With their new book “Straight to the Heart,” brothers Daniel and Mike Blackaby hope to help believers effectively communicate the gospel in a culturally relevant and impactful way, taking an introspective look at the challenges of engaging in faith-based conversations.
“Ultimately, our prayer is always that the book will guide people into a deeper and more holistic relationship with God,” Daniel Blackaby said. “Beyond that, we hope it will provide understanding and encouragement. The book was written in response to a growing uncertainty and frustration within the Church toward the state of today’s emotionally driven culture.
“In recent years, there appears to be a paradigm shift not just of what people think, but also how they think, and many Christians are unsure how to navigate this new terrain. We hope [to] help readers better understand the cultural moment that God has placed them in and how to respond to it most effectively.”
Practical advice, insights
“Straight to the Heart” is filled with practical advice and insights to help readers engage in faith-based conversations.
“Along the way, we also want to encourage Christians that perhaps the emotionally driven culture all around us is not an insurmountable problem but an exciting possibility,” Blackaby noted.
“It’s always easy to focus on and become discouraged by the shocking news stories and internet posts that showcase negative examples of emotional excess,” he noted, “but a culture driven by the heart is actually primed to receive the gospel in many unique and powerful ways if we can learn to speak the language of the heart.”
Bridging the gap
Throughout the writing process, the brothers were grateful for technological advances that helped them bridge the gap between their homes in Georgia and Canada.
“Mike is the pastor of Canvas Church Oak Bay in Victoria, British Columbia, an extremely difficult missions field,” Blackaby noted. “I serve at Blackaby Ministries International where, among other roles, I run ‘The Collision,’ a multimedia ministry aimed at equipping Christians to think critically about pop-culture.
“The writing process with my brother is interesting to say the least,” Blackaby acknowledged. “Logistically, there was the challenge that we currently live 2,240 miles apart, about as far as possible while both still being in North America. In fact, we may have only been together in the same room once during the entire process.
“Thankfully, there are many technological tools available today to make it possible, and an unexpected blessing from the experience is that it cultivated the opportunity for daily communication with each other — even if that meant leaving funny notes in the shared [folder], sometimes in real time.
“A second challenge is that our two personalities are about as far apart as our geographical locations,” Blackaby admitted. “We’ve written several books together now and have been able to find a good voice and rhythm, having developed a lot of trust in the perspective of the other, even when it differs from our own.”
Blackaby said he and his brother sensed an urgency in the timing for the topic.
“For this particular book, our differences actually became a great asset,” he noted. “Mike is often labeled as the thinker and me as the feeler. As we began to explore the tension of the head and heart in our book, our opposite personalities allowed us to approach the topic from different vantage points. We both learned a ton through the writing process, and I think the book is much more well-rounded as a result.”
Culmination
Blackaby said “Straight to the Heart” is the culmination of the brothers’ journeys — both did doctoral work in apologetics so “much of the book was born out of years of reading and studying.”
“We are deeply indebted to the apologetic training we had in school, but we came to realize that many of the rational objections and skepticism that we had been equipped to confront through our schooling were not the same doubts and questions that people in our ministry settings were actually asking today,” Blackaby said. “They were objections of the heart, not of the head.
“In the last several decades, the Church has done an excellent job equipping Christians to appeal to the head of skeptics — with rational arguments and evidential proofs — but in the process may have overly neglected the essential role of the heart — emotion, beauty, art, stories, etc.
“We hope that our book is one small contribution to developing more holistic apologetic resources, as we fill in the gaps in some areas that may not have received as much emphasis.”
Called to obedience
The brothers also have written a student Bible study and devotional book called “God, Heroes, and Everyday Dragons: Finding Your Story in God’s Story.”
“After getting both of these writing projects across the finish line, we will likely take a bit of a breather,” Blackaby said. “Something that has always stood out to us is that despite being a best-selling writer with millions of books sold, our grandpa Henry Blackaby never set out to be an author. ‘Experiencing God,’ his first and best-known book, was the fruit of 50 years of faithful pastoral ministry. He went on to write many other books, but his focus was always on ministering to and loving people. That is one part of his legacy that we hope to carry on as well.
“We are tremendously blessed to come from a family with a long legacy of faithfulness. Millions of people, from literally all around the world, have been impacted by [Blackaby’s] book. We were fortunate to have a front-row seat to watch as those biblical truths were put into action and lived out day by day.
“The older generations in our family set an example for what it looked like to follow steadfastly after Christ, and we wanted to experience the God that they served.
“When we were younger, the pressure and inevitable comparisons could sometimes be a heavy burden to bear, but we have come to understand that God is not calling us to be the next Henry Blackaby or Richard Blackaby. He is calling us to obedience in whatever the next assignment is, the big and the small.”
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