Religion Update: In Profile

JOHN MAXWELL
Leading Leaders
If John C. Maxwell is right, the next phase in management style will be team leadership. So certain is he of the demise of the one-person leadership paradigm that he has staked his next series of releases on the concept of teamwork. In The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork (Thomas Nelson, July), the flagship title in what will be a host of products, Maxwell uses anecdotes and sports analogies to define 17 teamwork principles--culled from a much longer list--that he considers "laws": concepts that stand the tests of time, culture, gender and sector ("It has to work for Wal-Mart, the DOT, the local church and the family," Maxwell says).

A former pastor who turned his attention to training and developing leaders some 20 years ago, Maxwell sees himself as a bridge between the church and the business community--and his considerable success as an author in the general market attests to that. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (Thomas Nelson, 1998) enjoyed a long stay on the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and New York Times business bestseller lists. What's better, Maxwell says, is that more people have come to faith in Christ through his leadership organizations (INJOY and EQUIP, both in Atlanta) than through his pastorates. Maxwell notes, "I have for a long time wanted to be a crossover author and touch the business and secular communities."

One way he achieves that goal is through twice-yearly simulcasts held in churches across the country. A September 15 simulcast will highlight the spiritual aspects of teamwork, while a similar event in March 2002, focusing on teamwork in business, is expected to attract 100,000 people from local businesses.

For every major Maxwell release, the Thomas Nelson marketing machine revs into high gear. "John Maxwell is a major author for us, because he crosses all of our worlds," says Pamela Clements, v-p of marketing. "People who haven't discovered him yet through his leadership books are likely to find him through the teamwork books."

The publisher plans to videotape a seminar Maxwell is scheduled to present at CBA International in Atlanta (July 7-12) and edit it for retailers to use as a training tool with their staff. Other promotion includes interviews on national radio and TV, excerpts and columns in print and online media, op-ed pieces in major newspapers and, for booksellers, a custom endcap and in-store events.

A second book in the series, The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player, is scheduled for winter release, while a workbook, audio and video series, and a gift book, Teamwork Makes the Dream Work (from J. Countryman, Nelson's gift book division) are in various stages of production.

Maxwell recently signed a two-book deal with Warner Books--where former Nelson publisher Rolf Zettersten is now publisher--with the first title due in early 2003.
--Marcia Ford

STORMIE OMARTIAN
The Power of Prayer
When Stormie Omartian says that praying can save your marriage, she knows what she's talking about. Her own marriage, she says, got off to a rocky start. "I came into marriage with a lot of hurt and my husband came into it with a lot of anger," Omartian recalls. "He'd say things that hurt me and I'd react. There was constant strife in our home." Things only improved when she turned to God in prayer. Omartian became so convinced that prayer was central to a healthy marriage that she wrote The Power of a Praying Wife (Harvest House, 1997), which as of May 2001 had sold 1,199,700 copies and has been a mainstay on the Christian bestsellers list. This month, Omartian follows up with The Power of a Praying Husband (Harvest House).

Originally, Omartian didn't have any plans to write a book for husbands. "When Wife came out," she says, "women immediately began asking me when I would write the husband's companion volume, but I didn't take that seriously." Men need to pray for their wives every bit as much as women need to pray for their husbands, but Omartian thought a man should write the book for men. "It was only when the men themselves began asking me for a husband's book that I began to think about it." When Omartian's own husband confirmed that she was the "obvious person" to write a book for husbands, Omartian took the idea to the Lord in prayer. When she received confirmation from Him, she says, she got to work.

Now Omartian sees there may actually be advantages to a woman's perspective. "I was able to write some things that might sound self-serving if they came from a man," says Omartian, referring to the book's suggestion that men pray that they and their wives will be "unselfish toward one another sexually." She also urges men to pray that their wives will have submissive hearts toward their husbands. "I know that will be in wives' best interest, and coming from a woman, it is a little easier to take."

"Every time I spoke, I had women fill out cards about how they wished to be prayed for by their husbands," she says. Women's prayer priorities were remarkably consistent: first and foremost, they wanted their husbands to pray to be men of God. Women also wanted their husbands to pray that wives would find time in their hectic schedules for prayer and Bible study, that they would be good mothers and that their marriages would be blessed.

Harvest House may be praying the book finds readers, but it also is promoting it enthusiastically. According to publicist Hope Lyda, endcap displays "are going into most bookstore outlets, both Christian and general market." A bookmark introducing Husband was placed in 200,000 copies of Wife and in The Power of a Praying Parent (Harvest House, 1995). Some retailers are grouping together the three books in a "Power of a Praying Family" promotion. There will be ads in Christian consumer publications this fall, when Omartian embarks on a national tour.
--Lauren Winner

MIKE MASON
Finding Joy in Kids
Self-confessed "moody writer" and former alcoholic Mike Mason found safety in being cerebral, rather than loving. When his daughter Heather was born 14 years ago, Mason's life was turned inside out, and he "just couldn't get the hang of" being a father. "Some parents take naturally to the role, but it was a long road for me," Mason admits. As he wrestled through the joys and pain of parenthood, his journal reflections evolved into The Mystery of Children: What Our Kids Teach Us About Childlike Faith (WaterBrook, July). The 26 chapters represent Mason's chronological musings on six-month periods of Heather's life and offer parallels between children and fathers and Christians and their faith in a Godly father.

As Mason turned his journalings into a book, he read the chapters out loud to Heather to ensure that she was comfortable with the more sensitive stories he shared about her and their relationship. Heather was "all in favor of me writing the book," Mason says. "We have a very honest and open relationship, and she trusted me."

That trust says a lot about what can happen between a parent and a child in only five years. Mason, who became a Christian through Alcoholics Anonymous 23 years ago, says that by the time Heather was nine years old, he realized that in order to build an intimate relationship with her he would have to first let go of a lifetime of accumulated anger. Unlocking some doors to his own childhood helped him heal. Mason says he's gradually learned to love, which has caused profound change in his life. "I realized I had been a Christian from the neck up, until I discovered this wonderful thing called love," Mason says. "I'm a happier person now."

Mason writes three hours a day, five days a week. The rest of his time is spent in what he calls an "almost a monastic" style of life, filling his well of creativity with times of prayer, reading and reflection. "Without those hours of quietness, I don't have anything to say in my writing," he says.

The theme of learning to love was a predominant feature in Mason's first book, The Mystery of Marriage (1985), which he sent as an unsolicited manuscript to Multnomah Press in the early'80s. It has since sold more than 150,000 copies, and Multnomah plans to publish a trade paper edition this September. A bout with depression in the early '90s resulted in The Gospel According to Job (Crossway, 1994), which was followed by Practicing the Presence of People: How We Learn to Love (WaterBrook, 1999). At 49, Mason figures he's having the best year of his life. He points to the back cover of his book, which has a photo of Mason and Heather standing ankle-deep in surf, arms wrapped around each other, heads thrown back, laughing. " Without Heather, I'd be a moody, cranky old writer." He's currently at work on a book about joy, which hasn't yet been contracted by a publishing house.

WaterBrook is projecting sales of 25,000 in the first year for The Mystery of Children and has budgeted $20,000 for promotion, including print trade advertising. Mason is currently doing Christian radio and print media interviews.
--Cindy Crosby

DIANE KOMP
Making Sense of Suffering
For pediatrician Diane Komp, it was the suffering of innocent children that turned her away from God. After what Komp describes as "a standard nice and pious upbringing," she turned her back on Christianity at the end of medical school, and for the first 15 years of her career as a specialist in pediatric cancer she was a "typical medical agnostic or atheist."

It was also the innocence of a child that brought Komp back to faith. "One of my patients was in bed dying, and she sat up and asked, 'Mommy, can you hear the angels?'" Then the child lay back down and died. "From that moment," recalls Komp, "I wondered if I had found a reliable witness. This child didn't have to believe. She didn't have an agenda. So I started spending more and more time listening to children."

That listening brought Komp back to the church, and it also sent her to her desk. Her first book on the topic, A Window to Heaven: When Children See Life in Death (Zondervan, 1992), recounted stories about Komp's young patients, like the girl who heard angels. "Those are stories I had found uplifting, stories I hoped readers might find uplifting as well," says Komp.

Her newest, Why Me?: A Doctor Examines the Book of Job (IVP, June), returns to Komp's old stumbling block: making sense of senseless suffering. Two experiences turned Komp's attention to Job, the biblical book that most bluntly tackles questions of suffering. "First I attended a lecture by a very good theologian who was teaching medical students about Job." She watched the students dutifully take notes, but she could tell from the looks on their faces "that they weren't getting it." They needed clinical examples and case histories to make the theologian's points come to life.

Komp continued to think about Job after a conversation with a woman whose child had died. On her pastor's suggestion, the mother read the book of Job, but found it rough going. "But if someone like you were to write about these issues of suffering," the mother said to Komp, "that book I would read." Komp decided to sit down with Job and read it through carefully. "I approached it more as literature than theology, and as I read I waited to see what stories [from my own life] Job brought to mind."

There are plenty of popular religion books that deal with needless suffering. Indeed, Komp has passed some of those books on to her patients' families. Her book differs, she says, in that it offers "examples drawn from clinical experiences." It also differs in its theology. "When Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People came out, I bought it for the parents of my patients to read." But Komp isn't completely satisfied with Kushner's take. "He states the problem of suffering, but he doesn't offer any solutions." Komp finds those solutions in the very last chapter of Job, which offers a vision of restoration. "If you skip over that chapter, you miss the point," she says. "Whether it's healing in this life or a messianic vision, there has to be some element of restoration."

IVP plans extensive print promotion in the U.S. and Canada, in both religion and general media venues, as well as radio interviews. IVP's marketing strategy calls for placements in several bookstore chains and buying-group catalogues this fall. A first printing of 15,000 copies is planned.
--Lauren Winner