Christine D. Johnson

After spending the last couple of years pursuing an acting career, Rebecca St. James returns to music this month with the release of I Will Praise You on Beach Street Records. She discusses her new music, her acting career and her fiancé.

It's 20 years since your first release, in Australia; what do you think when you hear it now?

Oh my goodness, most people don’t even know about that one. I think I was 13 years old. I kind of blush a little bit when I hear that album. I sound very, very young and slightly pitchy.

This new release marks a change in label for you. How did that come about?

Well, it was actually a beautiful experience. Mark Miller, who is the head of Beach Street Records and also my producer with this album, he produced Casting Crowns—just an amazing Christian man. We had lunch and talked about doing this album, and he said, 'Rebecca, I’m just praying that if I could be a good steward of your ministry, that God would show me that and show us that we’ll (get a) green light to work together.' So I just loved that this producer was just going to God about this opportunity for us to work together, and both of us had such a sense of peace with the whole team. I really saw God’s hands on the process of this album.

Shawn McDonald sees the release of his fourth album and first recording in three years, Closer (Sparrow Records). With songs written by McDonald, Brandon Heath, Joy Williams and others, the album features themes of hope and redemption.

How would you describe your music?

I am a songwriter by nature. I also love all sorts of music. Every record I have written has been different. This current record I would call “intellectual pop.”

How is this album different than the others you have done?

I try to remain fresh and innovative and at the same time retain a deep sense of my faith. I really try hard to not make the same record over, and it is a hard line to walk because you gain fans on one sound you gave them, and the goal is to not lose them on the next one. I have found that if I don’t continue growing as an artist or even in my faith, my heart sort of dies, and I start to do it for the wrong reasons. I am extremely excited about this record. It is a bit more on the pop side of things, but it was where my heart was at when I wrote it.

Rick Tramonto is a highly respected professional in the culinary world. He owns several restaurants and has been featured in USA Today, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on Iron Chef America and was a contestant on Top Chef Masters. He is also a Christian, and he shares his story in his new book, Scars of a Chef.

You’ve written cookbooks, but this is a different kind of book for you, isn’t it? 

It is. It’s an extremely personal book of my journey, really just kind of a memoir and the wonderful journey that my life was taken over the last 30 years in the restaurant industry.  

Maureen Lang | Tyndale House Publishers

What turned your focus to World War I in The Great War Series?

Family history. My grandfather was in the Signal Corps in the first World War and gave me a whole box of pictures from France during that time. He’d written on the back what was going on in each shot, and it’s fascinated me ever since.

What can readers expect in Springtime of the Spirit?

I learned so much writing this, mainly because the political drama of 1919 Germany seems to touch on many topics we hear about in the news today: How big do we want our government to be? How much should we depend on government to take care of us? Does faith play into the design of government?

Mandisa | Sparrow Records

Grammy nominee and American Idol finalist Mandisa sees her third album’s release on April 5, while celebrating—publicly—her personal success of shedding 100 pounds.

Matthew Barnett with George Barna | BarnaBooks 

When Matthew Barnett moved to Los Angeles at age 20, he planned to build a big church like his dad, megachurch pastor Tommy Barnett, did—but God had other plans. 

Sixteen years later, the younger Barnett finds himself leading a successful inner-city ministry, the Dream Center. It is the singular cause that now drives him, and he tells the story of how it became his driving force in The Cause Within You: Finding the One Great Thing You Were Created to Do in This World.

Joanna Weaver | WaterBrook Press

Best-selling author of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and Having a Mary Spirit, Joanna Weaver concludes her look at the New Testament siblings Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Lazarus Awakening: Finding Your Place in the Heart of God.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment | Mira Sorvino, Barry Pepper, Kate Levering, Maxwell Perry Cotton, Cole Hauser

 Like Dandelion Dust—based on the 2006 Center Street novel by New York Times best-selling author Karen Kingsbury—released on January 25 on DVD.

Starring Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino, Golden Globe nominee Barry Pepper and introducing child actor Maxwell Perry Cotton, Like Dandelion Dust centers on the battle between adoptive and birth parents and a 6-year-old boy.

Dr. Scott Morris, a family physician and ordained minister, founded the Church Health Care Center in Memphis in 1987 to provide medical care for the uninsured. It has grown into the largest faith-based clinic of its type in the U.S. Morris’ training, medically and theologically, offers him a unique perspective on health care and wellness. In his new book, he discusses these topics and also offers insights on how the church should respond. 

 Tell us about the Church Health Center you started in Memphis.

Dr. Scott Morris: We began in 1987. We provide health care for people who work in low-wage jobs who don’t have health insurance. We take care of the people who work to make our lives comfortable. They shine your shoes, cook your food and one day dig your grave, and they don’t complain, yet when they get sick their options are very few. We currently care for over 70,000 people. We’re not a federally funded anything. We are totally supported by people of faith. The reason why we do what we do is that the call to discipleship is to do three things: to preach, to teach and to heal. In our churches, we got the preach and the teach down, but what does it mean to have a healing ministry? That’s what the Church Health Center is all about and we do it in three ways: medically, which is a traditional clinic which cares for people from the cradle to the grave; wellness, [which is] all about keeping people healthy, and finally outreach, which is engaging churches to help churches understand in today’s world what a healing ministry looks like.

Jason Crabb | Charisma House Jason Crabb, a soulful Southern gospel celebrity who left his family group and embarked on a more eclectic solo career, encourages readers who are going through hard times, in Trusting God to Get You Through: Lessons I’ve Learned Through the Fire About Grace, Loss and Love. Lyrics from “Through the …

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Scott McKnight | Zondervan

Best-selling author Scot McKnight, an acclaimed professor of religious studies at Chicago’s North Park University, issues a discipleship challenge, aiming to reveal what it means to truly follow Jesus, in One.Life: Jesus Calls. We Follow.

Raised in a Christian home, McKnight accepted Christ at age 6, but in his teen years he began to grapple in a deeper way with what it actually meant to be a believer.

“I moved from understanding a Christian as someone who accepts Christ into their heart to someone who surrenders themselves to Christ in trust and obedience, so that a Christian, for me, is not someone simply who has accepted Christ but someone who, as the result of accepting Christ, follows Christ,” he said.

Mark Labberton | IVP Books/InterVarsity Press Author Mark Labberton calls readers to get their hearts right in order to respond to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” in The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor: Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus. Following his 2007 The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God’s Call to Justice, …

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Paul Marino | Maranatha! Music Shelter: Songs of Comfort and Hope’s message is one of hope and encouragement, that God is with us in the storms. The fully orchestrated vocal tracks represent the heart of songwriter Marino, and the featured worship leader is Scott Krippayne. Top musicians on the project are: Craig Nelson (bass), Dave Cleveland …

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Group Publishing Gabbit: Family Faith Edition, a simple-to-use electronic gadget, helps families engage in spontaneous, meaningful conversations without any pressure for the “right” answers. About the size of a hockey puck, Gabbit contains hundreds of family-friendly questions in five categories: This or That, What If?, Favorites, Friends & Family and Zingers. Faith-oriented questions also are …

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