The Englewood Review of Books (ERB), the online review publication started in 2008, has announced that it will restart its book publishing wing after a decade-long hiatus, thanks in part to a grant from the Lily Endowment.
The first books in its newly relaunched program will be the Cultivating Communities series of books, an offshoot of a collaboration between the Cultivating Communities initiative based at Englewood Christian Church, Missio Alliance and the Ekklesia Project. All three entities focus on helping churches navigate congregational life and formation through conversation amid the challenges facing churches today. The books will reflect that focus.
“We wanted to think differently about how we are prepared to contribute to the larger work,” said C. Christopher Smith, founding editor of ERB, who attends Englewood Christian Church located outside Indianapolis, Ind. “The next step was book publishing.”
The first title in the series, releasing in October, is titled The Shape of Our Lives and is a revised and updated edition of workbook originally produced in 2008 by the Ekklesia Project. Price and design are still being decided. The books will be distributed by Ingram, as well as connections with independent bookstores around the country. Amazon will sell e-book editions, and audiobooks may become available.
“Conversation is how churches grow and change and realize what God is up to,” said Smith. “We looked at what resources we could make available to help churches have these important, meaningful and difficult conversations.”
ERB is hoping to release 10 to 12 books by the end of 2025, when Lily Endowment funding runs out. Smith said they may apply for an extension of the grant to help continue publishing books.
“We hope that by doing this initial series we will gain enough experience working through the publishing process and the learning curve of distribution and marketing that we’ll be able to do other books outside the series," said Lindsay Cornett, the series’ managing editor.
Smith calls ERB's upcoming books “field guides,” smaller books based on a single topic with discussion questions within the text. The audience is primarily church leaders, both clergy and lay leaders, and the books are intended to be read by leadership groups within congregations and shared.
“Half of the books we plan to publish have at least a draft of a manuscript,” said Smith. “Our goals are pretty ambitious, but made more manageable in that we’re drawing on resources already created and are reworking them.”
