Zondervan Blog

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince CaspianOpens Today!

It | Craig Groeschel | Pastor of LifeChurch.tv

When Craig Groeschel founded LifeChurch.tv, the congregation met in a borrowed two-car garage, with ratty furnishings and faulty audiovisual equipment. But people were drawn there, sensing a powerful, life-changing force Groeschel calls “It.”

What is It, and how can you and your ministry get—and keep—It? Combining in-your-face honesty with off-the-wall humor, this book tells how any believer can obtain It, get It back, and guard It.

One of today’s most innovative church leaders, Groeschel provides profile interviews with Mark Driscoll, Perry Noble, Tim Stevens, Mark Batterson, Jud Wilhite, and Dino Rizzo.

This lively book will challenge churches and their leaders to maintain the spiritual balance that results in experiencing It in their lives.  Click here to read a sample chapter:   

Below is a video of Craig Groeschel speaking about It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It. 

Also, below is a video tour of LifeChurch.tv's Second Life Campus:

Un.orthodox | Tommy Kyllonen2008 Outreach Awards Finalist

Un.orthodox: church. hip-hop. culture. by Tommy Kyllonen is a Finalist in the 2008 Outreach Awards.  Un.orthodox is written by a man who is both a hip-hop artist and lead pastor of the first church ever to target hip-hop culture.  Un.orthodox shares unique, inside perspectives on how to reach today’s urban culture with the message of Jesus. Fascinating, troubling, inspiring, and moving, this is a powerful resource for engaging today’s unchurched, thirty-five-and-under generation. Click here to read a sample chapter: 

Tommy Kyllonen (aka Urban D.) founded the youth ministry at Crossover Community Church in 1996 with just four teens. Over the next six years he and his wife developed a first of its kind Hip-Hop Youth Ministry which grew to 200. The adult ministry on Sunday remained much smaller as the different pastors were always bivocational. In January of 2002 Tommy became the lead pastor at Crossover and a new vision was birthed to specifically reach the hip-hop culture. The church became Purpose Driven in their structure and began to truly engage the culture in their community. Without compromise they carefully incorporated many elements into their worship context and campus with music, dance, visual arts, media, and relevant messages. The ministry has seen incredible growth as their weekend attendance has jumped from 40 to over 400 in less than four years. Their youth services reach hundreds more. 

Below is a video overview of Un.orthodox by Tommy Kyllonen:

Daring Chloe | Laura Jensen Walker | Book Club

Last night author Laura Jensen Walker attended the very first book club gathering for her upcoming release, Daring Chloe: A Getaway Girls Novel!  Nine women gathered to hear Laura speak about the book.  Here is a synposis of the book:

When Chloe Adams’ fiancé dumps her—the night before their wedding—two girlfriends from her book group decide a little adventure is in order for the three of them. After all, why let a perfectly good honeymoon cruise go to waste?

Adventure? Chloe Adams? No way! Chloe’s lived in one town her whole life. The closest she’s ever gotten to actual adventures is reading about them. But her girlfriends won’t take no for an answer.

One good adventure calls for another as Chloe’s friends try to coax her out of her post-dumping funk, and soon she finds herself living out the adventures in her book club’s latest selections. Hiking. Sailing. River rafting. Traveling to new places and eating exotic food. The play-it-safe Chloe begins to blossom into a new, daring Chloe. A Chloe who just might be ready to take on her biggest adventure of all …

Laura Jensen Walker has a knack for quirky heroines and real-life humor. In Chloe, she’s created another memorable character who will live on in readers’ hearts.  Click here to read a sample chapter: 

Below is a photo of Monday night's book club gathering:

Laura Jensen Walker (pictured above in the middle) is an award-winning writer and popular national speaker. Her previous novels include Miss Invisible, Dreaming in Black & White, and Reconstructing Natalie, chosen as the first-ever Novel of the Year for Women of Faith® conferences. A former reporter with a degree in journalism, she is also the author of several non-fiction humor books. Laura lives in Northern California with her Renaissance-man husband, Michael, and their piano-playing dog Gracie. Visit her website at www.laurajensenwalker.com.

The Expeditionary Man Bike Tour | Rich Wagner | www.WhyTheBike.com

Rich Wagner, author of The Expeditionary Man: The Adventure a Man Wants, the Leader His Family Needs, is embarking on a cross-country bike tour with his family on June 28th. The Expeditionary Man focuses on how a man discovers his true adventure and purpose, not out in the world, but by becoming the hands-on leader of his family. As a result, a transcontinental, family-oriented bike tour seemed like the right combination for Rich. It symbolizes a true adventure, a unified family, and a common biblical purpose.

Rich and his family invite you to join them for the duration of the tour on www.WhyTheBike.com. Each day, they will be updating their tour blog with videos, pictures, and interesting stories of adventure from the road. And, if you are in any of the route cities they are passing through, they'd love to stop and talk with you.

As a Christian man, how do you prioritize between what you are driven to do at work and church with what you are responsible for at home? In The Expeditionary Man: The Adventure a Man Wants, the Leader His Family Needs Rich Wagner debunks the myth of a “balanced life” and shares a biblical model of putting everything but family on the back burner.

Bryan Davis | Book Signing Events in Grand Rapids

Bestselling author Bryan Davis will be signing books at two locations in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Saturday, May 17.  Pick up a copy of the first book in his brand new series, Beyond the Reflection's Edge, and get your book signed by Bryan.

Saturday, May 17
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Baker Book House
2768 East Paris Ave SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546
(616) 957-3110

Saturday, May 17
2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Schuler’s Books & Music
2660 28th Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
(616) 942-2561

Bryan Davis is the author of the fantasy series Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire. He and his wife, Susie, have seven children and live in western Tennessee, where he continues to cook up his imaginative blend of fantasy and inspiration.

Beyond the Reflection's Edge synopsis: After sixteen-year-old Nathan Shepherd’s parents are murdered during a corporate investigation, he teams up with a friend to solve the case, discovering mirrors that reflect events from the past and future, a camera that photographs people who aren’t there, and a violin that echoes unseen voices. This is the first book of a contemporary adventure fantasy series for young adults.

Click here to Browse Inside Beyond the Reflection's Edge:

Families.com is Trading Places blog tour stop today

Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott began their 10-stop blog tour this week for the recent release of Trading Places: The Best Move You'll Ever Make in Your Marriage.  A blog tour is a unique opportunity for blog owners and readers to learn more of the inside story of a book through thought-provoking questions from the bloggers and answers from the Parrotts.

Today's blog tour stop is at Families.com's Marriage Blog. Courtney Mroch asks Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott the following question today:

In Chapter 7, you discuss the eHarmony Marriage Program and what couples can expect when they utilize it. You mentioned that in addition to receiving a Marriage Action Plan (MAP), couples will also get a report on the "ten foundational categories crucial for marital satisfaction." I was instantly curious about this. Could you elaborate on what those ten categories are?

Read Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott's answer at this link.

Earlier this week the Trading Places blog tour stopped by Marriages Restored, One Year Bible Blog, A Marriage Therapist's Blog, and CouplesQuestions.com. 

You can see the entire Trading Places blog tour schedule here.

USATODAY.com, Reuters.com, and WISN.com review Fading Tracks by Kristi Holl

USATODAY.com, Reuters.com, and WISN.com posted a review of Zonderkidz's book Fading Tracks by Kristi Holl this past week. The review was originally written by Book Splurge at this link.

"On the way home from a field trip, the Landmark School for Girls van, with the driver and six girls, disappears somewhere along the Two-Mile Stretch leading into town. Jeri McKane desperately searches for her missing friends, including her roommate Rosa." From Fading Tracks product detail page.

Fading Tracks author Kristi Holl began her writing career in a bedroom closet in order to escape her younger sister. Written at the age of ten, her first novel, Four Sisters, was a thinly disguised remake of a favorite book, Little Women. Kristi's first "adult" writing room was another closet - this one painted orange for inspiration!

Camy Tang's Only Uni Blog Tour | Over 60 blogs!

Camy Tang, author of Only Uni, had an incredible blog tour this year, visiting over 60 blogs!  Check out a great re-cap of her blog tour at this link.

Only Uni is part of the Sushi Series of fiction from Camy Tang.  Camy grew up in Hawaii and worked for years as a biologist/researcher until she felt God’s call to return to the writing that she had loved as a student. She now writes "romance with a kick of wasabi" and, with her husband, is a staff worker with the youth group at her church.

Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary

Zondervan is pleased to present the Vine’s of the 21st century! Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words is edited by William Mounce, author of the best-selling biblical Greek textbook.  This volume draws on world-class contemporary scholarship to set a new standard in biblical word studies. No knowledge of Greek required. This volume is perfect for busy pastors and anyone who wants to better understand God’s Word.

For years, Vine’s Expository Dictionary has been the standard word study tool for pastors and laypeople, selling millions of copies. But sixty-plus years of scholarship have shed extensive new light on the use of biblical Greek and Hebrew, creating the need for a new, more accurate, more thorough dictionary of Bible words. William Mounce, whose Greek grammar has been used by more than 100,000 college and seminary students, is the editor of this new dictionary, which will become the layperson’s gold standard for biblical word studies. Mounce’s is ideal for the reader with limited or no knowledge of Greek or Hebrew who wants greater insight into the meanings of biblical words to enhance Bible study. It is also the perfect reference for busy pastors needing to quickly get at the heart of a word’s meaning without wading through more technical studies.

Below is the first in a series of videos of William Mounce speaking about Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words: