and the academy to correct, challenge, and continue our work in the theater of God’s glory.”

For a complete list of award winners visit ivpress.com/award-winners.

Five IVP Books Named Honorable Mention Titles in 2021 The Gospel Coalition Book Awards

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 17:35:00 GMT

The Gospel Coalition has announced that five IVP books were given Honorable Mention titles in the 2021 TGC Book Awards. Drawing from the thousands of resources produced by Christian publishers this year, the TGC staff, along with dozens of key contributors, took stock of the best Christian books across eleven categories and recently announced their top choices.

The IVP books that were given Honorable Mention titles in the 2021 TGC Book Awards include:

You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World by Alan Noble was one of the honored titles in the Christian Living category. As the Heidelberg Catechism puts it, “I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” In You Are Not Your Own, Alan Noble explores how this simple truth reframes the way we understand ourselves, our families, our society, and God. Contrasting these two visions of life, he invites us past the sickness of contemporary life into a better understanding of who we are and to whom we belong.

John Inazu, Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis, said, “In this timely meditation, Alan Noble reminds us that brokenness, loneliness, and purposelessness will not be conquered by living our best life, finding our true self, or even belonging to the right family, club, or church. To the contrary, our greatest fears and anxieties are not problems to be solved but mysteries to be embraced through the knowledge of self that comes only from knowing that the self belongs to Christ.”

The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership by Tom Nelson was awarded an Honorable Mention title in the Ministry category of the TGC Book Awards. Drawing on the image of the shepherd leader, Tom Nelson offers pastors wisdom and timely vision for leadership that integrates in-depth biblical teaching and whole-life discipleship, providing a road map for ministry resilience and longevity.

“Talented preachers and leaders who are not mature and wise pastors may draw a crowd,” said Timothy Keller, Redeemer City to City, “but they will not help believers ‘grow in grace’ (2 Peter 3:18) and Christlikeness in both their private and public lives. Tom Nelson’s fine book will help rehabilitate the importance of the work of shepherding in our churches.”

Changed into His Likeness: A Biblical Theology of Personal Transformation by J. Gary Millar was chosen as an Honorable Mention title in the Academic Theology category. In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume Gary Millar explores the nature of gospel-shaped change, focusing on “life in the middle”—between the change that is brought about when we become Christians and the final change in which we will be raised with Christ. Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works composing New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles.

We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy by Robert Tracy McKenzie was among the honored titles in the History & Biography category. Arguing that we must take an unflinching look at the nature of democracy—and therefore, ourselves—historian McKenzie explores the ideas of human nature in the history of American democratic thought, from the nation’s Founders through the Jacksonian Era and Alexis de Tocqueville.

Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center and dean of the School of Mission, Ministry, and Leadership, said, “Tracy McKenzie’s book We the Fallen People is an exercise of deep objective thought that will help Christians process the tumult of American government and politics. McKenzie helps us to think Christianly as American citizens about the future of our democracy. This book couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News by Jeffrey Bilbro was awarded an Honorable Mention title in the Public Theology & Current Events category. Bilbro invites readers to take a step back and gain some theological and historical perspective on the nature and very purpose of news. In Reading the Times he reflects on how we pay attention, how we discern the nature of time and history, and how we form communities through what we read and discuss.

“Like a teacher, Bilbro questions readers about our ways of responding to media, and he leads us to consider how our participation with contemporary news forms us and our community,” said Jessica Hooten Wilson, Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the University of Dallas, and author of Giving the Devil His Due. “By contextualizing our reading of the news within kairos, Bilbro shows Christians how, as T. S. Eliot writes, ‘to apprehend the point of intersection of the timeless with time.’ A relevant and timeless book about how Christians should belong in but not of this world.”

For a complete list of IVP award winners visit ivpress.com/award-winners.

IVP Creative Director Honored with Eight 2021 Top Shelf Book Cover Awards

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 17:08:00 GMT

InterVarsity Press (IVP) is pleased to congratulate creative director, David Fassett, for his work on eight designs that were chosen for the 2021 Top Shelf Book Cover Awards by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).

“The creative talent represented in the covers that won this year is impressive,” said Lorraine Caulton, IVP’s director of creativity and customer engagement. “IVP is honored to be a recipient, many times over this year, through the work of creative director, David Fassett. He is an outstanding talent, strong collaborator, and fun person to work with.”

Fassett joined IVP as a marketing designer in 2009, was promoted to senior graphic designer in 2014, and then appointed to the position of art director in May 2017. This fall he was named IVP’s creative director. Fassett said, “I think a book cover should truthfully and clearly communicate the gist of the book in a way that is visually compelling with the goal of moving the intended reader to pick up the book (or click on it). The cover should also serve as a visual reminder of the experience that the reader had with the book.”

Fassett’s 2021 Top Shelf award-winning covers include

Charitable Writing: Cultivating Virtue Through Our Words by Richard Hughes Gibson and James Edward Beitler III

The Doctrine of Creation: A Constructive Kuyperian Approach by Bruce Riley Ashford and Craig G. Bartholomew

Forty Days on Being a One (Enneagram Daily Reflections series) by Juanita Campbell Rasmus

“Here Are Your Gods”: Faithful Discipleship in Idolatrous Times by Christopher J. H. Wright

Mixed Blessing: Embracing the Fullness of Your Multiethnic Identity by Chandra Crane

No Longer Strangers: Finding Belonging in a World of Alienation by Gregory Coles

Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News by Jeffrey Bilbro

Voices and Views on Paul: Exploring Scholarly Trends by Ben Witherington III and Jason A. Myers

The ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover Award program recognizes design excellence in the Christian publishing industry. Submissions for this year’s awards represented a record-breaking year of wide participation among thirty-five publishing houses and imprints. Judges have the freedom to choose as many top designs as they feel are worthy from the submission pool. They selected a record number of thirty winners. This is the fourth year in a row that the number of winners has exceeded the previous years’ selections.

ECPA announced the winners of this year’s awards on November 12 during the closing session of Pub U Online. Winning book covers and judges’ comments are featured at TopShelfAward.org.

Nancy Wang Yuen to Host Season Three of "The Disrupters Podcast", Launching December 2

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 16:56:00 GMT

WESTMONT, IL—InterVarsity Press is pleased to announce that sociologist and pop-culture expert Nancy Wang Yuen will be the host for the third season of The Disrupters podcast. With more than two hundred thousand downloads, the next season of the weekly podcast is set to launch on December 2.

Yuen is the author of Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism and coeditor with Deshonna Collier-Goubil of Power Women: Stories of Motherhood, Faith, and the Academy. She serves as an associate professor of sociology at Biola University. She has appeared on PBS, NPR, NBC Nightly News, BBC World TV, Dr. Phil, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. She is a guest writer at Newsweek, Elle, HuffPost, and Self.

Yuen said, “This season of The Disrupters invites a diverse group of believers, many of whom are some of the biggest names in their fields and changing popular culture as we know it. I think listeners will be surprised, challenged, and delighted by how they talk about faith, identity, and their creative work.”

The first two seasons were hosted by Fr. Esau McCaulley, author of Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope, assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. Interviews with guests like Beth Moore, Sho Baraka, Tish Harrison Warren, Dominique Gilliard, and others focused on a specific disruption—a break, interruption, or disturbance—in the church. This season the focus will move from a negative disruption of the evangelical church to a more positive posture of disruption of the secular spaces. By speaking with guests who are actively living out their faith in places of cultural importance, the third season of The Disrupters will demonstrate how faith can be lived out in peaceable, but nonetheless, disruptive ways to improve the world.

“We loved what Esau McCaulley brought to The Disrupters for the first two seasons, which made the show what it became, a hybrid of theology, biblical studies, and culture that fit him perfectly,” said Helen Lee, one of the executive producers of the podcast. “It has been a gift to have him as our host the first two seasons. But once he stepped down, we became excited about the prospect of disrupting The Disrupters with a new direction for season three, and Nancy Wang Yuen gives us that opportunity. Given Nancy’s unique place at the intersection of popular culture, Asian American identity, and faith, she will bring a fantastic, fresh lens to this season, and we can’t wait to showcase the conversations she is having with guests who you may not have even realized were Christian but whose faith is shaping what millions of people are watching, hearing, and reading. I think this season will both captivate our current listeners and potentially have an evangelistic impact on new listeners as they hear stories of faithful living that will surprise and inspire them.”

Some of the confirmed guests for the third season include

Min Jin Lee, author of Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a National Book Award finalist and one of the New York Times Ten Best Books of 2017.

Terence Lester, author of I See You and When We Stand He is the founder of Love Beyond Walls, a not-for-profit organization focused on poverty awareness and community mobilization.

Peace Amadi, author of Why Do I Feel Like This? She is a psychology professor, speaker, children’s book author, content creator, and host.

Gene Luen Yang, American-born Chinese cartoonist whose first graphic novel from First Second Books was a National Book Award finalist. His two-volume graphic novel Boxers & Saints won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award Finalist.

Scott Derrickson, the director and screenwriter of The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Doctor Strange.

Jason Chu, a rapper and activist whose work has been presented on the National Mall in Washington DC and curated in the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs virtual exhibition.

“I look forward to talking with a diverse group of culture movers and history makers who live out their faith in unexpected ways,” Yuen said. “I hope this season’s conversations with people of faith who disrupt culture in creative ways will inspire listeners to do the same. I always do my research and believe in bringing depth and authenticity to every conversation.”

The Disrupters podcast will be available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other major podcast distributors. For a sneak peek, check out the trailer for the third season of The Disrupters at ivpress.com/disrupters.

Brian Zahnd Signs Two-Book Contract with IVP

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 16:56:00 GMT

Brian Zahnd, a popular conference speaker and author of A Farewell to Mars, has signed a contract for two more books with InterVarsity Press. The first of the two books, tentatively titled The Wood Between the Worlds, is scheduled to release in Winter 2023.

“We are so pleased to continue our publishing relationship with Brian Zahnd,” said Elissa Schauer, managing and associate trade editor at IVP. “This next book focuses on the cross—how it helps us understand who God is and how that knowledge can transform our lives. What we appreciate about Brian is that he writes with both empathy and authenticity as he points us toward a genuine faith that can flourish in this age. He is the pastor so many of us need for this moment in time.”

Zahnd’s first book with IVP, When Everything’s on Fire: Faith Forged from the Ashes (November 9, 2021), explores the question of whether it’s possible to hold on to faith in an age of unbelief. Zahnd extends an invitation to move beyond the crisis of faith and helps his readers understand and move toward the journey of reconstruction. In his next book, Zahnd looks to the cross to make sense of God in this age of unbelief. He says that everything that can be known about God is in some way present at the cross.

“The cross of Christ is the wood between the worlds,” Zahnd writes. “There is the world that was and the world to come, and in between those two worlds is the wood upon which the Son of God was hung. As in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, the wood between the worlds is a portal. In this world of sin and death we do not despair, because we believe there is a portal that will transport us to a world where, in the beloved words of Lady Julian, ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.’”

Brian Zahnd is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a nondenominational Christian congregation in Saint Joseph, Missouri. He and his wife, Peri, founded the church in 1981. Zahnd is also the author of several books, including Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Water to Wine, Beauty Will Save the World, Unconditional?: The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness and others.

Suzanne Stabile Embarks on a Multi-city Enneagram Book Tour in 2022

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 18:52:00 GMT

Internationally recognized Enneagram master teacher Suzanne Stabile will be offering workshops across ten different cities in the United States in 2022. The tour coincides with the November 2 launch of her new book, The Journey Toward Wholeness: Enneagram Wisdom for Stress, Balance, and Transformation.

The in-person, multi-city tour is primarily focused in the southern and eastern regions of the country, areas where Stabile has been intentional about building relationships with churches and people who have become Enneagram enthusiasts. The tour stops consist of a of a ticketed event on Friday to witness a live recording of Suzanne’s podcast at a local venue followed by an all-day intensive workshop at a local church. The cities include

Richmond, VA—January 7–8, 2022
Birmingham, AL—February 4–5, 2022
Houston, TX—March 4–5, 2022
Austin, TX—April 8–9, 2022
Portland, OR—May 6–7, 2022
Dallas, TX—June 3–4, 2022
Denver, CO—July 15–16, 2022
Charlotte, NC—September 9–10, 2022
San Francisco, CA—October 7–8, 2022
Kansas City, MO November 11–12, 2022

Stabile said, “It’s my hope in this tour to celebrate the interest in the Enneagram and to educate those who have not yet been exposed to its depth and its wisdom.”

The depth of the Enneagram is what Stabile’s latest work will offer readers and workshop participants. The book and the tour will engage those already familiar with the Enneagram to dig deeper into the concept of the three Centers of Intelligence: thinking, feeling, and doing. The Journey Toward Wholeness and the in-person events provide what people need to deal with the world’s stressors and achieve lasting transformation. A six-session study guide serves as a companion piece to the book. Both will serve as valuable resources for workshop participants.

Stabile said, “The key is balance. The way to achieve that balance is by understanding Enneagram wisdom around triads, stress, and stances. Balance is achieved in the moments we are able to appropriately use all three centers, thinking, feeling, and doing, each for their intended purpose.”

Teresa McBean, executive director for the National Association for Christian Recovery, who will be hosting the first workshop on the tour in Richmond, Virginia, said, “We are honored to be the first site of Suzanne’s book tour. We have loved hosting Suzanne and her team over the years as she teaches our community about the Enneagram. I’m most excited that our community can celebrate with her, as we believe the Enneagram is an amazing tool for spiritual growth.”

Stabile has taught the Enneagram to thousands of people over the last thirty years, and she currently hosts The Enneagram Journey podcast. Her previous books about the Enneagram, The Path Between Us by Stabile and The Road Back to You, authored by Ian Morgan Cron and coauthored by Suzanne Stabile, have sold over 100,000 and 750,000 copies, respectively, to date.

Adam Dalton, IVP associate director of sales, said, “As events and in-person workshops ramp up, we are seeing many different stores coming to us to support author signings and events for local communities. Because of Suzanne’s strong platform as an Enneagram expert, we have received high receptivity to her book and our team is looking forward to supporting her and these communities in what we expect to be a highly engaging book tour.”

For more information about the book’s official release party in Dallas, Texas, and additional information about the teaching tour, visit Suzanne’s website at lifeinthetrinityministry.com.

IVP and Regent College Honor the Life and Work of Donald M. Lewis, Respected Professor and Historian

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 15:39:00 GMT

IVP author and beloved Regent College professor Dr. Donald Munro Lewis, seventy-one, passed away unexpectedly from cardiac arrest on Tuesday, October 19, 2021. Lewis taught and served in various roles at Regent College for forty years, most notably as professor of church history.

“In the normal hubbub of our college life, Don was a kind of fixed point of reference,” said Regent College professor Craig Gay. “He was always there, always the same steady presence, and you knew that he’d do just about anything for you if he possibly could. He was, in short, the kind of friend that defines the meaning of friendship. His bear hugs have become the stuff of legend. And he was a friend and pastor to so many people all over the world! The scale and scope of his personal network is simply astonishing. And, of course, Don was an exemplary churchman, an excellent scholar and teacher, a trusted administrator, and a devoted husband, father, and most recently grandfather. Don’s is an example to me of a life very well lived. We will miss him dearly.”

Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Lewis grew up in the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada and attended Bishop’s University, Lennoxville, where he earned a bachelor’s in history and a diploma in education. He then taught high school in Montreal for three years before going on to study at and graduate from Regent College.

Lewis completed his doctorate at Oxford University in 1981 and then returned to Regent College to teach church history. He eventually became the college’s longest serving faculty member, celebrating his fortieth work anniversary in September 2021. His roles at the college included academic dean, summer school dean, secretary of the Anglican studies program, and editor of CRUX.

“The loss of Don Lewis to the world of thoughtful evangelicalism, to Regent College, its students, alumni and professors, and to the many pastors and professionals he shepherded and mentored across the world, is incalculable,” said friend and colleague Ross Hastings, Sangwoo Youtong Chee Chair of Theology at Regent College. “Don was more than a colleague to me. He was a spiritual friend and encourager. We cotaught a course called Soul of Ministry: Persons in Relation, which concerns the spiritual, physical, psychological, and vocational foundations for pastoral ministry and for all vocations, and it was such a pleasure to minister alongside someone so brilliant yet so personal, so accomplished as a historian of Christianity, yet so humble. He understood that the nature of academic work is always ultimately about persons, persons in communion with God, persons in community with neighbor.”

Lewis was a prolific author who wrote eleven books, including the two-volume Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, 1730–1860, which he edited, and The Origins of Christian Zionism (Cambridge University Press, 2010). His first book with IVP was titled Global Evangelicalism: Theology, History and Culture in Regional Perspective, which he edited with Richard V. Pierard.

Justin Paul Lawrence, senior director of marketing and sales at IVP, was a student of Dr. Lewis at Regent College. He said, “Don Lewis was a kind and gracious professor. He was extremely helpful in understanding the significance of evangelicalism, especially in its global context. As a Pentecostal growing up in a French speaking province, he understood the unique character of being a stranger in a larger culture that doesn’t necessarily understand your faith. He was full of good ideas, good humor, and hospitality. I was especially glad when we were able to publish his recent book on Christian Zionism, which unfortunately was his last work. IVP and Christians have lost a great man and a great historian.”

In the early 2000s Don became fascinated with the Christian Zionist movement. In 2009 he published The Origins of Christian Zionism: Lord Shaftesbury and the Evangelical Support for a Jewish Homeland. This was followed by his last book, A Short History of Christian Zionism: From the Reformation to the Twenty-First Century, published by IVP Academic in September 2021.

Jon Boyd, academic editorial director for IVP, said, “Working with Don on his history of Christian Zionism gave me insight into what the fruits of a life well spent in scholarship can be. The long hours with archival and primary sources shone through, of course, but that’s just a baseline for any historian. What Don added was patience with and even an appetite for feedback to develop the manuscript further, a sincerely charitable attitude toward critics, and a vision for the good he hoped his work might do. What a privilege to watch someone like that at work!”

Don was a longtime member of St. John’s Shaughnessy, later St. John’s Vancouver. In 2013, he moved to the nascent St. Peter’s Fireside, where he was a companion to its clergy, an official adviser for the Bishop of Western Canada, and most recently, Pastor’s Warden.

Don was also a longtime member of the Hunterston Farm community on Galiano Island, where he was known for his inclination for prayer, dry humor, occasional stubbornness, and warm cinnamon buns. He delighted in the beauty of the Gulf Islands, savoring family gatherings, times of solitude, and opportunities to welcome Regent students and pastors.

Don married Lindi White in 1983. Together they had three children, David (Diane), Annika (Keith), and Benj (Sarah), and one grandchild, Abigail Grace. Don recently wrote that “being a husband, father, and friend are what constitute my primary identity—after, of course, being a (genuinely flawed!) follower of Jesus Christ.”

Bill Reimer, Regent College bookstore manager as well as a fellow historian and longtime friend of Lewis, said, “Don Lewis was first of all faithful to Christ and from this flowed a love for the church. He was a personal friend and pastor to a diaspora of Regent grads and maintained these friendships through frequent travels. Friendship marked his scholarly relations as well. Rather than being a self-promoter, Don was quick to praise and promote another’s work and to do historical work within the context of networks. Our loss is profound. The words my friend were always part of a goodbye from Don . . . farewell, our friend, Don.”

First IVP Kids Title Receives Bronze Moonbeam Children’s Book Award

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 14:30:00 GMT

Saint Nicholas the Giftgiver, the first title to release from IVP Kids on October 12, has won the 2021 Bronze Moonbeam Children’s Book Award in the picture book category for ages four to eight.

Launched in 2007, the Moonbeam Awards are intended to bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators, and to celebrate children’s books and lifelong reading. The purpose of the Moonbeam Awards is to highlight books that encourage children to be generous, compassionate, and to stand up for the rights of themselves and others.

This year’s judges chose gold, silver, and bronze medalists in forty-five categories, covering the full range of styles and genres in English and Spanish. The awards attracted nearly 1,500 entries from around the world, and medals will go to authors, illustrators, and publishers from thirty-four US states, four Canadian provinces, and seven countries overseas.

“We are so excited to launch IVP Kids this month, bringing IVP to a new generation of readers. And this recognition just adds to our excitement!” said IVP Kids editor, Elissa Schauer. “Saint Nicholas the Giftgiver is a wonderful story of outlandish generosity that is motivated by deep faith in the ultimate Giftgiver. Our hope is that this book become a classic, and that it is read and reread by families at Christmastime and all the time!”

Saint Nicholas the Giftgiver tells the story of a very kind bishop whose generosity was motivated by his devout faith. That generosity has inspired people all over the world for generations and gave birth to the legend of Santa Claus.

Author and illustrator Ned Bustard said, “I have been working on it on and off for over two decades—writing and rewriting it to try and get the balance right. I love church history, and I love stories of enchantment, and in this book I have sought to combine them both together. My hope is that Saint Nicholas the Giftgiver will stir together history and legends in such a way as to provide wonder.”

Bustard is a graphic designer, children’s book illustrator, author, and printmaker, and he has lectured at colleges, schools, churches, conferences, and bars. Some of the books he has written, illustrated, or edited include It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God, The Chronicles of Narnia Comprehension Guide, Bede’s History of ME, History of Art: Creation to Contemporary, Reformation ABCs, and Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups.

Bustard said, “Saint Nicholas the Giftgiver embraces both the truth and the legends swirling around Bishop Nicholas to form a fresh story that is historical, theological, and magical. My illustrations are all hand-carved block prints to give the book a rooted, historic feeling. Fantastic yet grounded in reality, Saint Nicholas the Giftgiver is a brand new–old story that features a jolly old man with a sack of gifts he carries on his back, but it centers on the greatest Giftgiver . . . and his amazing gift of his Son, Jesus Christ.”

For a complete list of children’s titles from IVP, visit IVPKids.com.

IVP Kids Imprint Launches with October 12 Release of Saint Nicholas the Giftgiver

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 16:29:00 GMT

IVP expands its reach to kids ages four to eight with the October 12 release of the new children’s picture book, Saint Nicholas the Giftgiver by Ned Bustard. This marks the first of seven children’s books IVP will publish over the next twelve months within the new IVP Kids imprint.

With a little over seventy days until Christmas 2021, the release of Saint Nicholas the Giftgiver helps kids and parents alike better understand why we give gifts at this time of year, sharing a message of discipleship and explaining the history and legend of a man who was moved to action by his faith.

“Ned Bustard has a great gift for joining whimsy and gravity in a way that appeals to both children and grownups alike. This wonderful book will serve parents well as they seek to preserve the mystery of Christmas for their children without grounding it in fantasy. And any time spent with Ned’s brilliant illustrations is time well spent,” says Russ Ramsey, pastor and author of Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith.

Through his own unique illustrations and poetic rhyme, Bustard seeks to spark a conversation between children and caregivers about the greatest gift ever given and the greatest gift ever received. In his closing letter to his readers that encourages this kind of dialogue, Bustard writes, “We love because God—the greatest Giftgiver—first loved us.”

IVP Kids is an imprint that presents themes like justice, spiritual formation, and discipleship, that have always been cornerstones of IVP throughout its nearly seventy-five years. These topics are now being offered in a kid-friendly way.

While this is the first dedicated kids’ line in the history of IVP, a few IVP books were published for children in the late 1970s, namely John White’s Archives of Anthropos series and John Bibee’s Spirit Flyer books. With more than ten million in print, the well-known and beloved booklet My Heart, Christ’s Home by Robert Boyd Munger was also turned into My Heart, Christ’s Home Retold for Children in 2010.

New IVP president and publisher, Terumi Echols, said of the new children’s imprint, “IVP Kids is a critical part of our future. It would be my hope to increase the line to reach other age groups and languages. This new line is a much-needed resource for parents who are reading to and teaching their children about who they are as Christians, their place in God’s kingdom, and the impact they can have on our culture.”

“IVP Kids is a natural brand extension of our vision of Christian discipleship in all of life,” said Justin Paul Lawrence, IVP senior director of sales and marketing. “Children’s books go much further and can often reach into smaller specialty stores. We’ve seen greater focus on books on hard topics in the mainstream book market, and I believe that IVP Kids books can enter into some of those conversations with the riches of God’s story supporting our words.”

IVP Kids will release three additional titles in 2021 with access to online downloadable activities for families.

The O in Hope by Luci Shaw, November 2, 2021
The Celebration Place by Dorena Williamson, November 9, 2021
Isaiah and the Worry Pack by Ruth Goring, November 9, 2021

Three more titles are slated to be published in 2022:

Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit by Esau McCaulley, May 10, 2022
Little Prayers for Ordinary Days by Flo Paris Oakes, Katy Hutson, and Tish Harrison Warren, May 31, 2022
All Will Be Well by Lacy Finn Borgo, October 4, 2022.

IVP Kids editor, Elissa Schauer, said, “IVP inhabits a unique space in the world of publishing, and we hope that IVP Kids is able to do so as well. Everyone at IVP is looking forward to sharing these books with our readers! Our hope is that children and families would enjoy reading together, and that the content of these books would spark meaningful conversations for years to come.”

Resurrecting Justice from IVP Academic Wins 2021 Word Guild Award

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 17:31:00 GMT

IVP Academic’s Resurrecting Justice by Douglas Harink has won the 2021 Word Guild Award in the Non-Fiction Biblical Studies category. The Word Guild Awards are given out each year to encourage the pursuit of excellence in writing and to help raise the profile of Canadian writers who are Christian.

Anna Gissing, associate editor for IVP Academic, said, “Arguments for justice today often come from outside the Bible. In Resurrecting Justice, Doug Harink brings his expertise in Pauline theology to this hot topic, demonstrating that justice is a major theme in Romans as well. We are proud that his work has been honored with this award and trust that many readers will appreciate his contribution to studies in biblical justice.”

In Resurrecting Justice: Reading Romans for the Life of the World theologian Douglas Harink invites readers to rediscover Romans as a treatise on justice. He traces Paul’s thinking on this theme through a sequential reading of the book, finding in each passage facets of the gospel’s primary claim—that God accomplishes justice in the death and resurrection of Jesus Messiah. By rendering forms of the Greek word dikaiosynē as just or justice, Harink emphasizes the inseparability of personal, social, and political uprightness that was clear to Paul but is obscured in modern translations’ use of the words righteous and righteousness instead.

Throughout this book, Harink includes personal reflection questions and contemporary implications, helping readers connect Paul’s teaching to issues in their world such as church life, politics, power, criminal justice, and violence.

Nijay K. Gupta, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, said, “What is Romans about? We know the traditional answers: justification by faith, forgiveness of sins, personal salvation. Harink doesn’t throw these out the window but puts the spotlight on the thematic thread of justice that runs all through Romans. I admit that I had my initial hesitations and doubts about reading Romans as a treatise on justice, but by the end I was a believer! Harink joins together what has often been torn asunder today—the relationships between personal and corporate, individual and communal, and personal justification and social justice in Christian thought and theology—with the resurrection of Christ at the center of it all.”

IVP also had one title selected for the 2021 Word Guild Short List in two categories. Wisdom from Babylon: Leadership for the Church in a Secular Age by Gordon T. Smith made the short list for Biblical Studies and for the Best Book Cover Award. Gordon Smith is passionate about the need for capable, mature leaders to navigate and respond to a changing society. In this book, he draws on his extensive experience as a university president, pastor, and international speaker to open a multidisciplinary conversation about the competencies and capacities essential for today’s leaders.

David Fitch, B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary, and author of Faithful Presence, said, “Wisdom from Babylon is a masterful guide for Christian leadership amid the upheavals of our secular age. Global in reach, thick with scholarship, Gordon Smith’s work gives us the wherewithal to gain a footing for the journey that besets us. He offers not retreat but presence. This book is hope for anyone asking, ‘How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?’ (Psalm 137:4).”

For a complete list of IVP award winners visit ivpress.com/award-winners.

IVP Celebrates Seventy-Five Years by Reflecting on a History of Shaping Evangelical Discourse

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 15:58:00 GMT

With the forthcoming releases of We the Fallen People and Struggling with Evangelicalism, InterVarsity Press (IVP) continues its yearlong seventy-fifth anniversary celebration by telling the story of its history of publishing books that have shaped and reflected evangelical discourse. Since the publication of Basic Christianity in 1964, IVP has published landmark resources on what it means to live and look like a Christian.

IVP’s history with Christianity and relationship to evangelicalism stems from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s roots in England. From its early days, IVP focused on writing books to reach college students and engage current cultural trends. In the book Heart. Soul. Mind. Strength.: An Anecdotal History of InterVarsity Press, 1947–2007, coauthors Andrew T. Le Peau and Linda Doll wrote, “InterVarsity Press . . . saw openness to the academic world as a means of bringing minds under the lordship of Christ.” As IVP grew, it expanded the range of topics addressed in its books.

The 1960s saw the publication of The God Who Is There and Escape from Reason by Francis A. Schaeffer and Know Why You Believe by Paul E. Little. In 1972 IVP published Knowing God by J. I. Packer. IVP continued to publish books by John Stott, such as Christian Mission in the Modern World in 1976 and The Cross of Christ in 1986. These books reflect the growing interest among evangelicals in the life of the mind and how to live as a Christian in the world.

As Christians and evangelicals have considered what it means to live and look like a Christian in a changing world, IVP’s books have reflected these changes while maintaining a commitment to love for God, God’s Word, and God’s purposes in the world. The formation of the IVP Academic imprint in the early 2000s highlighted IVP’s commitment to academic life and thought and featured Christian scholarship across the disciplines.

In 2004 IVP published the first volume in the History of Evangelicalism series, The Rise of Evangelicalism by Mark A. Noll. Coedited by Mark Noll and David Bebbington, this series reflects the diversity of evangelical belief and practice around the world. In a recent piece reflecting on this series and the meaning of evangelical today, Noll wrote, “The rewarding chance to work on the series has, in turn, provided a propitious angle from which to comment especially on questions of diversity, continuity, incoherence, and coherence raised by contemporary debates over the meaning of ‘evangelical’ and ‘evangelicalism.’ It also points to a conclusion that the most significant present-day questions about the history of evangelicalism do not arise from American political turmoil but from the shape of world Christianity as a whole.”

The political turmoil Noll writes about is reflected in recent IVP books, such as Still Evangelical?, Compassion (&) Conviction, and most recently, We the Fallen People. In We the Fallen People historian Robert Tracy McKenzie presents a close look at the ideas of human nature to be found in the history of American democratic thought. McKenzie described his motivation for writing We the Fallen People as “reflect[ing] my deep concern for the future of American democracy and even greater concern for the public testimony of American Christians. The political polarization that engulfs us poses a dire challenge to both. My ultimate goal is not to make a political statement but rather to help Christians think Christianly about democracy. We must think Christianly before we can act faithfully, and as we do so, both the witness of the church and the stability of our political institutions will benefit.”

As many Christians today are reconsidering whether to use the evangelical label, Dan Stringer presents his consideration of this issue in Struggling with Evangelicalism. Stringer considers evangelicalism within the context of its global expression and how “evangelicalism is not just a brand to identify with but a space to inhabit.” Stringer writes, “I care deeply about evangelicalism because it has been my home through every life change. This vital thread holds together the complexities of my story. Having wrestled extensively with my own mixed feelings about evangelicalism’s brokenness and beauty, I’m ready to help others do the same.”

IVP Releases First Nations New Testament Translation in Collaboration with Jesus Film Adaptations

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 15:08:00 GMT

At a time when few of the nearly seven million English-speaking North American Native people have access to biblical resources, IVP now offers an indigenous translation of the New Testament with the August 31 release of the First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament.

The First Nations Version is also being used as the basis for three short-animated films created by the Jesus Film Project titled Retelling the Good Story. The three films pull from the translation’s version of Matthew 14 that shares the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand and Peter walking on water.

Cindy Bunch, IVP associate publisher and editorial director, said, “We need new voices and new ways of experiencing Scripture now more than ever as we have become entrenched in our own small corners of the world. By embracing what they name as First Nations people’s ‘heart languages,’ the translators of the FNV cause us to pause and hear the Word of God anew.”

The FNV project was first envisioned by pastor and founder of Rain Ministries, Terry M. Wildman of the Ojibwe and Yaqui tribes. The First Nations Version: New Testament is a culmination of a five-year collaboration between Wildman, OneBook.ca, Wycliffe Associates, Native North Americans from over twenty-five different tribes, and a translation council that consisted of twelve Native North American elders, pastors, young adults, and men and women from different tribes and diverse geographic locations.

Wildman is the lead translator and project manager of the First Nations Version, and he currently serves as director of spiritual growth and leadership development with Native InterVarsity. With the final published version now in hand, Wildman said, “My greatest hope comes from First Nations people who have read this translation and have said it opened their eyes to who Creator Sets Free (Jesus) truly is. It has already broken down some of the walls that exist because of the horrific way the gospel was most often forced on our Native peoples. I hope stories like this will multiply now that the FNV is fully released by InterVarsity Press.”

The First Nations Version is a dynamic equivalence translation because it is a thought-for-thought rather than word-for-word translation. The style is one of an oral storyteller where culturally relevant language is used to convey the ideas expressed throughout Scripture to create a deeper connection with the reader. God is experienced as “Creator,” Jesus as “Creator Sets Free,” and Jerusalem as “Village of Peace.”

Further clarifying this point, Al Hsu, senior editor at IVP, said, “For example, the FNV’s rendering of the return of the prodigal son in Luke 15:22 has the father saying, ‘Go! Find my best regalia and put it on him. Give him a headdress of feathers for his head and new moccasins for his feet!’ While regalia, headdress, and moccasins are of course not direct translations of Luke’s Greek words for robe, ring, and sandals, they do nevertheless communicate the great honor given to the younger son upon his return. The FNV stands in the long tradition of faithful dynamic equivalence English translations that make Scripture come alive to contemporary readers.”

Dr. Casey Church, pastor of Good Medicine Way, an indigenous community of believers in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said, “The FNV is written for a particular time, place, and people—the indigenous people of North America. The First Nations Bible is a version for us. With estimates that a mere 5 percent of indigenous people of North America have a relationship with Creator Sets Free (Jesus), it’s time for us to have a Bible translation of our own that speaks to our culture, our values, and our hearts through Creator’s Word.”

For more about the FNV visit FirstNationsVersion.com.

Terumi Echols Named President and Publisher of IVP

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 13:30:00 GMT

▶︎ Read an Interview with Terumi Echols

InterVarsity/USA has named Terumi Echols as president and publisher of InterVarsity Press (IVP). Echols succeeds Jeff Crosby who recently became president and chief executive officer of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), the trade association of Christian publishing. Before coming to IVP, Echols worked for nearly two decades at Christianity Today International, with roles including chief publishing officer and publisher of Christianity Today.

“Terumi Echols was a key contributor and visionary to many, if not most, of the advances InterVarsity Press made during my time as its publisher,” Crosby said. “As IVP’s new president and publisher, she brings vision, a passion for sustained growth, and a deep understanding of the Press’s mission to the university, the church, and the world. I believe very bright days are ahead for IVP under Echols’s leadership.”

“By selecting someone with Terumi’s business savvy, we are making a clear statement: InterVarsity Press intends to invest in growth,” said DeeDee Wilson, InterVarsity/USA’s chief financial officer. “While she was at Christianity Today, Terumi championed new product lines, diversified the list of contributors, and increased revenue. We expect her to lead with that same entrepreneurial vision. We want more authors to reach more readers and more bookselling partners to serve more customers.”

Echols, who currently serves as IVP’s director of finance and fulfillment operations, assumes the role with five initiatives launching: the new IVP Kids imprint; Every Voice Now, which supports and amplifies voices of color within publishing; the Disruptors podcast, hosted by IVP author Esau McCaulley (Reading While Black) and coproduced with Christianity Today; the Seminary Now digital learning platform; and the IVP Signature Collection, which provides refreshed bestselling backlist titles from across InterVarsity Press’s seventy-five year history.

“InterVarsity Press invites the church to be more biblically rooted and culturally engaged,” said Tom Lin, president for InterVarsity/USA, who chaired the selection process supported by CarterBaldwin Executive Search. “It respects the church’s heritage and points to the church’s future, which will be more global and more multiethnic. Terumi’s life, as a woman of color and publishing veteran, reflects those values.”

“For nearly seventy-five years, InterVarsity Press has changed the way the church thinks and believes,” said Greg Jao, InterVarsity/USA’s chief communications officer, who served on the search team along with Wilson and Lin. “It introduced Americans to British leaders like John Stott and J. I. Packer and to cultural critics like Francis Schaeffer and Os Guinness. It trained millions to study Scripture inductively through LifeGuide^® Bible Studies, to distill biblical scholarship through the IVP Bible Dictionary Series, and to mine the church’s history through the Ancient Christian Commentary series. More recently it invited people into spiritual formation with authors such as Suzanne Stabile, Sharon Garlough Brown, and Ruth Haley Barton, and it elevated diverse voices such as Esau McCaulley, Soong-Chan Rah, and Sheila Wise Rowe. Terumi has the experience and insight to build on this legacy so that the gospel reaches more deeply and more broadly.”

Echols said, “I am humbled by the opportunity that this role creates and for what it represents in the world of Christian publishing. The church is painfully divided and spiritually hurting in this season. InterVarsity Press, with strengths in spiritual formation, justice, cultural analysis, and academic and multiethnic publishing, has a vital contribution to make in a disillusioned world. It is my desire to strengthen our commitment to these foundational areas while developing additional pathways for IVP. J. I. Packer once said, ‘Other publishers tell you what to believe. IVP helps you to believe.’ I intend to invest so that a more globally, generationally, and ethnically diverse group of readers are helped to believe.”

IVP Continues Legacy as a Leader in Bible Studies

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 20:43:00 GMT

With the July 27 release of Belonging, IVP’s newest LifeGuide Bible Study by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship staff member Deborah Meyer Abbs, the press continues its yearlong 75th anniversary celebration by telling the story of its history as a publisher and leader in Bible study. For over three decades of its seventy-five-year history, IVP’s LifeGuide® Bible Studies (LBS) have sold more than fifteen million copies of nearly 150 titles. IVP is also celebrating its seventy-five years by releasing the IVP Signature Bible Studies, eleven Bible studies based on select iconic and bestselling books from throughout its history.

Cindy Bunch, associate publisher and director of editorial at IVP, has worked on developing IVP Bible studies since 1990. She said, “The LifeGuide Bible Studies went through a major revision some years ago, so I’ve had time with every guide in the series. While the LifeGuide series is the most enduring and comprehensive, covering Bible books and key themes from Scripture, we publish a variety of other Bible study series. We have two series that incorporate commentary material from well-known authors: John Stott Bible Studies and N. T. Wright for Everyone Bible Study Guides. The Bible studies that are a part of the IVP Signature Collection are an update of the bestselling Christian Basics Bible Study Series. More than a discussion guide to the related book, each one explores a core Bible text. We are also adding new volumes to the series as we release the Signature Collection books.”

As an extension of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF), an interdenominational Christian campus ministry founded in 1941, IVP’s history with Bible study is closely tied to its outreach on college campuses. In the early 1940s, Jane Hollingsworth brought her experience with Bible study to IVCF. As millions of men went to war in Europe and Asia, many jobs were filled by women—like Jane, who was recruited by Stacey Woods to join IVCF campus staff in 1942. A Wheaton College graduate, Jane had been trained in inductive Bible study at the Biblical Seminary in New York. She brought this passion to her campus work with InterVarsity. Ultimately, Woods wanted InterVarsity to be a Bible movement, and Hollingsworth brought the practical skills needed to make this a reality.

In the book Heart. Soul. Mind. Strength.: An Anecdotal History of InterVarsity Press, 1947-2007, coauthors Andrew T. Le Peau and Linda Doll wrote, “After traveling extensively, visiting students on many campuses, Jane told her boss, ‘The students want to study the Bible, Stacey, but they don’t know how. They need some materials.’”

“Well, Jane, write some!” replied Stacey with his usual bluntness. And so she did.

IVP’s first inductive Bible study guide was published in 1943. It was titled Discovering the Gospel of Mark and was written by Jane Hollingsworth.

Le Peau and Doll wrote, “From the very beginning, three emphases came together in IVP’s first homegrown publication: the value of books written by IVCF staff, the importance of Bible study, and the equal worth of books written by men and women—emphases that would sound again and again in the decades to come.”

Jack Kuhatschek, who spearheaded the work on the first LifeGuide Bible Studies, recalled approaching IVP’s publisher at the Urbana Missions Conference in 1979 and asking why, since inductive Bible study was InterVarsity’s strength, they had so few Bible Studies. The publisher replied that Bible studies did not sell well. “Ironically, three years later I was asked to become IVP’s first Bible study editor,” Kuhatschek said. IVP launched the first seven LifeGuides in 1985, and they almost immediately became the top-selling series in the industry. By 2004 more than ten million LifeGuides were in print.

Kuhatschek edited every LifeGuide in the series until he left IVP in 1990. He also wrote eleven LifeGuides, as well as How to Lead a LifeGuide Bible Study (with Cindy Bunch). He said, “IVCF has always had a missional focus, and it’s encouraging to know that these guides have helped people around the globe to deepen their knowledge of both the Bible and the Lord.”

Dale and Sandy Larsen, who have written nearly fifty Bible studies for IVP over the past three decades, said, “One thing has never changed: IVP editors insist that we write Bible study questions that compel readers to think. No obvious fill-in-the-blank answers are allowed! IVP Bible studies are designed to build believers’ assurance that they can understand and apply the Word of God for themselves.”

Bunch said, “IVP Bible studies offer the consistent value of focusing on one Scripture passage—generally just one chapter. The open-ended questions take group members through a process of observation, interpretation, and application.

This allows everyone in the group to just show up, open their Bibles, and explore a passage together. No homework required!”

In addition to writing twelve LifeGuide Bible Studies, including their forthcoming LifeGuide, Gratitude: Giving Thanks in Life's Ups and Downs (January 2022), the Larsens have been instrumental in writing a number of the 75th anniversary IVP Signature Bible Studies. Dale said, “John Stott’s book Basic Christianity was instrumental in leading Sandy to faith in Christ while she was in college. What an honor it has been for us to write a study guide to go along with that book, as well as other study guides in the John Stott Bible Studies series. The forthcoming IVP 75th Anniversary Signature Collection will introduce a new generation of readers to classic Christian books and authors such as Stott. We’ve been pleased to contribute to the Signature Bible Studies and in the process renew our own familiarity with these enduring works.”

Pastor Douglas Connelly, who has written twenty LifeGuides, was first recruited by Kuhatschek to write the Daniel LifeGuide more than thirty years ago. He said, “The most fulfilling part of writing the Bible study guides has been to see how God has used them in so many places with so many people. I met a missionary from Estonia several years ago, and I gave him some of my books and LifeGuides. The guide on the Gospel of John happened to be on top of the pile. He looked at me in surprise and said, ‘Did you write this?’ When I said yes, he told me somewhat sheepishly that he had translated that study guide into Estonian so he could use it with a small group of men he was discipling. I was humbled that he found it so valuable that he would use it to train emerging leaders in the Estonian church.”

Connelly added, “When I think of the people who have used my study guides in English—and then add all the others who have used them as the guides have been translated around the world—it makes me feel grateful that God would use a struggling soul like me to touch so many lives and hearts. I’ve deeply appreciated the commitment of InterVarsity Press to produce excellent Bible studies in many different formats. Only eternity will reveal the lives and families and marriages and hearts that have been changed because searching people encountered the living Word through the study guides that IVP has produced.”

John H. Walton Signs Three-Book Contract with IVP Academic

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 22:08:00 GMT

John H. Walton, a prolific author and professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School, has signed a three-book contract with IVP Academic. The first book, Faithful Interpretation, will release in Fall 2023.

“One of the newly contracted projects will lay out Professor Walton’s approach to interpretation comprehensively but accessibly, revealing the method behind his books,” said Jon Boyd, IVP Academic editorial director. “His hermeneutics (and his skill in explaining them) have been honed over many years not only in his books, articles, and commentaries but in the lecture hall and seminar room, so this should feel like an invitation to a master class in Old Testament interpretation. The other two projects will be new installments in the Lost World Series.”

Walton has authored or coauthored all six volumes that currently make up the Lost World Series: The Lost World of Adam and Eve, The Lost World of Scripture, The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest, The Lost World of Genesis One, The Lost World of the Flood, and The Lost World of the Torah. Walton’s two newly contracted books, releasing in 2024 and 2025, will include The Lost World of Prophecy and an additional Lost World book on Genesis.

Boyd said, “The genius of the Lost World series is that every new volume stands out and stands apart (since Walton zeros in each time on a different topic from somewhere in the Old Testament), and at the same time the books all fit into his interpretive master plan, starting with felt needs of readers and addressing them with facts and hermeneutical principles that shed true insight. I can’t wait to read what Professor Walton will have to say.”

Walton was professor of Old Testament at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for twenty years and has taught church classes for all age groups, high school Bible studies, and adult Sunday school classes. He also served as a teacher for “The Bible in 90 Days.” Some of his other books include Old Testament Theology for Christians, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament, The Essential Bible Companion, The NIV Application Commentary: Genesis, and The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (with Victor Matthews and Mark Chavalas).

A Chronicle of Grief and Healing Racial Trauma Receive 2020 Foreword INDIES Awards

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 16:44:00 GMT

Two IVP titles, Healing Racial Trauma and A Chronicle of Grief, were honored with 2020 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards.

A Chronicle of Grief: Finding Life After Traumatic Loss by Mel Lawrenz received top honors as the gold award winner in the grief/grieving (adult nonfiction) category. “Mel’s book grew out of posts he wrote in the months following the loss of his daughter,” said Al Hsu, senior editor for IVP. “The vulnerability of his grief and the honesty of his pain resonated with so many. While we wish Mel had not had occasion to write this book, we are grateful that his words are helping others walk through similar circumstances.”

In raw, vivid episodes, Lawrenz describes the immediacy of the pain and the uncertainty of what his family experienced. In the agony of traumatic loss, Lawrenz apprehends the realities of love and life and offers insights on how to navigate our life priorities before or after tragedy hits.

Heather Davediuk Gingrich, professor of counseling at Denver Seminary and author of Restoring the Shattered Self, said, “Within the pages of A Chronicle of Grief, Mel Lawrenz bares his heart broken with grief, yet his story is sprinkled with hope. As I write we are in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is ripping so many from the arms of their loved ones. When he wrote this book, the author would have had no inkling of what was to come. So much death . . . so much loss . . . so much trauma . . . so much grief . . . for so many individuals and families. A Chronicle of Grief could not be more timely.”

Lawrenz trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought leaders through the Brook Network. His other books include Spiritual Leadership Today and Life After Grief. Read an excerpt of A Chronicle of Grief at ivpress.com/a-chronicle-of-grief.

Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience by Sheila Wise Rowe was the other IVP book to be honored with an INDIES Book of the Year Award. Healing Racial Trauma received the bronze award in the multicultural (adult nonfiction) category. This title also received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and the 2021 Christianity Today Book Award for the Christian Living/Discipleship category.

Author and speaker Gail Dudley said, “Healing Racial Trauma is outstanding. This book forced me to pull back the makeshift Band-Aids, which on the surface hid some deep-seated wounds from the racial trauma I had experienced. Reading this book reminded me of the stories my Black grandparents would share of racial tension and outright hatred with my siblings and me at a very young age. Tears filled my eyes while I was holding on to every written word. I pressed beyond the immediate feelings that welled up within me to find solace and embrace authentic healing. This book is a must-read if you are serious about healing racial trauma. I give Sheila Wise Rowe a standing ovation for this life-altering book!”

Rowe holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology. For over twenty-five years she has ministered to abuse and trauma survivors in the United States and for a decade in Johannesburg, South Africa. She also taught counseling- and trauma-related courses. Rowe is also the author of the forthcoming title, Young, Gifted, and Black: A Journey of Lament and Celebration (IVP, March 2022). Read an excerpt of Rowe’s book at ivpress.com/healing-racial-trauma.

As part of its mission to discover, review, and share the best books from university and independent publishers, Foreword Magazine Inc. hosts an annual awards program each year. This year more than 2,100 entries were submitted in fifty-five categories, with Foreword’s editors choosing approximately nine finalists per genre. Those finalists were then delivered to individual librarians and booksellers tasked with picking the gold, silver, bronze, and honorable mention winners.

“Covid-19 changed the world,” said editor in chief Michelle Anne Schingler, “And the INDIES were no exception. While we ordinarily meet in person to vet the thousands of entrants and determine finalists, this year we had to read books independently and come together afterward and discuss our impressions. What we discovered was heartening: we were in agreement about finalists, even when encountering books miles and days apart. We are happy to, with renewed fervor, declare these books the best of the best that we saw.”

For a complete list of IVP’s award-winning titles, visit ivpress.com/award-winners.

IVP Commemorates 75th Year by Celebrating a History of Influential Books and Authors

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 17:15:00 GMT

Starting this month IVP kicks off its seventy-fifth anniversary by starting a yearlong celebration of books and authors that have shaped culture, affected the church, and changed lives

Linda Doll, who coauthored (with Andrew T. Le Peau) Heart. Soul. Mind. Strength.: An Anecdotal History of InterVarsity Press, 1947–2007, wrote, “One of the helpful emphases of the postmodern age is the reminder that if we are to look forward, we first have to look back. If we are going to know where we are going, we have to know where we have been.”

The history of twentieth-century evangelicalism cannot be understood apart from the authors and books that shaped it. Leading figures and IVP authors such as evangelist Rebecca Manley Pippert, apologist Francis Schaeffer, theologian J. I. Packer, and pastor-scholar John Stott helped a generation of church leaders to think more biblically. Landmark books such as Ron Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, James W. Sire’s The Universe Next Door, and Your God Is Too White by Columbus Salley and Ronald Behm challenged Christians to engage the world around them.

Throughout the coming yearlong celebration IVP will look at where the press has been by sharing monthly stories about how individual books and authors have started and led historical discussions concerning missions, apologetics, spiritual formation, science, social justice, theology, politics, women in ministry, and more.

“InterVarsity Press occupies a unique place in the Christian world—one that I believe is essential in a time when we are more divided than ever. IVP books offer diverse and sometimes intentionally contradictory positions,” said Cindy Bunch, associate publisher and director of editorial for IVP. “Sometimes we joke that our books make everyone mad at one time or another—but we are actually quite serious about our role in maintaining a broad publishing program. We welcome a variety of readers rather than drawing hard lines that keep people inside and outside the boundaries. IVP authors encourage readers to dive deeper into Scripture, culture, science, theology, justice, and more, while always keeping our eyes on Christ. We value the life of the mind and at the same time we call readers to an ever-deepening spiritual journey. The qualities named in the tagline ‘Heart. Soul. Mind. Strength.’ capture our desire to reach readers in a holistic way.”

In celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary, IVP is releasing special editions of select iconic and bestselling books from our history. Between fall of 2019 and fall of 2023, IVP is releasing Signature Collection editions of twenty-five books and eleven Bible studies that represent a wide range of authors, topics, and genres.

Stan Jantz, president and CEO of the Evangelical Christian Publishing Association (ECPA), said, “For seventy-five years InterVarsity Press has published compelling books that bring honor to Christ by cultivating the mind while simultaneously stirring the heart. My first encounter with InterVarsity came while I was in college through brilliant authors such as Os Guinness and Becky Pippert, who are still writing great books for—you guessed it—InterVarsity Press. Not content to rest on past success, this innovative publisher continues to discover and publish first-rate authors for new generations. That’s the mark of a great publisher. That’s the mark of InterVarsity Press.”

Since 1947, IVP has been publishing thoughtful Christian books that shape both the lives of readers and the cultures they inhabit. Times may have changed in those seventy-five years, but nothing has changed about how IVP books and authors speak boldly into the urgent issues of the day and provide timeless tools for spiritual growth and thoughtful engagement with academia.

Jon Boyd, editorial director for IVP Academic, said, “IVP has always known that a crucial part of our mission is to speak the language of academia—in its own terms, asking its pressing questions, and then bringing to bear fresh light from Scripture and Christian thought. Many of our trade books do that too, of course, but serving the university world is the central raison d’être of the IVP Academic imprint. These days we’re publishing more academic books than ever, spanning more fields than ever, by authors from more institutions and traditions than ever, serving more needs of readers than ever (from historical fiction to encyclopedias, literary essays to specialized monographs)—all for the sake of being part of a renewal of Christian life and thought in and through the world’s universities, seminaries, and colleges.”

Speaking into important cultural moments throughout the decades—from the halls of academia to the church pulpit to the public forum—IVP has served as a conversation partner for Christians wishing to deepen their personal faith, understand a biblical view of the world around them, and engage with that world faithfully. IVP and its books have not only addressed a particular moment in history, they’ve also spoken timeless truths across generations.

“In the course of its seventy-five years of publishing, InterVarsity Press has grown from an original focus on making Bible study, discipleship, and worldview resources available to a student ministry to becoming one of the most trusted sources of Christian thought and practice for people in the church, the academy, and the world,” Jeff Crosby, IVP publisher, said. “As the people who compose IVP enter the next chapter of its history, I am confident that the organization will continue to not only fulfill its unique and strategic mission in the world but will expand and refine it. The world desperately needs the kind of publishing that InterVarsity Press has been committed to curating since its inception. I’ve been privileged to be associated with IVP throughout my career as a longtime bookseller and, since 1998, as an employee. No other publisher has shaped my understanding of Christian faith and practice as much.”

Watch for more information about IVP’s seventy-fifth anniversary on ivpress.com and facebook.

IVP Announces Associate Digital Sales Director and Editorial Promotions

Thu, 27 May 2021 20:54:00 GMT

InterVarsity Press is pleased to introduce Bethany Olsen as the associate digital sales director and to announce several promotions and one new hire.

Olsen is a native of Washington state and holds a bachelor’s in music and a master of business administration from Western Washington University. Most recently, she was director of partnership engagement at Childcare International, a child sponsorship agency based in Bellingham, Washington.

“I have gotten to know Bethany over the past five years as she was our contact at a previous firm. Our collaboration with Bethany resulted in significant year over year growth. She consistently asked good questions about process and our content. Needless to say, I was very pleased when she applied for the digital sales director position,” said Justin Paul Lawrence, director of sales and marketing for IVP. “It is not often that talent of Bethany’s caliber comes available. She has a comprehensive knowledge of the publishing landscape and a keen business acumen. I have no doubt that she has a bright future at IVP and in the industry at large.”

The IVP editorial team has announced several changes to its department as well. Rebecca Carhart, assistant project editor, has been promoted to associate project editor. Cindy Bunch, director of editorial, said, “We are grateful for her good work in this role for the past three years and are especially grateful for how she capably handled the editorial and scheduling processes for the IVP Signature Collection.”

Rachel Hastings, who has worked as an assistant project editor, will also serve as an associate project editor. Bunch said, “Rachel has quickly proven herself invaluable to the trade team, both working with authors and solving problems on a daily basis.”

Paloma Lee, IVP’s rights coordinator, will now be the rights specialist. Ellen Hsu, senior manager for rights and contracts, said, “Paloma is doing excellent work supporting our licensing work and has taken on additional responsibilities, including becoming IVP’s primary contact for Spanish and Portuguese language licensing. We look forward to seeing how she will continue to help IVP’s books reach broader audiences.”

The print production department welcomed Ethan Lunow as the print production coordinator. Lunow has an undergraduate degree from John Brown University (BA in history, minors in business administration and New Testament Greek) along with graduate degrees from Wheaton College Graduate School (MA in Christian history, MA in historical theology).

Karen Savella Stallard joins IVP and the creative and customer engagement team as the part-time multimedia copywriter. Stallard has a background as an immigration lawyer with a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Illinois-Chicago and a juris doctor from Chicago-Kent College of Law.

IVP Achieves Best Christian Workplace Honors

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 14:16:00 GMT

The Best Christian Workplaces Institute (BCWI), a research-based organizational and human resources consulting firm, has announced that InterVarsity Press is certified as a 2021 Best Christian Workplace.

To achieve certification, organizations must complete the Best Christian Workplaces Institute employee engagement survey and meet predetermined standards of excellence. Employees of IVP answered more than fifty questions measuring employee satisfaction in terms of organizational commitment, Christian witness, supervisory effectiveness, opportunities for personal growth and development, teamwork, communication, and fairness of pay and benefits. Additional open-ended questions provided an opportunity for department managers to gain insight into what employees think and ways they might improve.

“It seemed a bit risky to have Al Lopus and his team administer the Best Christian Workplaces Institute engagement survey after thirteen months of a global health pandemic that had required extreme resilience and adaptation on the part of our staff, but I'm so glad that we took that step,” Jeff Crosby, IVP publisher, said. “I was grateful to see our engagement scores increase significantly and attribute that to the exceptional work of both our senior leadership team and staff from throughout our organization, who demonstrated an incredible commitment to our mission, our authors, our customers, and each other throughout a challenging year.”

With ninety-three employees, IVP had an exceptional 98 percent of staff engagement. BCWI describes staff engagement as the degree to which employees are emotionally and spiritually connected and committed to their organization and their role, exerting discretionary effort for the betterment of the organization and those they serve. IVP’s overall scores were on the margin between a “healthy” and a “flourishing” organization. IVP also had the second highest total since the organization started taking the BCWI survey more than ten years ago.

Al Lopus, CEO and cofounder of BCWI and author of The Road to Flourishing (IVP, Spring 2022), said, “We find that InterVarsity Press models the characteristics that define being a Best Christian Workplace based on their employees’ feedback. Their BCWI survey results highlight that their employees are passionate about working together to produce exceptional, high-quality books. They also appreciate the supportive, high-trust culture their leaders create, especially this past year during the Covid-19 pandemic. Employees repeatedly commented about the care they experience from their leaders and each other, making IVP a great place to work.”

Crosby said, “In his manuscript of his forthcoming InterVarsity Press book on organizational flourishing, Al Lopus writes, ‘When I use the term employee engagement, I mean that team members are motivated to bring their fullest contribution—their unique giftedness and creativity—to their role in the organization for the sake of its success.’ That's how I view the 2021 certification of IVP as a Best Christian Workplace. It’s a portrait of the work, the giftedness, and the creativity of my colleagues here.”

Crosby added, “In some ways, a flourishing organization is like a riddle to be solved or like a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle waiting to be assembled. It’s challenging to decipher and put together, but when we do, a vibrant picture emerges, and we can celebrate the work of God—and each other—in our midst.”

Best Christian Workplaces Institute’s purpose is to serve faith-based organizations by creating processes of discovery, facilitating organizational effectiveness, and encouraging practices that build healthy workplaces.