It seems most people are interested in books for a give away, but I can’t do a plain Jane, boring book giveaway. Instead I am giving away a book with a nice little twist. The book is Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change by Paul David Trip. It was recommended to me as a giveaway book earlier this week. I warred a bit on giving away a book I currently had or a handful of books that are very high on my “must buy” list but this book jumped out at me.
It is well reviewed and the subject is something I’ve been wrestling with quite a bit. I think that might be why it really called to me. I am very interested in the statement on the book description, “Many of us would be relieved if God had place dour sanctification in the hands of trained professionals, but that simply is not the biblical model. God’s plan is that through the faithful ministry of every part, the whole body will grow to maturity in Christ.” This is stated slightly differently on the back of the book and also in the second paragraph of the preface. In fact Tripp goes on to say that ministers are called to teach and prepare the Body so that they might be better able to help one another.
I have read the first few chapters so far and am very impressed with it. Twice already Tripp has taken concepts that I am aware of and put them into a context that I had not really grasped until that moment. I enjoy books that can continue to teach and challenge me but which are generally accessible. This book well fits that standard. A person with no ministerial training should be able to approach this book without trepidation. in fact right off the bat this book builds the gospel message from the beginning of goodness through the bad and back to the greatness.
By now I imagine everyone is wanting to know two things: what is the twist, and how do we get the opportunity to get this book for free?
Well, the twist is simply this. I don’t want to just give the book away. As I was reading it I realized that there were many places I just had to highlight. That’s what I do. It is one of the reasons I never sold my books back in college. I went and got a highlighter knowing I was giving this book away, but I had a plan. I want people to see what jumped out at me as they read. I’m even taking notes in a small notebook that I will send with the book. Whoever gets this book I want them to enjoy what was written and also what I gleaned. I want them to highlight thoughts that grab them and make notes themselves. Then I think it would be amazing if the book were given away again.
Of course the notes and giveaway isn’t a requirement. I just think it would be pretty frigintastic, like a special way of sharing the book and growing through it. Like I said, it isn’t all that twisted.
How do you enter this give away? Simple, I want some help making this site better. On the front page I have a “featured” posts section. Right now I have 5 posts there that I felt should be on the front page for a while. I want to update this from time to time and I think the people that read are better suited to saying what posts should be featured.
To win just comment on this post and tell me what post or posts should be featured. If you see that a post you liked is already mentioned repeat it because the more a post is mentioned the more popular I will know it is.
I will give you one opportunity per post mentioned, up to 10 posts, so feel free to give multiple opinions.
This giveaway will be open for exactly 2 weeks so I am closing down comments on January 29th. I will announce the winner February 1st.
Give Away
Who is searching for me?
New Counter Tops
Reading Nook
Well, let me start out by saying that I feel it’s important to change out your 5 featured frequently, but that’s just me. I think it’s also good for your analytics to have “Sex” be in the title of one. Just saying.
Anywho, all of that said…
“Stop complaining” was one of my favorites, so I’d keep that one up there for a while.
I’d probably put up “No wonder people don’t trust Christians” in there because it has an intriguing title and I think people (even nonChristians) would click on it.
I think you should have an SYP up there somewhere to satisfy your fans of that hero.
And… I’d probably put this one in there. At least for the next 2 weeks.
But, like I said, I feel that the featured posts should change throughout. As your feelings about something changes or posts that you don’t feel got enough attention.
Those are my thoughts, and I’m sticking to them.
I fully agree that I need to keep changing it out, that’s why I am looking for lot’s of suggestions. I could have run this contest to get more promotion by saying, “tweet a link to my site or post a link on your blog” and that would be fine but I’d rather do a better job of getting content on the front page that will be useful to people coming to see my blog than to just get more traffic. I like all your suggestions by the way. I think I’m going to try a 4 week cycle with new posts in the rotation every week. Basically once a week I will add one or two featured posts and remove one. This way everything is constantly getting updated, but it won’t be all new each week, which might make things too jarring.
Sex is amazing. It grabs everybody’s attention 😉
And it’s true, sex is amazing within the confines of marriage.
Yeah, that is why it has been the number one featured post for a while, but I’ll need to switch it out soon. I’ll probably keep it in high in the switchout cycle though.
Choose one of your creative writing posts to include.
I think that’s a good idea, is there any specific creative writing post that you liked?
The one with the angel…
I think you definitely need a SYP. I’d suggest the Church Split Engine (the one posted on June 13).
I also liked Love Does Not Condemn
The Lies we Tell was a good eye-opener.
I Don’t Think I Want to be a Christian Anymore was good (I often feel the same way, calling myself a believer instead).
That’s 4 for right now, and they’re all serious. I’ll be back with more that are probably not as serious.
Great suggestions. I need to write a few more SYP posts. Poor SYP is still in the middle of a story line.
Well first off, I’m interested to see what you’ve highlighted and to read the additional notes you took. I’m curious to see what you took away from the book, and if I won, I’d probably add a couple notes about what I took away as well.
The first blog that popped out at me was “10 easy steps to identifying a false prophet” before I became a Christian, I always wondered how they could tell if the person was lying or not, and how they could tell it was from God. As I read the ways to identifying false prophets, they became very obvious. (like the one about ignoring the inebriated moron trying to pass a message from god. I’d be suspicious too!)
another one i liked was “I believe in Santa… Do you?” I love the stories about all mythbusting and what have you. I liked to hear about what the REAL St. Nick did. (not flying in a sleigh w/reindeer, but if I recall right, punched someone in the face for jesus!)
“no wondering people don’t trust Christians” is definatly a title that stands out well. Because people unfortunatly some people really don’t trust Christians.
Anything with the word sex in it will grab anyones attention… Even mine :/ in your blog “sex is amazing” it was strange how you compared sex with church, but at the same time it made absolute sense. I liked the final idea, that if we help people find Christ, church will be an added benefit. Ps( I like the tshirt on the blog)
my favorite one was “what could be more wonderful than peanut butter” just leave it to me to love this one because of the title! Lol but I LOVE peanut butter! And when my dog eats it XD
well this is my comment to win your giveaway book. Just remember, free shipping! (I’m just sayin!)
I like the one about dragons and fingerpaint. Definitely include that one (or else).