About Craig Groeschel, author of Going All the Way

Craig Groeschel is the founding and senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv, one of the country’s first multi-campus churches. With thirty-seven weekly worship experiences at nine locations, LifeChurch.tv has continued to grow since its inception in 1996 and currently boasts more than 17,000 people in attendance each week.

Armed with a passion to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ, Groeschel is known for his effective, cutting-edge teaching style replete with in-your-face honesty, accountability and down-to-earth application. He graduated with a BA in marketing from Oklahoma University and went on to earn an MDiv from Phillips Theological Seminary.

A captivating speaker whose messages touch thousands of people weekly, Groeschel made his literary debut with Chazown, an interactive book and DVD program named after the Hebrew word for “vision.” His sophomore release, Confessions of a Pastor, soon followed as did growing media attention, and in 2006 Groschel was interviewed on NBC’s The Today Show and Weekend Today about LifeChurch.tv’s revolutionary way of doing church.

His latest book, Going All the Way, dispels the modern-day myth that a committed relationship in today’s world is just another fairytale. A must-read for singles or engaged couples on the road toward wedlock, Going All the Way utilizes Groeschel’s own personal stories, time-tested biblical principles and practical advice for dating, courting and preparing for a great marriage that thrives for a lifetime.

Craig Groeschel and his wife, Amy, make their home in the Edmond, Oklahoma area with their six children.

 

About Liz Curtis Higgs, author of Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible.

In her series of best-selling Bad Girls of the Bible books, workbooks, and videos, Liz Curtis Higgs breathes new life into ancient tales about the most infamous—and intriguing—women in scriptural history, from Jezebel to Mary Magdalene. Biblically sound and cutting-edge fresh, these popular titles have helped more than one million women around the world experience God's grace anew. Her best-selling historical novels, which transport the stories of Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, and Dinah to eighteenth-century Scotland, have also helped her readers view these familiar characters in a new light. 
As a gifted speaker, Liz has presented more than 1,500 encouraging programs for audiences in all 50 states, Germany, France, England, South Africa, Canada, Ecuador, Scotland and Indonesia. In 1995, she received the Council of Peers Award for Excellence from the National Speakers Association, becoming one of only 30 women in the world named to their CPAE-Speaker Hall of Fame.

Feature articles about Liz have appeared in more than 250 major newspapers and magazines across the country, as well as on Salon.com, Beliefnet.com and Spirituality.com. She has also been interviewed on more than 600 radio and television stations, including guest appearances on PBS, A&E, MSNBC, NPR, Focus on the Family, Life Today, Janet Parshall's America, CBC Canada, and BBC Radio Scotland.
Liz is the author of twenty-six books, with more than three million copies in print. 
Her nonfiction books for women include...
    
• Bad Girls of the Bible
• Really Bad Girls of the Bible
• Unveiling Mary Magdalene
• Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible
• Rise and Shine
• Embrace Grace
• My Heart's in the Lowlands
Her fiction includes two contemporary novels and four historical novels...
• Mixed Signals
• Bookends
• Thorn in My Heart
• Fair Is the Rose
• Whence Came a Prince
• Grace in Thine Eyes
And she has written five books for young children . . .
• The Pumpkin Patch Parable
• The Parable of the Lily
• The Sunflower Parable
• The Pine Tree Parable
• Go Away, Dark Night 

Her children’s Parable Series was awarded the ECPA Gold Medallion for Excellence in 1998, and her nonfiction book, Bad Girls of the Bible received an ECPA Gold Book Award in 2004 for sales of more than 500,000 copies.  Mixed Signals was a 2000 RWA RITA Finalist in two categories: Best First Novel and Best Inspirational Novel. Bookends was a 2001 Christy Award Finalist for Best Contemporary Fiction. Her third historical novel, Whence Came a Prince, won the 2006 Christy Award for Best Historical Fiction, and Grace in Thine Eyes was a 2007 Christy Award finalist.
In addition, Liz is the editor of three newsletters—The Graceful Heart, Encouragement to Go!, and O Gentle Reader!—and is a columnist for Today’s Christian Woman magazine with her popular back page feature, "Women in the Word"  More than 3,500 churches nationwide are using her video Bible study series, Loved by God. 

On the personal side, Liz earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Bellarmine College, and is married to Bill Higgs, Ph.D., who serves as Director of Operations for her speaking and writing office. Liz and Bill share their 19th-century farmhouse in Louisville with their two college-student offspring, Matt and Lilly, and too many cats.

 

An interview with Jennifer Marshall, author of Now and Not Yet (Multnomah Books, June 2007)

Q. Why did you write Now and Not Yet?

A. Women today are getting married later—on average, more than four years later than women in our mothers’ generation did—but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what women want. Many young women continue to hope for marriage to enter their lives sooner rather than later. When that doesn’t happen, the gap between reality and expectations can be confusing. That’s something I saw among a number of 20- and 30-somethings and had myself experienced. Few of us received specific guidance about this phase of life as we were growing up. Frankly, no one seems to have expected it. Now and Not Yet is by, about, and for women who are living in that unexpected in-between. Women shouldn’t feel stranded in this season of life; we should be able find purpose and contentment now, while looking forward to something more.

Q. How did you go about writing Now and Not Yet?

A. Now and Not Yet combines individual women’s experience with observations about our culture generally. I wanted to capture the sense of the experiences and attitudes of Christian single women in their 20s to 40s, so I got input from about 50 women through interviews and focus groups. I also ran an online survey and got responses from 650 women. At the same time, I wanted to hear about men’s perspective on some of these issues, so I got input from about a dozen men through interviews and focus groups. The quotes and anecdotes in the book are taken from these interviews, and several women’s stories (like Hilary, Carli, and Emma) are told in greater length to introduce some of the major ideas in the book, like the sense of disorientation when life seems to have veered off the map of our expectations, or the challenge of making educational and professional choices for the long-term when marriage is what we’re really hoping for.

Q. The subtitle refers to “Single Life in the Twenty-First Century”… Is singleness different today than it was in the past?

A. Yes, single life in the 21st century presents new challenges. The cultural landscape has changed since those of us in Generation X and Y were born. This is not our mothers’ single life, when the path to marriage was fairly clearly marked. Today, we’re living in a post-feminist, post-sexual revolution era and that makes the confusing situation of singleness all the more perplexing. Some women feel that they’re paying a personal price today for the trailblazing of the last generation. Feminists in the past were frustrated by barriers to fulfilling work. Today we have access to just about everything we could want in the workplace but have been frustrated by obstacles to lasting love.

Q. So how does one go about “making sense of single life”?

A. The first thing is to ask the right questions. It’s tempting to get hung up on questions like Why am I not married? or When will I get married? or Whom will I marry? But the most pressing questions are things like, How am I supposed to be content today while hoping for something more? and What’s my purpose here and now? and Do I trust God in this unexpected in-between? Answering these questions is the key to making sense of singleness, and that’s what Now and Not Yet is about.

 

An interview with Hemant Metha, author of I Sold My Soul on eBay (WaterBrook Press, April 2007)

Q. Tell us about the experience of “selling your soul” on eBay in February of 2006.

A. I really wanted to experience a Christian church for the first time and figured it would be more interesting if other people decided where I went. So I put the offer up on eBay as a way to get peoples’ attention, but I had no idea it would get as much attention as it did. In my mind, the highest bid would have me going to church for one Sunday, maybe two. However, by the time the auction ended, the winning bidder, Jim Henderson, had bought my time for the next year! Jim had a different idea, though. He suggested I go to a set number of churches and write about my visits on his website at www.off-the-map.org. In the midst of the auction and my church visits, the story had become a sensation in both the blogosphere and mainstream media. People wanted to know what an atheist would say about the churches!

Q. And now you are writing for a Christian publishing house. Why do you think that Christians are interested in your perceptions of the church?

A. It is a surreal situation, isn’t it? Based on the comments I heard from my first church “reflections,” Christians were pleasantly surprised to see that I wasn’t automatically criticizing the church itself, as other atheist writers have done. They saw that I was truly interested in the message I heard, as well as the way the message was presented. They found themselves agreeing with the positive and negative aspects of church I wrote about. More than anything, as an atheist, I might be the churches’ toughest critic. If they can get their message across to an atheist in a way I find interesting and thought-provoking, perhaps Christians really can get through to anyone.

Q. What was the goal of this project?

A. The goal has changed from the eBay auction to the book. Initially, I just wanted to know what churches were like. What did they teach? Did they fit the stereotype of a church I had in my mind? Once I began writing my reflections for Jim, I wanted to know if Christians felt the same way I did. Having found answers to those questions, I began writing the book with a different goal. I knew Christians and atheists shared many values even if they didn’t realize it. I want Christians and atheists to read this book and discover that, outside theological differences, we actually have quite a bit in common. We could accomplish so much if we worked together to accomplish our shared goals instead of denigrating the other group because of the differences.

Q. How many churches did you see around the country?

A. Between the eBay auction and writing the book, I visited nearly 25 different churches across the county. There were jokes that I visited more churches in six months than most Christians visited in a lifetime!

Q. How did you organize your reflections?

A. The reflections were organized according to the size of the church memberships. There were the small, mid-sized, and large churches. I had put the mega-churches in a separate category. There may be some disputes over whether a church should go in a different category, but even some churches with larger memberships had a “smaller feel” to them and I categorized them accordingly. I wanted to cover a variety of churches, and there were some incredible differences in each size category.

Q. What sort of traditions, lingo or songs did you have a hard time understanding?

A. There were some song lyrics that I found incredibly offensive. They essentially said if you weren’t Christian, you were evil or unworthy, and I couldn’t believe everyone was singing along! Did they all agree with the lyrics? Did they even pay attention to them? Should I be scared?

Also, I saw some “unofficial” traditions in many churches. I was trying to figure out whether they were sincere forms of worship or just examples of individuals following the crowd. Arms shot up in the air and everyone swayed in the same direction during praise songs, people shouted out random words mid-sermon, and people would unenthusiastically read Bible verses along with the pastor. Some of these methods seemed ineffective, or worse, insincere.

Q. Is there a particular church that stands out in your mind?

A. There was one church, Parkview Christian Church, that stands out in my mind. I had visited the church for Jim and wrote my reflection on his website. The pastor read this reflection and invited me to sit on stage with him for an entire weekend’s worth of sermons! Pastor Tim wanted to show his congregation that it was ok to have doubts about Christianity and during each sermon, him and I just went back and forth, asking each other our most pressing questions about the other’s beliefs. The congregation expressed later how much they appreciated that the pastor was challenging them to think about some very difficult questions.

Besides the fact that the church allowed an open atheist to come onstage, without rehearsal, and challenge the pastor, this church stood out to me because I strongly disagreed with the pastor on some important issues. For example, Pastor Tim is an ardent supporter of Creationism. I absolutely think he is wrong on this issue and I believe in Evolution. Despite differences like these, we were able to have a very positive, frank discussion and we still maintain a good relationship.

Q. In the end, though, you did not convert. What would make you convert to Christianity or any religion?

A. There are two ways that religion could appeal to me. One is that I would have to see evidence that a particular religious explanation is the best one for the world I live in. Experiencing a miracle that science could not explain might do it. However, this method would defeat the whole notion of having faith. On the other hand, if Christians (or those of other faiths) really want to connect with an atheist, I could see that happening through their positive actions. If Christians focus more on taking action to make this world a better place, instead of merely giving that idea lip service, it is hard to refute that religion hurts us rather than helps us (as other atheists have claimed). If I see Christians helping those of all classes, races, and religions, regardless of the recipients’ beliefs, my attitude toward religions would certainly change. Right now, I’m not seeing that. For example, I hear about too many missionaries who are more concerned with converting people in the short term than making sure their lives are better in the long term. One church even had a McDonalds-like board listing the ratio of conversions to ministry hours. There was nothing about a better quality of life and no hint that these people were visited again “post-conversion.” That type of focus doesn’t make me want to become a Christian anytime soon.

Q. What do you think that Christians and atheists can learn from each other and what is your vision for the future?

A. Christians can learn that atheists are people who do have an innate set of morals and ethics. We believe in goodness, not Godliness. We search for answers methodically and we demand reason and evidence before we believe what someone has to say. There are so many stereotypes about atheists that are far off the mark, and Christians would be helping themselves by understanding who atheists really are.

Atheists need to learn that not all Christians think alike. In fact, many Christians are as frustrated with their “leaders” as the atheists are. Atheists often lump together all Christians as people who never put serious thought into their beliefs. However, I have found many Christians who have considered the same evidence I have, but just came to a different conclusion. I do think their reasoning is faulty, but this is still very different from not looking at the evidence at all.

I hope this book helps the two sides realize that we are not so different when it comes to our goals and visions for the future. While the way to accomplish these goal may differ, a discussion must take place to figure out how we can work together. There is plenty of charitable, environmental, and social work that is waiting for our collective efforts. Imagine the dialogue we could have if Christians and atheists knew how the other side really thought. This discussion rarely takes place right now. I hope this book can play a small role in changing that.