I work for the division of Guideposts that publishes books, and let me tell you, things never hold still here. It’s my job to help select and create devotionals, nonfiction and fiction that inspires, guides and helps you grow.
The faith and values we affirm in these materials are timeless, just as timeless as the Bibles we sometimes publish, but how we go about communicating them never seems to stop changing. The world we live in never stops changing—and neither do the ways we reach out to people with our publications.
Recently a friend pointed out to me an article by Mike Reinhart, a bishop in the Lutheran church in Texas and Louisiana. He’s concerned about how the church he works for is losing touch with folks today. And he wonders just how much church “insiders” contribute to that problem.
He writes, “The turnaround of the mainline churches will happen when we in those churches care as much about those outside the church as we do those inside. To embrace relevance, we will have to let go of survival.”
I sometimes wonder the same thing about the books we publish. Do we create content that helps us keep our faith the same, just as it was, at the expense of others who have yet to find a vibrant walk with God?
Guideposts Books has been around for a long, long time, and it is my hope and prayer as we continue this work that readers will find God’s transformative message in their lives in fresh, unexpected ways. When they read a devotion, such as in our enormously popular Daily Guideposts, I hope that they will go, “Wow, I never thought I’d hear God speaking to me that way!” Then I will know that we have succeeded.
