Title: FOUR LETTER WORDS
Author: Bill Giovannetti
Publisher: Endurant Press
September 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9836812-6-7
Genre: Christian Living
When the questions are hard and the answers unpopular, will you stay devoted to Christ?
Are you ready to speak the truth even when your friends roll their eyes, take offense, or walk away?
The core beliefs of the Christian faith have become today’s four letter words. Annoyed by the Christ-follower’s “narrow-mindedness,” our politically correct culture enforces a highly selective tolerance: fist-bumping any philosophical fad and moral deviation as long as it’s not in harmony with Grandma’s leather Bible.
The four letter words addressed include (but are not limited to):
True: Its unreasonable to believe the Bible has the monopoly on truth
Know: Science contradicts the Bible
Pain: If God is real, He’d stop the pain
Evil: Good and evil don’t really exist—Christians are judgmental
Damn: Hell isn’t real
Wait: Sex isn’t a sin
FOUR LETTER WORDS is a great resource for small groups and Bible studies, college groups, personal study, anyone wanting to know Jesus, youth groups and retreats. Discussion guide is included at the end of every book.
FOUR LETTER WORDS is one of the first fully interactive, QR enabled books on the market. You can use your smartphone to scan the codes throughout this book for more resources.
We live in a world that hates Christians. Everything is tolerated except Christianity. And when we ask for our views to be respected, people scream intolerance. This is a much needed book. Uncompromised. $13.99. 207 pages.
About Four Letter Words:
Thou shalt tolerate every opinion... except the Christian's. Today's postmodern "prime directive" leaves many followers of Jesus tongue-tied. In the global village, isn't it unreasonable, and even dangerous, to suggest that the Bible has a monopoly on truth?
The church needs a new breed of Christ-follower. We need Christ-followers who are alert to today's touchy ideas, the truths that fire up more heat than light. We need Christ-followers who can make a clear case for the Bible's worldview; who are ready to help our friends think through their beliefs; who can recognize inconsistencies and challenge them; and who can do all of this with humility, confidence, humor, and love. For more information visit http://fourletterwords.org.
Link to buy the book: http://ow.ly/8FbUq
About Bill Giovannetti:
Dr. Bill Giovannetti is a professor at A.W. Tozer Theological Seminary and the senior pastor of Neighborhood Church of Redding. An experienced speaker and author, Bill informs the mind in ways that touch the heart. He enjoys life with his wife and two kids in northern California. For more information about Bill and his other books, visit http://maxgrace.wordpress.com and http://fourletterwords.org.
About the Giveaway:
Bill is celebrating the new Kindle edition of Four Letter Words (for only $4.99)! He’ll be traveling coast to coast over the next few weeks on this virtual book tour and he's celebrating by hosting a great giveaway!
Click here (http://fourletterwords.org/2012/01/contest-giveaway) to find out how you can win two gift certificates to Amazon (in the amount of $50 and $25) and free downloads of his yet-to-be-released title, Recession-Proof: Living a God-Blessed Life in a Messed Up World.
The whole scoop here: http://fourletterwords.org/2012/01/contest-giveaway/
Blog Tour Schedule: http://litfusegroup.com/blogtours/text/13453469.
What's Four Letter Words about, and where did you get the title?
Four Letter Words is about defending your faith in Christ. If you've ever felt
tongue-tied standing up for Jesus, this book can help.
Even though our culture claims tolerance as a virtue, that tolerance stops at
Christianity's front door: witness the hostility directed toward a sincere Christ-
follower like Tim Tebow. Judging by reactions to him, you'd think he just cussed
out his grandma when all he did was say a word for Christ. Speaking God's truth
and living your faith is quickly becoming today's profanity. Tougher days are
coming; we need to get ready.
There has never been a truth-system more satisfying, consistent, logical and
beautiful than Christianity. I wanted to help God's people rise up and say so.
What four letter words do you write about?
True: who says your truth has to be my truth too? Know: how do you know God
is real? Pain, Evil, and Ouch: why doesn't God stop the bad stuff? Damn: how
can a loving God send people to hell? Word: What makes the Bible so special?
Wait: isn't it unreasonable to expect today's people to live by biblical standards of
sexuality? Hope: what good has Christianity done in the world?
The book has ten chapters, discussion questions (in the book and downloadable
from the website), and 208 pages.
Did you ever struggle with your faith? How did you work through that?
Even though I've been a pastor for a long time, I struggle with my faith a lot. My
earliest struggles – back in high school days – centered on scientific stuff, like
evolution. In the book I tell the story of how I made peace with faith in a Creator
God and how I fit together science, logic, and the gospel in my own heart.
Now that I'm a bit older, my struggles come more out of pain and suffering. Why
does God let people hurt? I cover those topics too.
Struggles are normal – we just can't let them overwhelm our faith or uproot our
joy. It's super-important for us to know every question raised against Christianity
has an answer. I try to provide some of those answers along with simple talking
points for everyday conversations.
Who is this book for?
This book is for anyone who either struggles with faith or who wants to help
friends who struggle with faith. I wrote to strengthen faith and equip believers
to share faith. Our church has used this book with high school students, young
adults, and senior citizens—it's been really well received across all age groups.
Other churches are using it in small groups and youth groups.
I would love to see this book in the hands of every high school graduate and new
college student: they need to be inoculated from the anti-Christian venom they're
going to experience.
Toward the end, Four Letter Words invites readers to faith in Christ so it can be
resource for evangelism too.
Discussion questions are included.
What's with the QR codes?
Part of my geek credentials, I suppose. As far as I know, Four Letter Words is
the first QR-enabled book for the general market. QR codes are those postage-
stamp sized boxes with indecipherable patterns inside – Quick Response codes. I
wanted to make the book an interactive experience: just scan the codes with any
smartphone and you'll go straight to relevant videos, audio .mp3's, and websites.
Each chapter has a lot more resources on the website (www.fourletterwords.org)
which you can reach either through the QR code or just by visiting the site. The
geek-tech stuff in no way overwhelms the written word; it just supplements it. I
hope readers like it. What did you think?
If I read this book, what will get out of it?
I wrote Four Letter Words with three simple goals in mind:
1. Clarity: Know what you believe.
2. Confidence: Know why you believe.
3. Courage: Know what to say when you don't know what to say.
So what do you do when you're not writing?
I'm the husband of one incredible wife and dad to two amazing kids. My main
calling is as a pastor to the Neighborhood Church of Redding, a small-town
church of over 2,000 set amid the snow-capped peaks and pristine lakes of
northern California. I love preaching and teaching—spreading out a rich feast
of God and his grace and digging deep into God's Word. I also serve on the
faculties of A.W. Tozer Theological Seminary and Simpson University. I like
watching mindless action movies, reading, hanging with friends, bass fishing,
woodworking, good coffee, and Chicago sports teams. Go Bears!
Italian food is my love language.
Do you have any other books around?
My earlier book helps readers get a grip on their inner mess. If you read it, you'll
meet your Inner Thug, Inner Brat, Inner Legalist, and the rest of the motley crew
lurking in your soul. It's called How to Keep Your Inner Mess from Trashing
Your Outer World (Monarch/Kregel, 2009). I have a couple more books in the
pipeline, including a fiction book on the global political scene.
What's your spiritual background? How did you get started with Jesus?
I was reared in a tiny Chicago gospel church. I was loved. I was cared for. I was
taught the Bible. That church was my second family. They introduced me to
Jesus. I received him when I was young and devoted my life to him. But it wasn't
until young adulthood that I began to appreciate how much Jesus was devoted to
me. That discovery rocked my world. I shifted from rules to relationship and from
guilt to grace. I dedicated my life to encourage instead of tear down. I strive to
free others from guilt, shame, and legalism, and to help people discover life and
love through God's amazing grace.
How did you pick the four letter words for each chapter?
I had a great team working with me to pick the topics. The young adult leadership
team from my church hung out with me for a few coffee-shop meetings. We
brainstormed ideas. We asked what questions kept surfacing in their relationships
with seekers and what issues kept tripping up their conversations about Christ.
The topics came from them. Each chapter grew out of the real-life struggles of
real people in my church. I think this is why the book has connected in some
pretty deep ways with readers.
Would you say that Christians are persecuted?
Not so much in the U.S., but persecution is definitely coming. It's not that
Christians are changing; it's that culture is running from God so fast that
yesterday's normal is becoming today's weird. Christians will be increasingly
marginalized. Tell a typical college student he needs to be celibate till marriage
and he'll look at you like you're Amish. Why don't you hop in your buggy and trot
along. A generation ago, our culture would have supported that value. Today,
culture attacks it. It's going to get tougher to stay strong for Jesus.
We need a new breed of Christ-follower: alert to the beliefs that tick people
off, and ready to fire the weapons of truth and grace with courage, compassion,
humor, and love.
There are so many books on the gospel message, do we really need another one?
Thank God for a lot of excellent books out there to defend your faith. Four
Letter Words stands out because it is written for the everyday Christian. You
won't need advanced degrees to understand its message. I wanted to go deep,
but keep it really clear. I also made sure to include "Talking Points" after each
chapter. That's where I pull the chapter's themes into a handful of memorable
and repeatable truths. These take-aways can help you engage your friends in
solid conversations about Christ. While many other apologetics books focus on a
single topic, Four Letter Words deals with common topics that often make the
average Christian feel tongue-tied. Consider it your one-stop shop for equipping
in apologetics.
FUN QUESTIONS
If aliens landed in front of you and, in exchange for anything you desire, offered you any
position on their planet, what would you want?
Definitely the Minister of Space Exploration. I dig science fiction and it's
my secret dream to pilot an alien spacecraft through a wormhole into another
dimension. I want to boldly go where no one has gone before. Plus it would be
cool to see first hand how Jesus gets glorified on the far side of Jupiter and to hit
a baseball on Pluto and see how far it goes. As Minister of Technology, I'd restore
Pluto's status to that of planet instead of asteroid; I feel sorry for the little guy.
If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?
There's this guy on the TV show Alphas named Gary Bell who can literally see
the entire electromagnetic spectrum: radio waves, phone texts, television signals,
digital transmissions, and the Internet. He sees it in the air around him. I want
that. Is that enough to renew my geek-card?
Name one movie you consider wildly under-appreciated.
That's easy: Tremors. Yes, the one with Kevin Bacon fighting giant worms that
eat people. Creepy comedic genius. My wife loves it so much she rolls her eyes
and leaves the room every time I turn it on.
Amazon: http://amzn.to/tF3L3M
Direct from the Author (signed copies) http://maxgrace.1freecart.com
Website: http://www.fourletterwords.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BillGiovannetti
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/billgiovannetti
Blog: http://www.maxgrace.com
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