Yes, we are thrilled to invite you to a free webinar, a facebook live event this Thursday, October 7th, 2021, where I am delighted to be the host of a conversation with author Charles E. Moore, an editor at the extraordinary Plough Publishing House. We will chat about his stunning new collection of writings about the Sermon on the Mount (in the same style and format of his equally stunning devotional anthology Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People that came out in 2016.

It is called Following the Call: Living the Sermon on the Mount Together. Both books are compiled by Moore and published by Plough, the publishing arm of the Bruderhof communities. Both are $18.00 and we have both at our BookNotes 20% off discount, making them each $14.40.

We hope you can join us for this free conversation (and we hope you considering ordering these from us.)

In order to explain just a bit about the remarkable format of this new book — drawing on authors from around the world and throughout church history — I’ll share with you a slightly revised version of what I wrote about it back in July when we invited you to pre-order Following the Call (that just now released.) But first, here is the information about registering with the good folks at Plough to be able to join us for this free program.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP. Then come back to read the rest of this BookNotes (and click the order link below to order the book from our Dallastown shop. The “order” link takes you to our secure order form where you tell us what you want and how you want it shipped.)

By the way, you should know (and we’ll talk about this a bit on Thursday night) that Plough has an excellent, classy, and edifying publishing program. I hope you at least know their popular Advent devotional Watch for the Light and the similar Lenten devotional, Bread and Wine. They also do what is perhaps our favorite quarterly magazine (up there with our other fav, Comment) simply called Plough. I’m sure we’ll talk about their life together in intentional community, their Anabaptist roots, their ecumenical and wide-ranging reading habits, and their publishing ministry. It’s going to be really interesting, and if you know Plough or the many beautiful books so lovingly done by their publishing house, you know it will be thoughtful and literate and inspiring.

This new book compiled by Charles E. Moore is the most delightfully curated, fully inter-denominational book we’ve seen in a long time. Yes, yes, we surely need to pay more attention to the Lord Jesus’s teachings in Matthew, popularly called “The Sermon on the Mount.” This book guides us to that, embracing a more Christ-like discipleship. But how this book came about and how very wide-ranging it is, is itself a breath-taking story.

Here is some of what we wrote about Following the Call before:

Plough, the publisher, is rooted in the radical Anabaptist tradition of the Bruderhof communities (somewhat akin to the Hutterites, who are somewhat distantly akin to the Amish) but yet they draw on the most diverse range of authors of any religious publisher of which we know. We happily stock nearly all of the Plough Publishing volumes and respect them for their charm and seriousness. This lovely and challenging collection of short readings on Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount is no different and is a beautiful illustration of the grand and broad thinking for which Plough Publishing is known.

Beautiful and challenging? Yes, indeed. Ecumenical and faithful? Certainly, so. The editor, Charles Moore, is himself a wide-ranging and deliciously curious reader and writer and this volume, Following the Call, is somewhat of a sequel to his previous anthology, Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People, which was also laden with diverse authors from across the faith spectrum. (Here is a short video with Moore describing just a bit about that volume. It’s a great book, hard-earned wisdom, for sure.)

Like that one, this new one, Following the Call, includes excerpts from the likes of Dorothy Day and John Perkins, Basil the Great and Madeline L’Engle, Richard Rohr and C. S. Lewis, N. T. Wright and John Wesley. We weren’t surprised to fine a brief piece by Rabindranath Tagor (on grief) but have to admit to smiling when I saw the bit by Francis Chan. From Dorothy Sayers of the mid-20th century back to Augustine, from William Blake to Wendell Berry, from Amy Carmichael to Frederick Buechner, from Gregory of Nyssa to Madame Guyon, from Martin Luther to Teresa of Avila, this collection surely wins an award for the broadest wingspan of Christian books these days. We trust that our Hearts & Minds readers will appreciate how rare this is these days. How glad we are to see Christina Cleveland and Tim Keller, John Chrysostom of Constantinople and Romano Guardini of Munich and Dan Doriani of St. Louis.  Each of these writers are offered following a passage, line by line, from Matthew 5-7. Amazing, yes?

Following the Call includes 52 readings (but well over 100 contributors with several bits for each day’s reading.) There are often very well paired, even surprisingly so — Dallas Willard with Jacques Ellul, for instance, or Polish/ New Yorker Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel with the strict Scottish Calvinist, Sinclair Ferguson or, in a passage on “Right Worship”, we have F.B. Meyer, Henri Nouwen, and George MacDonald. The aforementioned poet Rabindranath Tagore is paired in a selection on mourning with Nicholas Wolterstorff and Frederica Mathewes-Green. Wow.

Following the Call is arranged with readings from these diverse thinkers into four major units. The four parts are Kingdom Character, Kingdom Commands, Kingdom Devotion, and Kingdom Priorities. I’m sure in our program we will talk about the distinctives of these four sections of the study. There will be so much to discuss, and it will be stimulating to hear from an editor who is so very fluent in such a wide swatch of religious literature.

The handsome and nicely designed paperback includes a great discussion and reflection guide in the back, good for your own devotions, but ideal for groups to read. (And you know I”m going to ask Charles about the “together” part of the subtitle, and the relationship of this book and his previous one on community.) I am not exaggerating when I say this very useful discussion guide is itself worth the price of the book for anyone studying this famous (but under-used) Biblical portion.

We hope you can help us spread the word about this upcoming Facebook live event. Thanks for posting this or telling your friends and church members. It’ll be nice to connect with some customers and friends in this way, but, better, it will be good to hear from Charles Moore and be reminded of the great breadth of helpful stuff that has been written on these few Bible passages. This could be just the thing you need to refresh and energize your faith and resolve for Christ’s gospel of God’s Kingdom.

Again — it’s coming up this Thursday, October 7th, at 8:00 PM. If you haven’t  please REGISTER for this free event now.

Talking about the Sermon on the Mount is always challenging and important but knowing the method behind this glorious process will itself be a blast. Even if you can’t join us, do share this, please. And say a prayer that we might sell a good number of this — what an impact in the discipleship and witness if church folk from all over took more seriously Jesus’ own commands, and we learn to follow His call together. Thanks to Plough for allowing us to help promote this vital resource. May the hard, happy blessings promised in the Beatitudes — part of what is studied in Following the Call — be yours as you read this new book.

It is very helpful if you would tell us how you prefer us to ship your orders. The weight and destination of each customer’s package varies but you can use this as a thumbnail, general guide to choosing your shipping method.

There are generally two kinds of US Mail options, and, of course, UPS. If necessary, we can do overnight and other expedited methods, too. Just tell us what you need.

• United States Postal Service has the option called “Media Mail” which is cheapest but slow and may be delayed. For one book, usually, it’s $3.49;  $3.92 for 2 lbs.
• United States Postal Service has another option called “Priority Mail” which is about $7.60 or so for a few books and that gets much more attention than does “Media Mail.”
• UPS Ground is more reliable but about $8.00 or more for one or two books to most places. 

— DON’T FORGET TO LET US KNOW WHAT SHIPPING METHOD YOU PREFER –-

If you want US Mail, please say which sort — media mail or priority mail — so we know how to serve you best. Saying “regular” isn’t really helpful.

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