A Progress Update on the Book

 Letting Love Flow--A History of 150-Year-Old Grace Baptist (Baptist Temple)--The Church That Founded Temple University

Today I submitted proposals to five book publishers. I'd like to pop that bottle in celebration, but until one of them says, yes, we're interested, I think I'll wait.

I'd hoped to have more blogs along the way, but I had pages to write. And pages to edit. And argh, pages to revise, edit some more.

I included this photo to share what my reading has looked like lately. My undergraduate degree was in psychology, and my master's degree was in business, so in addition to book-related research, I thought I needed to fill in the gaps, if you will, with some books on writing.

Celebrate this milestone with me--the proposal submissions!

Until I get the book in your hands, I'll share a few quotes from the book:

We're more, so much more, than a church that just gets together on Sunday mornings.--Natalie Glantz

Missions are part of the church's DNA. It started Temple University as a mission; it started a hospital as a mission. Definitely, a strong DNA of the church is missions.--Betty Helpa

What a wonderful life that would be in which there had been no lost moments--no lost good deeds--Rev. Russell H. Conwell

No matter what happens tomorrow, I know God's love for me is consistent. I am always good enough and it is only by God's grace that I am saved. I am thankful for this church and the relationships we have developed.--Irene Philips

I believe I experience the true meaning of Christianity at Grace Baptist--Ola Ige

I've been in the same house for 20 years, married to the same woman for 36 years, and go to the same church for 20 years. That's how it goes.--Jeff Ledbetter

Help us to be your people, help us to be people of faith. Help us to add our names to the heroes of faith, so that one day it might be said, that Grace Baptist had faith by following you.--Rev. Steve Crane

God never intended us to use prayer as a substitute for working intelligence.--Martin Luther King, Jr., from Baptist Temple's pulpit August 4, 1965

The best New Year's resolution I can think of is to spend more time with your creator.--Youth Pastor Brady Rennix

The exciting thing is the church can write its own future; we get to be co-authors with God of the future, if we embrace the opportunities and responsibilities of it, and walk by faith and trust God.--Rev. David Braneky



























Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Johnny Ring: The Story of the Sword

Image
Discover Russell Conwell's Prized Possessions             Grace Baptist Church's fourth pastor, Russell H. Conwell, had been a captain in the Union army. During his lfetime, Conwell was also amazingly productive. He was a lawyer, real estate developer, newspaper man, prolific author, and well-known lecturer in the US. He actually traveled the globe giving his speeches. He gave his most famous speech, "Acres of Diamonds," more than 6000 times. It is estimated that Conwell earned an incredible sum over his lifetime for these lectures, but instead of keeping the funds for himself, he supported thousands in getting their college education. When asked what drove him to work so hard, he explained he worked for two. And shared the story of John Ring.      Before leaving for war, his beloved regiment honored him with a gold-sheathed sword, which Conwell promised to guard with his life. Many young men clamored to a part of the great effort of the...
Read more
Image
 February 18, 2021 As I sit in my home office here in the suburbs of Philadelphia, watching the snow plows clear the latest 6-9 inches of snow we got this morning, I'm mesmerized by the following letter. It has transported me to a hot, desolate empty field in North Carolina in 1914, and then back 50 years earlier to a Civil War battle. The letter was written my Russell H. Conwell, my church's pastor from 1882-1925. He wrote back to his congregation his thoughts since he'd just visited the battlefields and recounted his memories of those days, including a story of a young soldier, Johnny Ring, who died saving his captain's beloved sword. Conwell is best known for founding Temple University, and helping fund many students' educations through funds he earned through his lectures, including his most famous one, "Acres of Diamonds." Below is my typed version, but if you read on you can see Conwell's letter in his own handwriting.    
Read more
Image
The Four Chaplains Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. – John 15:13 On a frigid February 3, 1943, the US troop ship Dorchester was sailing through rough seas in a convoy out of Newfoundland bound for Greenland.  They were about 150 miles off the coast.  Down in the old converted cruise ship’s stifling hold, 4 US chaplains circulated among the frightened young men, some lying wide-eyed in their bunks, others nervously playing cards or shooting dice.  Chatting with the troops, the chaplains eased tensions, calmed fears and passed out soda crackers to alleviate seasickness. The troops anxiously looked forward to reaching Greenland the next day.  They knew that U-boats prowled their ship’s course.  They did not know that by morning nearly 3/4s of them would be dead, and that the rest would have their lives changed forever.  Nor did they know the magnificent way in which these four chaplains would minister to them. ...
Read more