GOING DEEPER

Devotional Classics was the first Renovaré Resource that we started self-publishing in 1989. Jim Smith compiled the first thirteen readings and brought them to Richard who read, edited, and added a reflection to each selection. My job was to typeset, proofread, and get them printed at a Wichita, Kansas, print shop. I also arranged for a large printing company to make plastic three-ring binders in which the first set was inserted and given to everyone who purchased the entire book. When each subsequent thirteen-reading set was done, we mailed it in a manila envelope to the people who had already paid for all fifty-two readings. Each person then had to insert the new set into the three-ring notebook.

Concurrently with filling the pre-sold orders, we continued to sell Devotional Classics that contained less than four sets, but once all of the readings were done, we shipped everything at once. I remember ordering five hundred of the first edition and storing them in a first-floor room of Davis Hall at Friends University in which pigeons were roosting in an opening above the only window. The plastic notebook sets sold well, thank goodness, because after about three months in storage, the boxes had a distinct odor!

In spite of this humble beginning, the publisher at HarperSanFrancisco liked Devotional Classics and added it to their list after revising and editing it slightly in which I (thankfully) had very little part other than to proofread the final pass. Since 1993 the second edition has sold almost 150,000 copies and continues to be one of Harpers best sellers.

In fact, Devotional Classics has been so popular that we have now added a similar book, Spiritual Classics, to our Resource line. But this time HarperSanFrancisco as well as HarperCollins Religious of London were on board from the beginning along with the editor, Emilie Griffin.

For those familiar with Devotional Classics, Spiritual Classics is very similar in format. There are fifty-two selections and each selection consists of a short biography of the writer, the reading, a Scripture passage, self-examination questions based on the reading and the Scripture, a reflection by Richard Foster, and a bibliography. Also like Devotional Classics, Spiritual Classics has been designed for both individual and group use. It is dissimilar in that it is arranged around the twelve disciplines discussed in Celebration of Discipline rather than on the Renovaré traditions.

It has taken us a number of years to compile and get Spiritual Classics published after we received the first requests for DC II (as we jokingly called it), but I think the wait was worth it. Emilie has done an excellent job of pulling together and editing a variety of readings from both well-known and obscure sources. And Richard's "Reflections" areBfor lack of a better descriptionB elucidating. If you're looking for resources that will stimulate the growth of your spirit, look no further. Devotional Classics and Spiritual Classics fill the bill.

Lynda L. Graybeal

Print off and use the form on page 6 to order.