IVP - Behind the Books

Radio Interview about Editing

Our author Father Albert Haase guest-hosted Morning Air on Relevant Radio yesterday morning. Part of his morning schedule was to interview his editor. Me.

You can hear Father Albert and I talking about the work of a Christian book editor at www.RelevantRadio.com. Here’s a link.

We're Changing Behind the Books

For all of you who are following Behind the Books, we want to announce a few changes we are making to the blog this summer.

Our plans include adding a few more writers to our blogging team:

1. Our publicity managers, Heather Mascarello, Adrianna Wright and Krista Carnet, will post about upcoming events and about books that relate to daily news and cultural trends.

2. More of our new authors will post about the message or ministry they hope to advance with their books.

3. Our acting director of digital publishing, Sally Craft (that’s me), will keep you up to date on our efforts in getting IVP books available in a variety of downloadable formats and from a variety of sources—like on Amazon.com’s Kindle.

We hope to post more often and about a wider variety of topics. Please let us know what you want to hear about!

Until then, start the summer by taking an imaginary trip to the Middle East. Lots of readers are telling us that Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes is one of their favorites for informational as well as devotional reading.

National Day of Prayer - and Action

For the National Day of Prayer, here’s an op-ed piece by the authors of Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers:

Let Us Pray… And Act

By Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Millions of Americans will gather today in hotel ballrooms and on town squares, in church buildings and on campus lawns for National Day of Prayer. Millions of other Americans will, no doubt, look on this public religious act with some suspicion. Is National Day of Prayer a hang-over from the days of the Religious Right? Are those who gather protesting President Obama’s assertion that we are not a “Christian nation,” but a democracy that welcomes and protects the practice of diverse faith traditions?

As evangelical Christians, we admit that our fellow Americans have good reason to be suspicious. Though evangelicals have often argued fervently for the separation of church and state, we have also blurred the dividing line when access to political power served our agenda (and our pocketbooks). Even when our churches have tried to serve as the “conscience of the state” that Dr. Martin Luther King challenged us to be, our concern has been too narrowly focused on issues of private morality, overlooking the problems of systemic injustice that King himself so boldly challenged. If we are going to pray in public, evangelical Christians must begin with a prayer of confession. We have shouted the gospel with our mouths more than we have showed the world good news with our lives.

But our confession cannot be that we have over-stepped the boundary between private faith and the public square. The problem is not that Christians have been too public with our prayer. What we must confess is that we have done too little to become the answer to the prayers we pray. So often when faced with the problems of our world we have asked, “God why don’t you do something?” without realizing that God might be saying, “I did do something… I made you.”

When prayed by followers of Jesus, “God bless America” cannot be a divine endorsement of a political agenda or an excuse for inaction (as if we were asking God to bless others so we don’t have to). When we pray for God to bless anyone, we are challenged to see that we might be the hands of that blessing, for God has no hands but ours. When we pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,” we commit our whole lives to caring for the least among us—the unborn and the undocumented. If Christians are praying with Jesus, we cannot stop praying and acting until we see the restoration of all that is broken in our lives, and in our streets… broken political systems and broken families, polluted ecosystems and shattered lives.

So, rather than argue that National Day of Prayer is something that should go away with Jerry Falwell and the Christian Coalition, we say keep it. Let’s call Christians (and everyone else) to prayer. But let us also challenge ourselves to become the answer to our prayers. When we pray for the hungry, let’s remember to feed them. When we pray for the unborn, let’s welcome single mothers and adopt abandoned children. When we give thanks for creation, let’s plant a garden and buy local. When we remember the poor, let’s re-invest our money in micro-lending programs. When we pray for peace, let’s beat our swords into plowshares and turn military budgets into programs of social uplift. When we pray for an end to crime, let’s visit those in prison. When we pray for lost souls, let’s be gracious to the souls who’ve done us wrong.

None of us can do everything, but everyone can do something. To begin to act on our prayers with any seriousness is to remember why we pray in the first place—because anything worth doing is beyond our power to do alone. We cry out to God because we know we need help. But the God chooses to work in and through us. We have a God that does not want to change the world without us. So let us pray… and let us act.

Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove are the authors of Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals (InterVarsity Press).

For a list of “50 Ways to Become the Answer to Our Prayers” visit: www.jonathanwilsonhartgrove.com

An End

This is my last chance to share my thoughts on IVP and my experience. I would like to say something profound or entertaining or useful. I don't really know if that will happen, but this is what I know: I am very thankful.

I wanted experience working at a book publisher that was not in New York. I wanted to graduate college in three years with internship experience. I got these things.

"Awesome coworkers," however, was not necessarily on my list of requirements for an internship. Who knew that there were so many funny and joyful people all bunched in a little corner of Westmont, Illinois? Not I! They were all very willing to help me learn and to let me explore publishing experiences I might not have otherwise.

Things I will miss:

- Audrey greeting me at the door every morning.
- Discussing crosswords/finding crosswords from Dave Page on my desk.
- Allison and Lisa Rieck doing cute sisterly things like getting hot cocoa together.
- Finding ridiculous proposals in the slush pile.
- Being able to read any IVP book when I feel like it. Even unpublished ones.
- The editorial staff in general.
- IVP in general.

My advice to future interns: work hard and be open to critique. Even though you get to be on the dishing end a lot as an editor, as an intern you should search for constructive criticism. For example, I "can't wait" to see the comments I get on this blog. It's like eating broccoli: I know it's good for me.

Something I did not happen to ask for is a sluggish (to say the least?) economy. This is the part where I am forced to spit out understanding or a silver lining or something like that. You can make your own up if you like. I'll just say, "No one said life is easy."

I'm not worrying, though. I am moving home for the summer at least and plan to continue (or start, really) my job search. IVP's kept me pretty busy, so I haven't been looking too much. I will happily accept any job search tips; it's a tricky business.

Part of the point of this internship was to determine if I wanted to have a career in publishing. And the answer is... I'm still not sure. I certainly like working in publishing and will pursue jobs in the field, but at this point I still don't think I have a set destination for my career. If you have any out-of-the-ordinary career ideas that you always wish you had tried, please list below.

If you are looking to learn, IVP is great. If you are looking for fun, IVP is great. If you are looking to publish the next Harry Potter, IVP, is not so great. But it is a good place to get a solid start, and somewhere I am sad to leave.

So, in conclusion, thanks to everyone at IVP who in a unique way contributed to my foray into the publishing world!

Signing Out,
Michelle Read
Soon-to-be-former IVP intern

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Blurbmania: The Next Evangelicalism and Deep Church

One of the necessary parts of the publishing process is soliciting endorsements for new books. Sometimes authors do it directly, and other times the publisher approaches potential endorsers on their behalf. There’s never-ending debate on whether or not endorsements ultimately make much of a difference, but I am often excited by what endorsers say about our books.

Here are a couple cases in point, for two books assessing the state of the evangelical church in North America. Soong-Chan Rah’s The Next Evangelicalism recently came in from the printer. Just as we were finalizing the cover copy, we got this endorsement:

“One of the most important changes now going on in American—and indeed world—religion is the profound transformation of evangelicalism, a movement which encompasses hundreds of millions of people. This book is the best and most balanced treatment of the subject now available. It is well researched, clearly written and comprehensive.” —Harvey Cox, Hollis Professor of Divinity, Harvard University, and author of When Jesus Came to Harvard

Pretty high praise, from someone who doesn’t often blurb books from evangelical publishers. I literally said “Stop the presses!” and made room on the back cover for Cox’s blurb.

The title The Next Evangelicalism is obviously a nod to Philip Jenkins’s landmark The Next Christendom, so we were happy when Jenkins said of Rah’s book, “Soong-Chan Rah explores the impact of ethnic and geographic shifts on the present and future state of evangelicalism. He gives us fair warning that parts of his heartfelt book are ‘intended to provoke,’ and they will. But that doesn’t stop his book from being timely, thoughtful and very rewarding.”

And we’re getting some very positive early blurbs for Jim Belcher’s forthcoming Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional. Jim is in a unique location as having been around during the early “Gen X” ministry days of the mid-90s that eventually morphed into what is now called the emerging church. Since then he has gone on to plant and pastor a Reformed PCA church. Can you be both emerging and traditional? Jim goes beyond both worlds and goes deep. Jim’s book is getting praise from all sides as a constructive proposal for the future of the church:

“Jim Belcher shows that we don’t have to choose between orthodox evangelical doctrine on the one hand, and cultural engagement, creativity and commitment to social justice on the other. This is an important book.” —Tim Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City

“Deep Church is a narrative of one man’s journey of spiritual discovery involving at core a search for a place to stand. Whether you can fully agree with Jim’s findings or not, you will find this book to be an accessible, well-articulated, deeply personal and (thankfully) theologically irenic apologetic for the emerging church.” —Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways, and founder of Forge Mission Training Network and Shapevine.com

“Working out his ideas in the crucible of pastoral ministry, Jim Belcher proposes fascinating new ways to arbitrate today’s disputes by appealing to the Great Tradition. Read it and learn how your church can go deeper.” —Collin Hansen, editor-at-large, Christianity Today, and author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists

“Deep Church is the book we need—it’s a genuine third way. Jim Belcher is poised like no other to evaluate the emerging movement: he knows theology, he loves the church, he cares about twentysomethings, he knows the entire emerging movement, and he remains faithful to theological orthodoxy. Most of all, Deep Church avoids the clamor for extremes. There are only two or three really good books about the emerging movement, and this is the best analysis I’ve seen.” —Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University

Top 10 List of Working in Editorial at IVP

It’s time for the obligatory top 10 list, folks. The list might be a little different at the end of my internship (that’s less than a month now!), but here it is (in no particular order):

(1) Starbucks breaks.

(2) Popcorn Wednesdays (on Thursdays just for the intern!).

(3) Food from Dave’s wife’s bakery.*

(4) Getting to read books all the time.

(5) Getting to hear Dave’s good and bad jokes all the time.

(6) Meeting authors.

(7) Using big words and not feeling show-offy. Or using big words and having other people know what they mean. And for that matter, having other people use big words and learning what they mean.

(8) Jim Hoover being the first and only person you’ve seen go into the library and lug the fifty-year-old, 2,662-page Webster’s New International Dictionary off the shelf to look up the correct usage of a word.

(9) Elaina telling Dave to hire you because you like Alias.

(10) Lisa’s rhyming emails.

*I realize the first three listed are food-related. I’m not sure if that’s a reflection on me or IVP.