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Chuck Colson's "The Faith"

At a time when darkness and anarchy engulf our world and we’ve lost hold of the truth that prevents us from drifting away, best-selling author Charles Colson and Harold Fickett show us where we can stand. Not with man’s solutions or innovations. But with the truths of Christianity that we’ve relied on for 2000 years to give us a clear view of the world and how we’re meant to live in it.

We have watched with fear as the dark clouds of radical Islam and terrorism have gathered. Religion and Christianity seem to lack the answers today’s world needs. Or else they’re broken.

Many doubt that God has revealed himself in a way we can understand clearly. We are divided over what Christians believe. The belief that many religions stand alongside Christianity with equal footing has weakened our ability to embrace The Faith whose founder is Christ.

Can absolute answers be found, in spite of the confusion, the ignorance, and diverse understandings of what truth is?

Addressing the anguish of our times, in which the clash of civilizations has become ever more threatening, author Colson focuses on what Christians most need to know. He takes into account the public’s skepticism of traditional religion, its drive to be spiritual without being religious, and the many voices within the church urging that believers “reinvent the brand.”

Right belief, or orthodoxy, consists in what God wants us to know so we can meet and follow him. Unless we understand what God has communicated, his invitation cannot transform us and our culture. When we embrace that belief, we find joy and create cultures that are life-giving for believers and unbelievers alike.

The Faith, published by Zondervan, presents what all Christians have believed across the ages. The book ends by considering how God’s Great Story applies to our own historical circumstances and individual lives. The epic Christian themes, what God has revealed in Jesus Christ, describe our one true hope—the rock on which we can stand.

This is a book for our troubled times and for decades to come, for Christians and non-Christians alike. It is the most important book Chuck Colson has ever written: a thought-provoking, soul-searching, and powerful manifesto of the great, historical central truths of Christianity that have sustained believers through the centuries. Brought to life with vivid, true stories, here is what Christianity is really about and why it is a religion of hope, redemption, and beauty.

www.Zondervan.com/TheFaith

Dr. Ben Carson at the White House and on C-Span 2 this Sunday

President and Mrs. Bush, along with the Ford's Theatre, will host a celebration of President Lincoln's legacy on this coming Sunday evening, February 10, 2008 at the White House. As part of the festivities, Dr. Ben Carson will be honored for his accomplishments and presented with the Ford's Theatre Lincoln Medal, along with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The Ford's Theatre Lincoln Medal is an annual award given by Ford's Theatre to individuals who through their body of work, accomplishments, or personal attributes, exemplify the lasting legacy and strength of character embodied by the most beloved president in America's history.

Also, watch the official book launch party for Take the Risk with Dr. Carson speaking on Book-TV C-SPAN 2, this Sunday 2/10, at 11:15 am EST and again at 8:15 pm EST. In his fourth book, pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson argues that most people don't take enough risks in life; or when they do they take the wrong risks. He argues for a process to determine how to take good risks. Zondervan and the Graham Williams Group hosted a book reception for Dr. Carson at the Washington, DC home of radio host Armstrong Williams. Click here for more details on Take the Risk.

2008 update from Terri Blackstock

January is always a relaxing time for me after the Christmas holidays, and this year is no exception. After two weeks of celebrating with family who came from Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta, and doing a little traveling of our own, I'm settling back into my writing schedule.

Isn't Christmas a wonderful time of year? I always watch it with my writer's fascination, as the work world seems to slow down, and everyone you see is focused on buying that special gift that will make someone's face light up. Families come together to bless each other and feed each other—all in honor of Christ, whose birth changed everything. And then they move into the new year with hope and excitement, as if things are fresh and new, and anything can happen.

That's how I'm approaching this new year. It didn't hurt that last week I had the opportunity to go to Hershey, Pennsylvania for a booksellers' conference, and I stayed at the Hershey Lodge on West Chocolate Avenue. (Doesn't it just make you salivate?) I think I got hooked on chocolate—not a good thing when you're trying to lose those extra pounds after Christmas. I filled the booksellers in on Dawn's Light, the fourth and final book in my Restoration Series, which is undergoing its final touches before it releases in May.

As I worked on the first three books in this series, I took the Brannings, my Christian family, through panic and near starvation as they suffered through a global power outage. And as they experienced these things, their faith in God’s provision and goodness were strengthened, so that, even though the power had not yet been restored, there was a profound restoration of their sense of family and community, a restoration of their absolute faith in a God who never fails them, a restoration of the spirit.

Having taken them to that level, I wanted book four, Dawn’s Light, to continue that restoration. My question for the last book in the series has always been this: When technology is once again restored, will the Brannings go back to the way they were before? After three books, I felt that their growth was not yet complete. So in Dawn’s Light, I decided to explore something that I’ve struggled with myself as a Christian, and that’s the question of unanswered prayer.

I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life when I begged God for something for a long period of time for something that I truly believed would be glorifying to Him, only to have him say no. Any of you who have prayed for a sick and dying loved one, believing that your prayer in faith for recovery would be answered—only to have that loved one die—know what I mean. Or you’ve prayed mighty, earnest, heartbreaking prayers for something NOT to happen ... and then it does.

Because I needed to understand the nature of prayer and faith, so that I could better understand the nature of God, I chose to make this my theme for Dawn’s Light. In it, Beth, the Brannings’ 13-year-old daughter, witnesses a murder on the day that the banks re-open, and the terror that ensues takes the family on a journey deeper into this “stripping away” that God is doing in their lives...and results in their learning, once and for all, the holiness and righteousness of a God who sees the big picture, and has a symphony of purposes for each of his children.

I believe that anyone who has struggled with the issue of unanswered prayer will find healing in this book. And I hope that when readers come to the end of this series, they’ll have learned the lessons that the Brannings learn, and that they, too, will find their spirits restored.

As that book is in production, I'm hard at work now on my next book. It’s a hardback, stand-alone novel. It’s set in Nashville and features a young, Christian singer/songwriter who’s trying to make it big, even though she’s not particularly gifted vocally. As she rides the wave of a famous friend who offers her a big break, she’s caught up in a murderous plot that makes her second-guess her desire for fame and fortune. Through it all, Christ teaches her what her real purpose is, and the significance of her ultimate Audience of One.

May all of you have a wonderful 2008, full of possibilities and endless blessings, and may each of us learn special ways to bless our Father and Creator this year.

Terri Blackstock

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Christianity, prayer, unanswered prayer, Terri Blackstock, Dawn's Light, religion, Christian Fiction, Zondervan

The House of Zondervan - Part 3

"Two young men who didn’t have to turn to public works, however, were P. J. Zondervan, better known as “Pat,” and his younger brother Bernard, whom everyone called “Bernie.” Pat had left the family farm in nearby Grandville in 1924 to work for his Uncle Bill Eerdmans — the founder and owner of the William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Bernie quit school two years later, having finished eighth grade, and joined Pat at the firm. It seemed to be a satisfactory arrangement. And it was — until one fateful day in the summer of 1931.

Although many people were not enjoying that long, hot summer, a few were. Babe Ruth was hitting homeruns long and often for the New York Yankees and had a little earlier asked for and received a fabulous $80,000 salary. When someone asked him how it felt to be getting a higher salary than President Hoover, Ruth replied, “I had a better year than he did!” Frankie Frisch of the St. Louis Cardinals and Lefty Grove of the Philadelphia Athletics were leading their teams toward baseball’s World Series and were on their way to receiving the Major Leagues’ first Most Valuable Player awards. Also that summer an act of Congress made “The Star Spangled Banner” — a common companion to sports events — the country’s national anthem.

On the other hand, the University of Michigan, which hadn’t sent a football team to the Rose Bowl since 1902, was facing the prospect of another grim season without a championship. One of their new freshman players that fall would be Gerald R. Ford, a talented center from South High School in Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids was pleased with its new South High School auditorium that summer, but it was even more excited about the new DeVaux automobiles. On January 13, DeVaux-Hall Motor Corporation had wheeled the first of its stylish six-cylinder autos off the assembly line in Grand Rapids, with orders totaling 12,500. The cars sported a price tag of $685 and boasted a top speed of seventy to eighty miles per hour. They were to be used most notably as police cruisers. By summer, however, the firm’s plans had begun to sour in the deepening Depression. The company filed for bankruptcy in April 1932 after fourteen months and 5,554 cars.

The book business wasn’t good in the summer of 1931 either. Whether it was just the difficulty of trying to turn a profit or whether there were other factors, William B. Eerdmans wasn’t happy. His aggressive nephew, Pat Zondervan, was learning the trade well and was pressing Eerdmans to give him a share of the business. Uncle Bill wanted none of that. One day, when his irritation became too great, he told his twenty-two-year-old nephew, “You’re fired!” Pat, astonished, immediately left the office, drove over to get his belongings from the Eerdmans home, where he had been living, and went back to the farm.

His mother was surprised to see him. “Why are you home? What does this mean?” “Ma!” Pat announced. “I just got fired!” The date was July 31. What happened next led to the founding of a company that would soon begin to make a profound and lasting impact, not only on religious publishing but on the evangelical Christian world as a whole. This is the story of that enterprise, which Pat and Bernie Zondervan called the Zondervan Publishing House." From The House of Zondervan, Copyright © 1981, 2006 by the Zondervan Corporation

Click here for more details on The House of Zondervan by Jim Ruark. Welcome to The House of Zondervan. We hope you enjoy your stay!

The House of Zondervan - Part 2

"Before the Dutch came to Western Michigan, there were French traders. And before the French traders, there were Catholic missionaries. And before the Catholic missionaries, there were Ottawa Indians. It is said that Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawa who conspired against the English in the French and Indian War, held council on the high land overlooking the rapids of a river that wound through Western Michigan toward its mouth at Lake Michigan. Major Indian trails crisscrossed near the rapids. The Ottawa called the place Owashtanong, “the Faraway Waters.” But the white people who came later gave it the name Grand Rapids.

The Reverend Isaac McCoy was among the first white settlers who came to the area of the rapids — in about 1820. Overlooking the rapids of the Grand River one day in 1825, he wrote that it was “a place of great importance.” Why he called it such is uncertain — except that it was beautiful, fertile, inviting, and full of promise. The first permanent settlement began when Louis Campau established a trading post there in 1826. Grand Rapids was incorporated as a village in 1838 and as a city twelve years after that. And by that time the Dutch had arrived. A place of great importance.

Immigrants from the Netherlands made their first landing on the Lake Michigan shore in 1847. The group, led by Dr. Albertus Van Raalte, called the place Holland. From Holland it was only a short distance to Grand Rapids, and some of the Dutch settlers soon ventured the journey and made their home there. Later came Poles, Scandinavians, Latvians, Lithuanians, blacks, Greeks, and Syrians, among others. But it was the Dutch who exerted the most lasting influence on Grand Rapids’ culture, lifestyle, and reputation.

The city’s location, well off the main commercial routes and rail lines running between Detroit and Chicago, might have undermined the Reverend Mr. McCoy’s prediction, but it did not. Grand Rapids’ population eventually grew to 200,000 and became the biggest and most important commercial city in all of Western Michigan. It came to enjoy a varied industry — farming, metal-working, printing and graphic arts, and the manufacture of automobile parts. It was once “the gypsum capital of the world” because of the mining operations that still continue on a small scale. And it is forever nicknamed the Furniture City, even though, as historians point out, “that fame came to rest more on quality than on quantity.”

Grand Rapids can also rightfully be called “the religious-book capital of the United States.” Five of evangelical Christianity’s most respected book publishers are located here, listing as many as four hundred new titles a year. They all have their roots in the Dutch heritage that set the tone for many communities in Western Michigan — Calvinistic, pious, conservative. Grand Rapids became a city of churches — more than five hundred of them at last count. It became the headquarters of the Christian Reformed Church and the home of its two leading educational institutions, Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. And it nurtured three other Protestant colleges, two Protestant seminaries, and a Catholic college." From The House of Zondervan, Copyright © 1981, 2006 by the Zondervan Corporation

Click here for more details on The House of Zondervan by Jim Ruark. We will be posting up excerpts from the book on our blog in the coming days. Welcome to The House of Zondervan. We hope you enjoy your stay!

The House of Zondervan - Celebrating 75 years

The year was 1931, and in a farmhouse in Grandville, Michigan, brothers Pat and Bernie Zondervan were quietly making publishing history. They started by purchasing and reselling some “remaindered” book from Harper & Brothers, then quickly moved into a publishing operation of their own, which, thanks to faith, industriousness, business savvy, and the right people, prospered in the midst of the Depression.

It has been flourishing ever since. What began as Pat and Bernie’s vision has become today’s premier Christian communications company, meeting the needs of people across the world with resources that glorify Jesus Christ and promote biblical principles. This is the story of how it all happened.

The House of Zondervan is a fascinating, richly human look at the people and the relationships, the faith and the labor, the struggles and heartbreaks as well as the triumphs, the accomplishments of yesterday and the challenges and opportunities of today, that both make up our heritage and point toward our future. Here are authors who have shaped the face of evangelicalism and helped people across the world experience the power and grace of God’s kingdom. Here too are editors and marketers who have brought to light some of Christianity’s most gifted and important voices. And here are leaders who have not only defined the course of our company but embodied its character and instilled it in those they have led.

The story of Zondervan is also the story of its enterprises past and present—a story of retail stores; record and music publishing; bestselling Bibles and Bible translations such as the New International Version; rich and diverse partnerships; constantly shifting relationships in the publishing and bookselling industry; and innovations in marketing, research, product development, and author care that have earned us our place at the vanguard of Christian communications.

Above all, the history of Zondervan is the story of lives reached and transformed by the grace and power of God. And it is a testimony to Jesus Christ, the Lord we love and serve, who has been faithful to us as we have strived to be faithful to him.

Click here for more details on The House of Zondervan by Jim Ruark. We will be posting up excerpts from the book on our blog in the coming days. Welcome to The House of Zondervan. We hope you enjoy your stay!