Having spoken just yesterday about the fine line between self-promotion and hiding one’s light under a bushel, it might surprise you that I would share a video at the begining of this post in which Terry Virgo (who incidentally has recently joined Facebook) begins his slot recommending books at the Brighton conference by commending mine. There are a number of reasons why I feel very comfortable doing this, however.
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, Terry’s book review segments have been a major part of my conference life for three decades. No one who has ever heard him passionately commend a book could ever forget the very helpful way he does this. After all, this is the man who single-handedly sold the entire first UK print run of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology with one announcement. Pastors would do well to watch this video and learn how to really persuade your people to get a hold of a book. One leader who seems to have learned from Terry’s skill in this matter is my own pastor Tope Koleoso, who sold 100 copies of Raised With Christ in 10 minutes! I want to permanently house a video of Terry at his memorable best. This is a man who’s love for Jesus spills over into a love for books.
During such recommendation slots in the past Terry has routinely mentioned his own and his wife’s books. He does it always in a disarming way, for example saying “and this is a book by my wife’s husband…” He does it humbly but boldly because nobody invests the ridiculous amout of time it takes to actually write a book unless they believe passionately in its message. I make no apologies for suggesting that you buy my book. I know that many of my regular readers have yet to get a copy (though the publisher is happy with the sales). I know that considering the resurrection and all it’s implications can do you great good in your Christian walk. The only reason I can think of that you should not get ahold of a copy is if you are already reading another book about the resurrection. 2010 has a few months to run yet, so please consider making sure this is the year that you read a book on the glorious victory of Christ and what it has accomplished for us.
If cost is an issue, then right now there is a great deal of 25% off at Amazon.com or over 40% off at Amazon.co.uk At those prices, why not get some copies for your church bookstore, or as gifts for friends. Just think, you could get some Christmas shopping done early this year! Before you say it, remember, this is not a book just for Easter time, any more than great books on the cross should only be read at such a time of year.
Finally, Terry also commends some other fine books that you should consider getting. The first is Tom Schreiner, Magnifying God in Christ which Terry says gave him great confidence in a rickety airplane.
Next is a book called Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer, who according to Terry has “five personalities pumped into one body.” Ed is well worth listening to and reading and serves us all well.
Finally my good friend Phil Moore’s books are all commended from his Straight to the heart of series. Available so far are Matthew, Acts, and Revelation
All of the above books along with many other helpful resources are available at the Newfrontiers online store
Following just over a month of this self-imposed near-total break from my online life (obviously not including my paid work!) what have I discovered?
- Wordpress’s auto-publish feature is bullet-proof and a real gift
- You hardly missed me as a result of 1. and my kind guest bloggers. Indeed, traffic remained pretty high considering it was August.
- Phil Moore is better than I am at explaining why digital fasts are so important.
- A week is definitely not long enough It took me much longer before I even began to experience digital withdrawal symptoms.
- It really is hard to stay away from the Internet for several weeks. My “fast” wasn’t total as the weeks drew on. I did scan-read Twitter, Facebook and a couple of blogs a little towards the end. I also started to write this post 20 minutes or so before my deadline, and last week even wrote a couple of tweets ready for publishing later when my wife had gone away (the observant may have noticed that they appeared in my Twitter stream and were quickly deleted!) I also and scanned and deleted most of my accumulated emails on the same day. Finally, I started an Omnifocus to-do list to capture a small handful of ideas for things to blog about when they began to hit me about a week or so ago.
- The harsh truth is that I really don’t care about what my readers think about me as much as I thought I did (despite 5) I trust I will continue to remember this and make sure that I take more care over being kind to my wife and children than I do over looking after you all! Funily enough, I somehow suspect that the more I focus on pleasing my God and family, the more benefit I may be to you in any case.
- Learning more about how to not believe your own publicity is a vital result of such a break. I can’t improve on what I said about this last year. Running a blog can appear to be self-serving at first glance. There has to be a good balance, however, between arrogantly pushing oneself forward, and on the other hand hiding whatever one can share with others under a bushel. I am not sure I always navigate that tightrope entirely correctly, but, you have to believe me that I know that of myself I have nothing to offer you. I will not ever apologize for shouting about my savior, and his death and resurrection for us. I know that if I can point you towards him, and to good resources that will help you in your spiritual journey I will have fulfilled one of the roles that God has for me in this life. It is not the most important one, however. That is clearly being a husband and father, which is much harder than helping at least some of people who read this blog for a few minutes a day.
- I remained really quite busy with secular work, preached three times, was on the radio once, and yet removing the digital piece resulted in me now feeling remarkably rested and refreshed. I may need to find some ways to lessen some of the burdens I carry. Perhaps I need a secretary or something!
- Just hanging out with the kids in the evenings watching TV, playing Scrabble & Risk with them on the iPad, and being beaten at chess by my 11 year old son is a whole lot of fun. I need to carve out more time to do this better even with the blog up and running. If I could be a better husband and father and a worse blogger that would be fine with me.
- Having a break has made me itch to write again, and I have really enjoyed writing this post. I won’t be giving up permanently any time soon!
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