TO LIFE! by Steve Maltz

"This is the hardest book that I've ever had to write. It's the final book of the trilogy (after 'How the Church lost ...') and was always going to be the book that tries to supply the answers to the questions posed in the other two books. The intention was for it to have a positive tone, in content, design and even in its title, to encourage neutrals to pick it up and read (very few 'neutrals' were happy to do so with the other two books!) This new book has been written for the wider church, to be read by those who need to see changes in their lives and their church as well as those who want to see changes."

Please come to the book launch on the 21st, if you are in the area (East London).

I will be speaking this Wednesday at the Lydia Fellowship Intercessors conference. A little bit daunting .....

You will be able to order the new book in just over a week's time.

Went to a fantastic conference yesterday - held at London School of Theology - Israel & The Church. A packed hall heard papers from a bunch of eggheads (each one holding a Ph. D or equivalent!), including Richard Harvey, Barry Horner and Darrell Bock. I'd like to share with you the conclusions of Mitchell Glaser (head of Chosen People Ministries), when speaking of his suggestions for the future, in regard to the ongoing debate on Israel between "Christian Zionists" and "Supercessionists". He advocates - a balanced approach, dialog not diatribe, respect not recrimination, greater theological precision and speech seasoned with grace. Amen to all that and all good stuff for me as I write the third book in my trilogy!

Will be speaking this Saturday at Pardes - Hebraic Teaching Day - at The Centre for Biblical and Hebraic Studies, Moggerhanger Park, Bedfordshire MK44 3RW. The day starts at 10am and I'll be speaking twice in the morning, with Clifford Hill speaking in the afternoon. I'll have plenty of books with me if you're interested. More at www.contemporaryministry.com - click on the link on the right hand side.

I have just seen something that appalled me.

On Christian TV, this extremely high profile pastor, teacher, author and speaker said the following about the question of heaven and hell

...I don’t think anywhere in the Bible, God’s into religions. It’s not like, you’re a Christian so you’re OK, but you’re a Muslim or you’re a Hindu so you’re not ...

If he’s correct ... then what’s the point of being a Christian?

Yes I know it seems like banging my own drum, but I have had enough feedback from early readers to know that my latest book is part of the solution!

A challenging, provocative and entertaining historical and Biblical analysis of the hottest topics in today’s Church. Why do we believe what we believe?

To find out more click here.

Today we heard of the untimely death of a good friend, a solid Christian hero, who has spent at least the last 30 years dedicating his life to others, as a minister of the church we used to go to. He was also the godfather of our kids.

We should dwell on the positives, he ran the race and triumphed, now living in the heavenly realities, rather than the fog that we stumble through in our allocated years on Earth. But we are caught up in the grief, particularly that of his immediate family, all good people and we mourn, and it's not nice.

New book back from the printers and review copies have been sent out. Got following response from David Pawson (one of my heroes), a lot better than his response from my first draft, sent many moons ago.

This time he said: “I really enjoyed reading it. You are the master of epigrams, full of Jewish wit and humour, which I love. These keep you reading and make the whole interesting. It’s so important to add gravy to the meat and you are a good chef. I hope this book will reach those who need it most though I fear they will be irritated, if not infuriated, by your dismissal of so many of their heroes!”

Epigrams eh? Now where's my dictionary??!!!

At last I'm now free to wrap my mind around the next book - How The Church Lost The Life ... and how it can find it again. This is the book I've always wanted to write, but I'm having trouble getting started. The general theme is this:

"To understand the Hebraic mindset of Jesus and the first Apostles and to live your Christian life accordingly"

In this book, one thing I want to address is a list of things that, I think, are wrong with the modern church e.g. why so many denominations? Then I'm going to try and systematise them and pass them through a "Hebraic" filter. That's the general idea, anyway ... how I'm going to do this is going to have to be the result of much prayer!

Feedback would be apprecaited here ... what are your bugbears about today's Church? What are the main problems, do you think? Could do with some help here ...

Well the second book (How the Church lost The Truth) is with the printers now and I'm planning for a series of book launches on the following dates:

Friday September 10th : Tree of Life Fellowship, Ilford, Essex UK - 8pm
Sunday September 19th: Clayhall Baptist Church (as above) - 11am
Saturday September 24th: Reshet meeting, Leicester

More details will follow. Do you want me to speak at your Church / fellowship? I'm looking at planning an Autumn schedule and will even "cross the pond" to the good ol' USA if there's interest. Contact me at steve@saltshakers.com if this tickles you.

Watch this space in August for a series of short video blogs on the new book.

Hello everybody. Welcome to my new blog. Not sure how this one will pan out, whether I will have the time and energy to keep going or whether it will peter out like the last one. The idea is that this blog will accompany my thoughts while I write the third book in the "How the Church ..." series and there may be requests for information, testimonies, help etc on the way, so keep watching.

The first book, "How the Church lost The Way ..." is being launched this weekend in the USA by my lovely American publisher, the dashing Steve Spillman of True Potential Publishing (www.tppress.com). He is exhibiting at the International Christian Retail Show in Louisiana. Why not drop in and make him smile by ordering thousands of books :-)

Here's the latest promo for the book. If you are in the USA and want to order copies, you can do so here.