Category Archives: Conferences

Book Awards Received by A New Heaven and a New Earth

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I recently posted about a book award that A New Heaven and a New Earth (Baker Academic, 2014) received from a Canadian organization for Christian writers—the World Guild Award—for best book in the Biblical Studies Category.

But it had previously received a number of other awards from various organizations and websites. This is further affirmation, like icing on the cake.

In roughly chronological order, here are the awards I’m aware of:

Hearts and Minds Bookstore: Best Book of Biblical Studies for 2014. I’ve always appreciated Byron Borger, bookseller extraordinaire, who founded this bookstore back in the days of brick and mortar. Glad to see he has added a significant web presence, and that he resources many major Christian conferences with booktables that are an education in themselves.

Englewood Review of Books: Best Theology Book of 2014. I don’t known too much about these folks, except that they’re based in Englewood Christian Church, Indianapolis (and they take inspiration from Shane Claiborne).

Jesus Creed: 2014 Books of the Year—Theology Category (1 of 2 books). I have got to know Scot McKnight, who runs this website, through a recent conference and our email correspondence. This award comes from nominations by the five bloggers who post at Jesus Creed (Scot McKnight, RJS, John Frye, Jonathan Storment, and Dave Moore).

Nijay Gupta: Best Book Written by a Jamaican-Canadian Living in the USA (2014). I love this one! This is a pretty exclusive category, invented simply because of my friendship with Nijay, who has been reviewing books in biblical studies on his website for many years.

Christian Retailing’s Best Awards (2015)—Finalist in “Eschatology Book” Category (1 of 3 books shortlisted). I don’t know much about this group, or when exactly they will be choosing the winning book.

 I’m grateful to God for these signs of affirmation, but even more grateful for the folks who have benefited from the book and have written to let me know.

A New Heaven and a New Earth just won the Word Guild Award for best Biblical Studies Book of 2014

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Writing my eschatology book A New Heaven and a New Earth (Baker Academic, 2014) has been a labor of love. Like all my books, I’ve put my heart and soul into it. So seeing the book in print, and hearing of its impact on people’s thinking and lives, has been a great encouragement.

Best Biblical Studies Book—Word Guild Book Awards

To top it off, I just found out that A New Heaven and a New Earth won the World Guild Award for best book of 2014 in the Biblical Studies Category. I knew the book had been shortlisted (1 of 3) for the award by the World Guild (the primer Christian organization for Canadian writers). They had their annual Gala in Toronto tonight (June 13, 2015) and announced winners in various categories.

Best Overall Book—Word Guild Book Awards

The winner for general Academic book was Leonard Hjalmarson for No Home Like Place (The Urban Loft, 2014). Len also won the Grace Irwin prize for best overall book—quite an honor (or should I say honour).

I met Len in 2013 when he roomed with me to attend the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association (CETA) meeting in Victoria, BC. He presented a beautiful paper entitled “Recovering the Practice of Place: A Theology of Place,” which was based on the book he was writing.

I’m honoured to be in such company.

For some other awards the book has received, see my follow-up post.

Power, Inequality, and Reconciliation in the Church

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In about a week (June 16, 2015) Northeastern Seminary will be having their annual one-day summer Conference on Ministry. This year the topic is Power, Inequality, and Reconciliation in the Church, and the speaker is Dr. Christena Cleveland.

The conference is intended to explore how God’s people can respond to the forces of division, especially in a world that is saturated with inequality along social, economic, and political lines.

Christena Cleveland is a social psychologist, author, and speaker with a hopeful passion for overcoming cultural divisions in groups. She has just been appointed Associate Professor of the Practice of Reconciliation and Director of the Center for Reconciliation at Duke University’s Divinity School.

She is the author of Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart (IVP, 2013), which won a 2013 Leadership Journal Book Award.

The one-day conference is part of a Doctor of Ministry course that Dr. Cleveland will be teaching throughout the week at Northeastern Seminary. The conference is meant to allow a wider audience to gain the benefit of her expertise while she is on campus.

More details about the conference, including a schedule and registration details, can be found on the Northeastern Seminary website.

Click here to watch a video clip of Dr. Cleveland talking about the topic of her book.