Ron Sider & Os Guinness

I hope you saw my last post, announcing our June column at the Hearts & Minds website. I offered a free Nooma video (DVD) with any purchase of any of the books on that list about wealth, business, faith in the marketplace and the global economy. That list was generated for a friend who does ministry in a major financial center and is hoping to help his colleagues think deeply about the connections between their faith and their professional work. As I sometimes do, I wanted you to see the letter I wrote to him, pondering all of this, and then have the actual list of recommendations.

You may recall, in the post before that, I noted that Beth and I were setting up a large book display at the annual event sponsored by the Jonathan Edwards Institute. Edwards was a man convinced of the glory of God, passionate about his calling to invite faithful living in response to Christ's grace. He was a scholar, a philosopher, a college president (Princeton), somewhat of a scientist and one of church history's most thoughtful theologians and prolific pastors. More on him in another post.

Now, though, I want to say two things: First, after waiting for a wedding to get done in the Annapolis ballroom where we were setting up---finally getting the 6 hour project underway after 11:00 PM (that was with three of us working)---we created a temporary bookstore with a great offering of books on everything from Puritan theology to contemporary cultural analysis. Workshops on topics such as the questions of war and peace, globalization, the problems with both the Christian right and the Christian left, and bio-ethics absorbed us as we worshipped well and thought hard. It was a good event and we want to thank those that purchased books from us there. A special highlight was selling books to one of the most well-read guys we know, the very astute Ken Myers, of Mars Hill Audio. He was fluent and gracious as always. We hope you subscribe to his monthly audio journal. So--- thanks to those who were there, and for those who prayed for our journey.

Secondly: it was a special delight of ours to look at the special book table we had arranged with signs indicating that these were the "speaker's books", books authored or edited by the seminar leaders or keynote speakers, and see, side by side, stacks of books written by two particular authors. There they were, on the same table, books authored by two men who are among our all-time favorite writers, prolific authors whose many books have nourished us (and challanged us) along the way. Both have been in our store, both have done gigs for us here in the York area. And both keep putting out resources for deepened discipleship that any thoughtful lay reader can appreciate---meaty and substantive, but not arcane or overly academic. They are, as my headline indicated, two gentleman that we are truly proud to know, happy to recommend, and glad to have seen at the JEI event, together, Drs Ron Sider and Os Guinness.

And so, of course, we must do a blog special. We are pleased to offer two of the most important books of our time--that isn't hyperbole!---in a special package deal.

We are offering Ron's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (in an updated, revised edition; early versions were named by Christianity Today as one of the top 100 books of the 20th century!) and Os' The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life for just $20.00.

To buy them both at regular price would cost about $34.00 Our blog special is to sell them both for $20.00. It is our tribute to these two men and the way they have gifted us---their readers--with important ideas, gracefully written, challenging and empowering. Enjoy.
Email us (read@heartsandmindsbooks.com), call 717.246.3333 or use the website order page.