It's almost time...

You can now pre-order my book, so it's time to get over my self-promotion anxiety.

Well, here it is. A moment that for a while neither I nor my publisher thought would ever arrive. My first book, The Child In God’s Church, is now available for pre-order and will be out in the real world on 28th January. And to be honest, I have a few conflicting feelings about the next few weeks and months in particular.

I’m not naturally a good self-promoter. I love teaching, preaching, lecturing and training others. I am comfortable up in front of a congregation, class or crowd. However, in these circumstances, I don’t feel like it is me that I am drawing attention to, but the content, the idea, the passage of scripture, or the particular strategy of children’s or intergenerational ministry that I am teaching.

Promoting ‘Tim’, on the other hand… I’d rather slink back into the bushes while letting the ideas percolate in people’s minds and hearts. Perhaps this is what those in the creative arts mean when they talk about getting out of the way and letting the art speak for itself.

But now that there is a book bearing my name, I feel that there is a necessary conflation between ‘Tim’ and the ideas in the book. And to get these ideas—which I’m excited about—out into the world, I am going to have to work through my self-promotion anxiety. Before I can get out of the way, I have to get in people’s way and make them aware of these ideas, concepts and the approach to ministry to children in God’s church that I advocate for.

I am passionately for children’s ministry, family ministry, and intergenerational ministry, the three complementary “spheres of discipleship” that I argue for in this book. I believe that each of these spheres springs from solid foundations, affirmed by Scripture and confirmed by child development and sociological research. I am confident that churches that evidence each of these spheres of discipleship within their ministry to the children in their church help those children grow in their knowledge, love and obedience to King Jesus.

And so, with that conviction driving me, you can consider this the first of what may be many posts of, not shameless (cause I still feel awkward), but blatant self-promotion.

Here’s how you can get a copy of my book and support my writing:

• Pre-order a copy of The Child in God’s Church from YouthworksMedia.net in Aus. or YouthworksMedia.co.uk in the UK.

• Subscribe to this SubStack, where I intend to share ongoing writing, podcasts and book reviews as well as legacy articles from the vault.

• Consider becoming a paid subscriber. I don’t say this lightly. I’m awkward about self-promotion, remember?! However, having people financially contribute to my writing shows me that it is worth putting time and attention into.