Words Still Matter

staff recommendation pamphlet

2008-06-24T17:42:00.001-07:00

I’ve posted a .pdf of the pamphlet I’ll have in the fest store on Google docs. You have to have a google account to see it. “Cloud of witnesses.” Unbeknownst to me it turns out this is the theme for Burning Brush this year. What a cowinkydink!

Cornerstone Press booth at Cornerstone Festival

2007-05-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

We will have a Bookstore at Cornerstone Festival 2007 offering our published titles and a selection from Speakers at CstoneXchange seminars.

Here is a list some of the books that will have available:

Robert Inchausti, “Subversive Orthodoxy”
Shane Claibourne “The Irresistible Revolution”
NT Wright "Simply Christian", "Paul: In Fresh Perspective", "Evil and the Justice of God"
Stephen Sizer, "Christian Zionism: Road-Map to Armageddon?"
Edward Gilbreath, "Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical's Inside View of White Christianity"
Paul Grant, "Blessed Are the Uncool: Living Authentically in a World of Show"
Erika Dross, "Elvis Culture: Fans, Faith and Image"
Kim Paffenroth, "The Truth Is Out There: Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction"
Vincent Bacotte, "The Spirit in Public Theology: Appropriating the Legacy of Abraham Kuyper"
Scott A. Bessenecker, "The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World's Poor"
"An Emergent Manifesto of Hope", edited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones
Jon R. Stock, Tim Otto, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, "Inhabiting the Church: Biblical Wisdom for a New Monasticism"
"School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism"

. . . . or you can just see them in our Cornerstone Press aStore. Buy them here and you're supporting Cornerstone Press. Thanx.

Kissing the Sky, Glenn Kaiser

2007-05-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

KISSING THE SKY PLACED ON HOLD, WILL NOT BE AT C'STONE 2007

Many of you have been waiting patiently for the appearance of GKB frontman Glenn Kaiser's new book Kissing the Sky: Field Notes for Musicians and Other Believers. We regret to inform you that we have to put this title on hold until further notice. This title will not be available at Cornerstone Festival 2007 in Bushnell Illinois as promised last year. We feel we owe you this explanation because as a book company we made a promise to you, our valued customers. This setback has been a particularly painful one for Cornerstone Press as this is the first time in our history that we've marketed and advertised a book to the stores and then failed to meet all deadlines involved. The books editor is one of our pastors here at Jesus People USA. While balancing her full time roles as pastor, counselor, and homeless shelter board member with her work on the book, she has struggled throughout production with serious lung illness.

At this point Kissing the Sky has seen several major overhauls in its look. We liken it to taking a car in for a paint job and then deciding to overhaul the engine and interior. At this writing, half of the book has been edited, proofed, and laid-out for printing. We are very excited about these proofs and know that this work will prove more than satisfactory for your long wait. Glenn reveals, like never before, stories from his childhood, teen and early adult years. Please pray for this work in progress, that God would grant health and wisdom, grace and presence to the editors, and that the Holy Spirit would be able to use every word and line to draw readers from around the world to Jesus Christ.

We are offering a full refund for any who pre-ordered Kissing the Sky at Cornerstone 2006 in Bushnell. You will need to email us and request this refund. We can't provide cash refunds on the grounds at Cornerstone Festival 2007. Please get your requests in now before the festival or we will need to send you a check after the festival.
Email cspress(at)jpusa.org or call 1-888-40-PRESS. Please provide all your contact information including your date of purchase and the number of books.

following the rules

2007-01-15T07:50:00.000-08:00

Ok I admit it. I can't remember all the rules of grammar off the top of my head. I have so many hats here at CS Press. Its frustrating, forinstance, to have to refer to the Chicago Manual of Style for comma usage. I've been an editor for years now. Worked more copy on the web and on page than I could possibly remember. But I still can't keep all the conjunctions and clauses and diacritics in mind. More than that I'm stubborn about it. I feel like an egghead for needing to know. Don't tell anyone please.

Holiday promo is up

2006-11-09T11:38:00.000-08:00

If you want to see the 2006 Holiday newsletter---it is here.

New Holiday promotional

2006-11-02T09:09:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a new holiday newsletter today to email out. We really have some great books to give as gifts. Where else can you get a range of books on everything from mythopoeia, music, homelessness, and gardening? Of course Christmastime means good prices too! Let me know if you want to be on the mailing list.

dinosaur journal

2006-10-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

My friend Curt Mortimer released his book Dinosaur Journal: Making Sense of a Young Son's Death ten years ago. Recently I have come to struggle with the possibility of losing someone very close. I'm finding considerable solace and wisdom in Curt's poems and reflections. There is a vulnerability and stalwart courage in his desire to reveal and cherish every stage in the journey of grief faced in the realization of his son's death. Here is one of his poems:

IN THE DEAD OF WINTER

If you look real hard
With magical eyes,
You can see next spring
In the dying,
In the falling of the leaves.

To those who love life,
The winter seems unbearable,
A terrible burial,
A grave
For multicolored life.

I remember once, the invitation
Of a snowy day,
Sunshiny day,
Sprinkled with sparkling light
Made you forget your headache.

My heartache also soothed,
"He'll be better by spring."
I could believe in spring,
For that winter day
We spent in fear-free fun.

It is the children,
The believers with magical eyes,
who make of winter
A face-flushed slide to spring,
The hardest hills the best.
(page 27)

Today's Best sell releases in pounds

2006-10-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

According to my figures, today's National Bestsellers generated 3,413,500 lbs. of wood pulp.

October 3

Motor Mouth by Janet Evanovich (HarperCollins, $26.95). 1,000,000 first printing. 11.20 ounces 700,000 .lbs of books

Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (Random, $26.95). 750,000 first printing.1.00 pounds 750,000 .lbs books

Inside Bush’s White House: The Second Term by Bob Woodward (S&S, $28). 750,000 first printing. 1.00 pounds, 750,000 .lbs of books

Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice by John Ashcroft (Center Street, $24.99). 500,000 first printing. 12.80 ounces 400,000 .lbs

Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans (S&S, $19.95). 300,000 first printing. 11.20 ounces 210000.lbs

Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West by Hampton Sides (Doubleday, $26.95). 200,000 1.40 pounds 280,000 lbs

Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton (Berkley, $23.95). 150,000 first printing. 1.01 pounds 151,500 lbs.

Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund (Morrow, $26.95). 100,000 first printing. 1.72 lbs. 172,000 lbs.

3,413,500 lbs. of wood pulp. (Not counting the packaging to ship.)

New ways of Dialoging, Old Human Habits

2006-09-20T10:38:00.001-07:00

I am fascinated with the way the Internet is changing how we communicate, but also how so much of what is communicated stays the same. The web can't seem to change the way we communicate (our personal habits) with the same speed at which we communicate. The case in point would be the ways forums have changed since the mid-90s to the present. Remember chat rooms? I don't know anyone who uses those anymore. Remember bulletin boards? They're still around in one way or the other, updated to forums, but they are everywhere! And who really has active, topical conversations in them? Truly, we say things in forums we might not say to someone's face, but without the face in sight it's also much easier to get ticked off and leave. More active are the lurkers who check in and never post but just watch, and then leave.

What has changed are the notions about what readers want from what they read. Content Givers believe that Content Receivers want more control. Now that distribution of content is readily available to anyone, (albeit without the marketing money) the big Content makers feel hard pressed to find and deliver to stay alive. The trouble with that is that it makes Content Recievers skeptical that attention on them relates less to their person then to their wallet. So the trick is to get the person not to think about their wallet, but only the quality of the service.

Books Are Worlds

2006-09-20T08:15:00.001-07:00

Books are their own worlds. Those of us who love them know about that. We can't imagine life without the printed page. We dream about them, maybe even dream about making more of them. From my vantage point in publishing, I see each book with a life of it's own. Some books have very long lives that point to immortality, others die in conception or are never fully dreamed, and others, rightfully or mistakenly, die within a few short years having hardly been discovered or given their rightful attention.

Books venture from the personal to the collective nature of reality. Print allows the internal and personal to be shared on a mass scale. But it must be personalized by the individual to be appreciated. It must be absorbed one letter, word, paragraph and page at a time. That's where the weakness of a book's architecture lies. It has active qualities that remain static without engagement.

Jim Benes has a Blog

2006-09-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

Cornerstone Press Author and WBBM Morning News editor Jim Benes has his own Blog.
Jim posted his Christmas for the year 2005 to go along with his book Season of Joy: Chicago Celebrates the Holidays.

Jacques Ellul on the Image in need of interpretation

2006-09-15T07:21:00.000-07:00

"Thus the image contains within itself a deep contradiction. It is not ambiguous: it is coherent, reliable, and inclusive; but it is insignificant. It can have innumerable meanings, depending on culture, learning, or the intervention of some other dimension. For this reason I must learn to see, before looking at the image. After seeing it, I must learn to interpret it. The image is clear, but this clarity does not imply certainty or comprehension. My certainty is limited to this directly perceived reality that my sight reveals to me. Nothing beyond that. Next I must decide what I am going to do about it. Nevertheless, what I perceive in this limited manner is the reality in which I must live."
(Jacques Ellul, The Humiliation of the Word, Eerdmans, 1985)

Do Words Still Matter?

2006-09-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

What Can One Say? Reflections on our Information Saturated Society and
the drop in the Bucket That are My Words
By Chris L. Rice

A number of years ago John Michael Talbot and Michael Card got together on the album Brother to Brother to record a song entitled "Final Word."

Some of the lyrics went:

"You and me we use

So many clumsy words

The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard

When the Father's wisdom wanted to

Communicate his love

He spoke it in one final perfect Word"

This beautiful lyric communicates something very true about the frailty of human communication and for me as a writer, the limitations of the printed word. One of my greatest spiritual struggles is with how to communicate in a way that I can be assured will have a lasting impact in this postmodern information technology age.

Thomas Merton wrote in his New Seeds of Contemplation,

"If you write for God you will reach many [people] and bring them joy. If you write for [people] you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world for a little while. If you write only for yourself you can read what you have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted you will wish you were dead."

I have had this quote hanging on my computer monitor for three years now. I hung it there to give me direction and solace. Instead I always ask myself, "So who am I writing for anyway?" And its always a little bit of all three persons mentioned. Of course I want to write for God. But then when I write and post here on the website I'm aiming at you people. But first and foremost obviously I'm writing for myself. I mean every writer writes for himself first right? I would submit that every serious writer goes through a painful process of writing first for himself, then for others, and finally submitting it to God. So, using Merton's words, the writing process involves being disgusted and wishing you were dead, submitting it to others to make noise and (maybe, but certainly not in my case) a little money, and finally as God uses it, it reaches many people and brings them joy.

Well that's a lot of work and pain! I have so many ideas for articles and stories that never make it into type for that very reason. But along with Jeremiah and Paul "Woe to Me" if God puts something on my heart that I refuse because of the painful process. Aggravating the process is the sea of communication that passes before my eyes daily. In addition to writing for the mag, principally as a book review editor, I also make books for our publishing house, Cornerstone Press.

In So Many Books Gabriel Zaid offers the following startling facts: "The human race publishes a book every 30 seconds. . . . If not a single book were published from this moment on, it would still take us 250,000 years to acquaint ourselves with those books already written." These facts alone are enough for me to raise the question "if a tree falls in the forest to create another of our books, will anyone notice?"

Permit me a rabbit trail here for a second. The web is currently aiming at users to get as much stream of consciousness thought into words or symbols as quickly as possible. I blog, and now in case you haven't noticed, blogspot.com has introduced pictures and audio to the blogging scene! You can send a message from your cell phone straight to the web any time you like. While this must do wonders for lonely isolated people everywhere, it makes me feel lonelier! It makes me want to remain silent longer until I've got something truly meaningful to say!!

I've long overcome the initial excitement I had at one time to see a book I worked so hard on come back from the printer. Now I just think about where I'm going to stack that new pallet of books. In a way the knowledge that nothing I can write will ever be truly new or cutting edge humbles me and grounds me in my vocation. Yes I still love to read. I can't wait to get the latest No Depression Mag every time it comes out, or the latest Bonhoeffer or Barth book from Eerdmans or Fortress press. But I know that the best communication on those things that matter most in this world, succumb to the same decaying process that is our human understanding. And like everything else-- our words or songs and music, our dance, our writings, all of what we see, in the end are only gestures that reflect an eternal communication that we hope to share one day with God. We are also told to "go and make disciples of all nations." We are all disciples of Jesus and in obeying his command we are taking on ourselves the vocation of communicating-- with our lives, with our gestures and with words. We have no promises that every time we do these we'll achieve our desired effect, be noticed by influential persons, be a blessing or be influential toward leading someone to make a commitment to Christ for the first time. The promise is "I am with you always." (Matt. 28:20) We are assured of His Presence and His Spirit to empower us.

"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eather, so is my word that goes out from my mouth; It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Isa. 55:10-11 (NIV)

Uh, note he says "My word" and just like we can't say "Vengeance is Mine" in reference to ourselves, we can't apply this scripture to say that His words and ours are synonymous. That line of reasoning is doomed to fail. What this scripture says to me is that by remaining in Christ, and staying in step with His Spirit perhaps somehow my gestures can point to His. And then yes, His Word won't return void. At the risk of repeating myself I'll say it again, at best our communicating here is only a yearning for the Divine encounter. Just a taste.

The Cornerstone Audience

2006-09-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hey! Tell me about you! Cornerstone, that is what was Cornerstone Magazine (in print), Cornerstone Online, Cornerstone Festival Forum, and the Cornerstone Festival itself all serve a certain kind of people. But that's not to say you're all alike. Here are some simple descriptions:
Readers. Rockers. Folkees. Hippies. Tatooed. Pierced. Faithful believers. Families. Egalitarian. Biblical. Evangelistic. Nuanced. Balanced.

That's a start. What do you think? I know I'm being vague here, but for those of you who've been following JPUSA for a while, how would you describe yourselves?