I have sent out hundreds of press releases for my new book entitled Hook Line and Sinker or What Has Your Church Been Teaching You, published by Publish America of Baltimore MD. It has been a great learning experience for me. The reaction to these releases has been amazing. If I were mentally unstable I'm sure they would be coming to lock me up even before I could finish this article. Most reaction is positive, some is nasty and the remainder are simply hilarious. I wrote Hook Line and Sinker with the idea of bringing many of our un-investigated scriptural interpretations under scrutiny. I examined some of the trends in our chuches that need further examination. The overall idea was to bring things into balance rather than just to rip up what exists leaving only a vacuum or an answerless void. Stepping on toes doesn't qualify as wrecking the church. Some of my chapter titles are, Cliches that dont Click, and Popular sayings that don't Pop.In a chapter I titled Proof texts that Prove Nothing, I wrote about the difference between using the Bible to support our own ideas as opposed to using what we believe to accentuate the Bible. The difference is subtle, but if it goes unnoticed it will lead to many problems. In general I have found that many believers are ready. They seem to have come to a place in their own experience where they would like to put things in balance. With the prosperity gospel being preached in many churches and all over the media it seems that for some,it is time to act. It is like walking out of a theater when you have had enough of a bad movie. For others it is a deep conviction to return to essentials or grow more spiritually. Whatever the reasons I have found a whole new kind of person that I am grateful to have come across. And they seem to be grateful to have found my book. Publicity and promotion are extremely difficult I have found. While not back breaking it is always time consuming. Years ago when I first submitted my manuscript to a major publisher, the managing editor told me he thought that every Christian in America should read my book. I'm fairly sure that will not happen but for everyone who does read it I feel I have reached the one I was destined to reach. |
