Step #8 - State my book's thesis

The next step in preparing my book proposal for an editor is to state my book's thesis. This step was surprisingly easy and fairly straightforward. Here's what I've come up with: 

Title: Funding Preachers in the New Testament: Rethinking paid Christian work in the First Century and Today 

Thesis: In my book, I argue that the dominant assumption about how early church ministry was funded, that early church leaders lived off the generosity of Christian members, is misguided. Rather, most religious leaders, including Jewish sages, rabbis and early Christian pastors, relied on manual labour as a means of self-support. It was not until the post-apostolic church that church leaders began to rely exclusively on support from others. This has implications for how we should think about paid congregational ministry today, especially with the growing popularity of multi- and bi-vocational ministry.

It is important for the thesis to carry the whole project. Therefore, I am trying to ensure each chapter hinges on the thesis. I'll say more in future blog posts.

Step #7 - Articulate my book's audience

The next step in preparing a book proposal for an academic editor is to envision and describe my book's audience. In her book, The Book Proposal Guide, Laura Portwood-Stacer identifies four possible audiences for academic books: 1) other scholars; 2) undergraduate and graduate students; 3) practitioners; and 4) general readers (this is not really a group and naming this as an audience should be avoided).

In writing my book I've tried to keep two audiences in mind: other scholars and practitioners. Since I'm making claims that have not been made before, I'll need to engage with scholarly sources and show support for my arguments. Therefore, my book is written primarily for other scholars. However, I also want to get my ideas into the hands of practitioners, allowing my ideas to impact those who are serving in pastoral ministry (pastors) and overseeing pastoral work (denominational leaders).

So, without further ado, here is the paragraph describing my book's audience:

My book, Funding Preachers in the New Testament: Rethinking paid Christian work in the First Century and Today will challenge previously held assumptions among New Testament scholars and practical theologians about pastoral work in the New Testament. Whereas New Testament professors will be interested in my approach to biblical texts and contexts, practical theologians, particularly those educating pastors and those in ministry, will benefit not only from the texts and contexts but also my application for today. Furthermore, practitioners, such as multi-vocational pastors, denominational leaders, and church planters will also find my book interesting since I’ve written with them in mind. This is particularly true in the final chapter where I apply biblical principles to contemporary ministry contexts. My book’s appeal to practitioners is evident by my experience of being invited to speak about this topic to pastors at the Free Methodist Church in Canada’s General Conference in 2024. I have also been in contact with two other Canadian denominations whose leaders have also shown interest in my work.

Step #6 - Collect a list of comparable titles

As I continue researching and writing, I am working through the steps of preparing a book proposal recommended in The Book Proposal Book. Today I'll be describing Step #6 - Collect a list of comparable titles.

Comparable titles are books that are similar to the book I am writing in terms of audience. At first I thought this step was like a literature review, where I would find books that are written on a similar topic to mine and summarize them. According to The Book Proposal Book the list of comparable titles is a compilation of books that are similar in audience. Its purpose is to show editors that there is a market for my book. This is proving to be one of the hardest parts of building my proposal. Since my book is about how pastors and church leaders were funded in the historical period of the New Testament, I am crossing into at least two areas that have been commonly explored. On the one hand books have been written about money and the New Testament. Of course on the other hand, books have been written about pastoral ministry in the New Testament. Neither of these areas are directly related and they do not normally intersect with each other. When it comes to finding comparable titles I attempted to find ones that have taken a unique approach to an aspect of New Testament studies that could be similar to my work.

Here are some books I've found so far:

The Open Sanctuary: Access to God and the Heavenly Temple in the New Testament (Baker Academic, 2024).

This important work provides a corrective to the way many people understand the Jerusalem temple in early Christian thought and is the first comprehensive study of the heavenly temple in the New Testament. Similar to The Open Sanctuary, my book is the first comprehensive study about an important another theological concept, funding for vocational ministry. I too have drawn on New Testament writings and early Christian literature as a way to do a deep dive into a particular topic and correct previously held assumptions

Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling (Brazos, 2024).

This book invites readers to see early Christians as practicing a whole new way of thinking about and doing religion that would have been seen as bizarre and dangerous, when compared to Roman religion and most other religions of the ancient world. In a similar way my book calls readers to read New Testament texts with the social context in mind but unlike Gupta's work, my chapters progress from the ministry of Jesus through Paul's letters and into early Christian literature rather than focusing mainly on the social context.

Remarriage in Early Christianity (Eerdmans, 2024).

In this book, A. Andrew Das takes a deep dive into the subject of remarriage. I mirror Das's chapter progressions, moving from Jesus and the Gospels through Pauline work and into early church literature. Yet unlike Das's work, my focus is on the theme of ministry funding rather than remarriage. Both of our books are written for scholars primarily with some crossover appear to laity with an interest in this topic.  

Minister Matters: Pastors, Their Life and Work Today (Cascade, 2024).

This edited volume provides a multivalent approach to how pastoral work is seen and performed today. Like my book, it provides insights into the contemporary office of pastor by looking at different aspects and angles of the work through theological lenses. My book relies on the New Testament scriptures and early church documents as the lens to look at a the pastoral vocation, which comes as an application at the end of the book. 

I have attempted to provide four comparable titles that are written on similar themes and to similar audiences to my book. In my next post I will discuss the audience of my book. Stay tuned!

Book Review: Theological Education: Principles and Practices of a Competency-Based Approach

In the closing chapter of my book Glassroom Learning, 2023 I briefly discuss Competency-Based Theological Education. It is a relatively new approach to theological education and very little has been written about it.

Kenton Anderson and Gregory Henson's book, Theological Education: Principles and Practices of a Competency-Based Approach is a helpful introduction to CBTE for those who might be curious. You can read my review here: https://www.faithtoday.ca/Magazines/Jul-Aug/Theological-Education-Principles-and-Practices-of 

Drafting a Letter of Inquiry for my book

Back in April I started posting updates on a quest to publish my second book. You can read about it here. My latest step is to draft a letter of inquiry to send to editors. The letter of inquiry is a pitch. It contains all the important information a publisher will want to know about my book project. Here's an except of what I've written so far:

Dear Editor:

I am writing to submit a proposal for my book Funding for Preachers in the New Testament: Rethinking paid Christian work in the First Century and Today. Using a historical and theological approach I argue that the dominant assumption about how early church ministry was funded, that early church leaders lived off the generosity of Christian members, is misguided. Rather, most leaders, including Jewish leaders and early Christian leaders, used manual labour as a means of self-support. This has implications for how we think about paid congregational ministry today.

Drawing on material from the New Testament, biblical commentaries, the Didache, and books on the social context of the early centuries A.D., I reveal how manual labour coincided with Torah teaching and Christian preaching by turning my attention first to Jesus as carpenter-builder. I then examine Paul’s perspective and practice of tent-making alongside Jewish teachings about work, and continue to follow the thread of concern over teaching for money in the post-apostolic church and early centuries. The book concludes by answering the “so what?” question in contemporary culture.

I go on to describe other works that have been published in this field, outline my credentials for writing, and highlight how much of my manuscript has been completed. One of the most difficult parts of this step has been finding comparable titles, titles that have similar content and audiences as my books. Since I cannot find anyone else that has recently published on ministry funding in the New Testament, I have gone looking for titles that are related but not necessarily the same. I'll say more about this process in an upcoming blog post. For now, this gives a taste of my

Academic Book Publishing - Generating Raw Material for my Proposal

This week I am asking myself questions that will lead to valuable book proposal material. If you are just tuning in, I'd like to direct you to my initial post where I described my project and noted the book where all these great "steps to publishing" are found.

Here are some of the questions I am asking and the first draft of my answers:

What made me interested in writing about this topic in the first place?

There is a growing realization that churches in Canada are shrinking and it is harder to find full-time pastors to lead them. Some qualitative research and autobiographical work has been done but very little research has looked at biblical and historical origins of multivocational ministry. I had a lot of questions about how early church leaders were supported and where the concept of full-time paid profession ministers came from. So, I set out to find answers. I am also a former multivocational pastor, so the project feels personal.

What people, places, and things do I describe in the book?

I look at Jesus, his disciples, the apostle Paul, other groups and associations, as well as the post-apostolic church. The context is largely the Greco-Roman world. I describe how they were paid and supported in their efforts to preach and teach.

Why should my research findings matter?

Most scholars see Jesus’ disciples as abandoning their trades and jobs to follow the saviour of the world. The apostle Paul on the other hand, with his commitment to tentmaking and self-support, is seen as an outlier. My research questions those traditional assumptions and invites scholars to take a step back and consider whether there might be other things at play. These findings are helpful as we wrestle with the decline in congregational support for pastors, leading to multivocational ministry becoming more mainstream. It is something of a return to what we see in the early church.

Who should read this book and how will they benefit from doing so?

While scholars will find my research intriguing, those educating pastors and ministers will find my book particularly intriguing. Academics interested in connections between biblical and practical theology and those educating pastors for ministry are my primary audience. I would also like to think that my book could be helpful for those considering or working in multivocational ministry but I am not sure.

What’s the main thing I want readers to understand when they finish my book?

Jesus, his disciples, Paul, and the early church leaders likely all worked at times. Some were more self-supporting than others but the idea of a full-time paid church leader was a foreign concept. Multivocationality was alive and well in the early church.

How did I conduct the research for this book?

I took a historical approach to my research, starting with a book about pastors in 19^th century North America and working my way backwards. When I arrived in the New Testament I decided to start writing. I draw on commentaries, books on Jewish and Greco-Roman culture, and biblical texts.

What does this book add to current scholarly conversations and even those happening beyond the academy?

The are current conversations happening about multivocational ministry but they are taking place among practical theologians. Good qualitative research is beginning (e.g., Tentmakers edited by Watson and Santos, Bivocational and Beyond edited by Darryl Stephens, etc.) but this field is lacking solid biblical and theological grounding. My book aims to bring biblical and theological foundation to those in the academy which will hopefully ripple to bolster the credibility for multivocational practitioners.

What makes this book special?

The book brings together new perspectives on ministry in the New Testament as a way to help contemporary educators and practitioners think about funding models for church leadership today.

Why am I the right person to write this book?

I am a scholar-practitioner. I’ve researched and written a book about online theological education where I took a historical-theological approach to pastoral education and provided recommendations for theological education today. I am also the dean of a seminary which houses a Lilly funded project which is designed to provide research and support for multivocational ministry.

What’s the most interesting story from my research and why is it interesting?

The discovery that the Tannaim, or rabbinic sages during the time of Jesus and the apostle Paul, would not accept money for teaching Torah. This finding allowed me to broaden my questions and look at familiar passages with a new lens.    

Anything else?

If it might be of interest, I would consider writing a series of books in this area. As I have already compiled an initial sampling of data, a second book would survey and discuss pastoral funding in the centuries between Constantine and today. A final book could address practical issues facing pastors, churches, denominations, and seminaries as this model of ministry becomes more mainstream.

Gathering submission information from target presses and determining my book's fit

In my ongoing venture of preparing to pitch my book to a publisher, I am starting to shift my attention from finding presses that align with my book's subject area to creating a digital file which includes email contacts and submission guidelines for each.

If you don't know anything about this process, let me enlighten you. It is probably important to know, not all academic presses operate the same way. Special shout out to Julia K. Kostova and Patrick H. Alexander who wrote a little book called Building a Scholarly Career: The ATS Guide to Religious and Theological Publishing. Kostova and Alexander describe in detail the many types of publishers in the field of theological publishing. Their book even includes a helpful 11 x 17 spider diagram outlining a taxonomy of presses. The book groups dozens of presses into nine different categories. Drawing on Kostova and Alexander's work I will describe only three of their categories, those most relevant to my project. 

Press Categories

1. University Presses

University presses, like Oxford or Cambridge, are not-for-profit publishers of scholarly books. They are committed to the process of academic peer review and potential books are approved by a board comprised of faculty members from the university. 

2. Non-denominational Presses

 

Non-denominational presses, such as Eerdmans, Baker Academic, IVP Academic, etc., are for-profit companies that are committed to religious and theological publishing. They are not affiliated with a specific denomination or religious group and usually publish both scholarly and non-scholarly books.

3. Commercial Religion

 

Commercial presses, like Wiley, Routledge, or Bloomsbury, publish religious and theological books as well as books in the social sciences and humanities. Their audiences can be quite large. They have traditionally focused on selling reference works to libraries.

Within each of these categories I compiled a short list of presses to approach. Getting to know each press gives me better sense of how my book might fit. This week I started drafting statements about how I think my book aligns with the mission and repertoire of each press.

Gathering Submission Information

With my narrowed list of presses I scoured each of their websites in search of two things: submission guidelines and contact names. I want to know what editors are looking for in a proposal package and who to contact when the time comes. While non-academic authors generally need an agent to pitch their work to a press, most presses accept unsolicited manuscripts from academic authors. Some publishing houses have generic email addresses and a bulleted list of items to include in the proposal; others have the names and contact information of their acquisitions editors, those who were work authors to bring new books into presses, for authors to contact directly. While all presses have acquisitions editors, some make it easier than others for new authors to contact them directly.