News clippings!

A few useful bits of news from my world...

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

So I’ve gone a bit quiet on here over the last few weeks. Things have generally been busier than usual with my coaching high school cross country, and our push at work to launch our first Englewood Press book. And then last week was fall break (my wife Jeni is a middle school English teacher) so I took most of the week off, and we got away to visit family in Louisville and then welcomed all of our kids home for a long weekend! A delightful season, but one that didn’t leave much time for writing.

I’m working on the next post in my series on faith and politics for the election season. I’m hoping to post that on Friday. In case you missed the first post in this series, you can find it here:

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We also have some new perks for paid subscribers that we plan to roll out next week…

If you’re not already a subscriber, now is a great time to do so:

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But in the meantime, here are a few helpful bits of news from my world…

If you read ebooks (and even if you’re like me and don’t typically do so, I’ve made a case that occasionally buying ebooks can be helpful), Eerdmans is running a huge theology ebook sale now! The vast majority of their ebook catalog is on sale for $9.99 or less (and well over 100 titles are $3.99 each.) The $3.99 ebooks includes ones from well-known authors such as N.T. Wright, Marilyn McEntyre, Willie Jennings, Stanley Hauerwas, Christine Pohl, Michael Gorman, and many more. I just posted my guide finding some of the very best deals in this sale on The Englewood Review of Books website:

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The first book from Englewood Press, the new book-publishing venture of The Englewood Review of Books, entitled The Shape of Our Lives: A Field Guide to Congregational Formation is now available for pre-order and should ship before the end of the month!!! (I’m deeply gratefully to my friend and co-worker

Lindsey Cornett

who has been diligently keeping this project on track!)

David Fitch

recommends it: “The Shape of Our Lives is a careful, patient discussion of the ways we are formed as persons for a life together in the fullness of Christ. A simple but thorough guide into the assumptions that inhibit us from, and the ways that shape us towards, a richness of life we call church. In these times of disillusionment with church, there could not be a more timely book.”

PRE-ORDER your copy now!

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Last week, my friend

Myles Werntz

posted a helpful critique of the “Rule of Life” phenomenon that is quite popular of late. You can read the superb article he wrote for Christianity Today, entitled: You Don’t Need a Rule of Life. I’ve been reading quite a bit about the Benedictine tradition recently (and will likely have a series of posts here in this vein eventually, and possibly a book or two that may someday see the light of day?), but Myles’s thoughts really resonated with the basic intuitions that have been rolling around my head for awhile. Definitely check it out, and subscribe to his Substack if you don’t already!

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Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for a most substantial post in the next few days!!!