Among the Christian Booksellers: a convention junkie's report - Christian Booksellers Association Convention

Christian Century, Sept 27, 1995 by John D. Spalding

Lucado gave a call to unity among Christians across denominational and traditional lines. He likened Christians to sailors on the same boat with "one captain, one destination," despite their different responsibilities and ideas about how to communicate with each other and the captain. "Sometimes the boat can be an unsafe place," he said. "Fights have broken out between sailors. And there are certain sailors on this boat who deny the existence of other sailors on this boat."

Adroitly switching metaphors, Lucado said that for Jesus "the fruit is more important than the name of the orchard." He urged acceptance between Protestants and Catholics, Baptists and Presbyterians. This was a powerful message--and controversial, considering that many CBA sailors/farmers have defined themselves largely by sucker-punching other sailors/farmers within the association.

THEN--DIM THE lights, drum roll, please--the highlight of the evening: the Gold Medallion y Book Awards to honor publishers of Christian books in 22 categories. The ceremony curiously lacked the sophisticated elegance you might expect at such an occasion. Spotlights swept the audience, a prerecorded announcers voice reverberated off the walls and images of the jacket covers flashed on huge screens at either end of the auditorium. The music wasn't exactly my taste--'70s-style Muzak with lots of drums and trumpets in classical mixes and bouncy polka numbers--but still all the pomp and circumstance stirred in me an almost Proustian longing for the sights and sounds of an early childhood experience I had all but forgotten--the Amway pageants my mother used to drag me to.

Book-award nominees included Coming Out of Homosexuality, by Bod Davies and Lori Rentzel (InterVarsity Press); Lord, I Haven't Talked to You Since the Last Crisis, by Lorraine Peterson (Bethany House); Worms in My Tea Cup and Other Mixed Blessings, by Becky Freeman and Ruthie Arnold (Broadman & Holman); The Finishing Touch, by Charles Swindoll (Word); and three titles by Max Lucado. I later learned that Lucado's When God Whispers Your Name (Word) won the Gold Medallion Christian Book of the Year Award. Well be fore that award was announced I decided to sneak back to my hotel for a nightcap--or two.

SUNDAY MORNING I hauled myself out of bed to make the CBA worship service at the convention center. It was definitely worth the effort. The sermon was delivered by Tony Evans, cofounder and senior pastor of the 3,000-member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas. He's also the chaplain of the Dallas Mavericks, a position he once held with the Dallas Cowboys--and it's easy to see why: only a big, strapping, booming man like Evans could command the respect and attention of a professional sports team. If he ever decided to give up the ministry I'm sure he could carve a brilliant career for himself as a prison guard.

Evans's impassioned sermon was on misguided love--"Do we really love God the way God wants us to love him? Do we adore his son the way he deserves to be adored?" But when I reviewed my notes I realized that Evans's sermon was mostly about food. All his illustrations (except for an account of the final fight scene in Rocky V) revolved around eating and drinking. There was fried chicken. (Once at an airport restaurant, just as his flight was called, Evans was served a steaming plate of fried chicken, which "put me in a terrible catch-22," he said. "Finally I decided to take the fried chicken with me on the plane. God doesn't want you to sacrifice. You can eat that chicken, just don't miss the plane!") There were lollipops. (To calm his son before administering an asthma shot, the family doctor gave the boy some candy: "Jesus is our lollipop!"). Lemonade. ("The good news about God is he can take the lemons and make lemonade, take our sour decisions of the past and make them sweet.") Cooking. ("Ladies, when you married you cooked for your husbands because you loved them. Now you cook just `cuz you gotta eat, too! You've lost your first love.") And tea. ("How many of you are tea drinkers? The:re are two ways to make tea--dip or steep. We've got a lot of dippin' Christians today. Dip in Sunday, dip out!") I found something terribly unsettling about the sermon--probably the fact that he delivered it so close to lunch.