True and Beautiful: Publishing Gospel-Centered Books for German-Speaking Churches in Need

Publish True and Beautiful Books for the Enjoyment of God

When you pick up a book, do you pick it up with the hope of enjoying God? When you look at the cover and admire the artwork, with the combination of colors hinting at something about the inside of the book, does it draw you in and cause you to rejoice in the beauty of our Lord? And when you crack open the book and inhale the scent of the paper and ink and you begin to dig into the text, does it cause you to delight in the Savior? What if we approached our reading of books like this, with the aim of enjoying God? And not just enjoying them for the truths they hold but for the beauty of how those truths are held.

Austrian pastor and publisher Alex Reindl believes that publishing Christian books with both truth and beauty are right and honoring to the Lord. “If God is the most true being there is, then he demands and he deserves the most beautiful way of communicating about him. That means written words are to reflect his character and the setup of the book, and our work in publishing each book ought to reflect his character.” Alex and his team at Verbum Medien aim at not publishing anything less than what is true and beautiful. God is both of these things and what is created to reflect him should be the same, causing his people to enjoy him. And there could be no greater goal in their home country of Austria, a land filled with people desperately in need of the true and beautiful gospel.

Crossway likewise believes in publishing gospel-centered content with both truth and beauty. Because of this, Crossway partners with Verbum Medien through our Global Ministry Fund to provide rights to theologically sound books for translation to German. This way, our German brothers and sisters in Christ can read true and beautiful gospel-centered books in their own language and come to enjoy God as a result.

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Books Support the Growth of the Church

Though it may be hard to tell on the outside, Austria (alongside Germany and Switzerland) is a spiritually dry place. It is a popular vacation destination for Americans and economically first world, but look a little closer and you’ll find deep spiritual darkness. According to the Joshua Project, Austria is made up of only 0.57% evangelical Christians.¹ Austrians may theoretically have access to the gospel should they choose, but access is much different from engagement and belief.

Thus the vision for Verbum Medien was born out of Alex’s team’s passion to publish content that glorifies the Lord and strengthens the church throughout the German-speaking world. Alex sees their work at Verbum as primarily missional. Healthy local churches are key for individual spiritual growth, but they must be equipped to care for their congregants. This is where access to high quality theological resources comes into play. “Christians are and will always be people of the book and people of books. If you want to see strong, growing churches, a magnified gospel witness, and a strengthening of gospel clarity—you need good books to go alongside that.”

This firm belief impacts what Verbum publishes. Alex and his team work with local churches to determine the needs facing the congregations and publish content in response. “We don’t choose to publish a book simply because it’s doing well in English or because we like the author. We believe that the content we publish should hit on something the German-speaking church needs. . . . If we want to see a mature German-speaking church, we need to see Christians who have been rightly equipped with the right materials and are mature in how they handle the Word of God.” Through the translation of various Crossway-published books, Verbum’s team has been supported as they respond to needs in German-speaking countries.

Children’s Books Translated as Tools to Reach the Next Generation

Verbum publishes many books for adults, but they have a special passion for kids books. They believe that the Lord can work in the hearts of young people and that there’s a great need for good quality books for this audience. This is why Alex and his team chose The Biggest Story Bible Storybook as a key title for reaching kids with the overarching theme of biblical theology. “To read the overarching story in Scripture [is key to biblical theology]—not just to share the individual stories and then maybe communicate them morally—but this resource really highlights that it’s about a God who keeps his promises. . . . And it’s been one of our most strategic projects. We worked on it for a long time, and we pray that it’s an impactful resource for kids and their families.”

They’ve also translated Polly and the Screen Time Overload, a very applicable resource for parents faced with raising kids in a digital age. Alex shared this sentiment from a parent’s feedback:

One parent shared with me that “This book is so great to read with both our kids and the neighbor kids. Many of them are not believers.” This parent’s kids were being drawn into the reality of most of the secular families around them. . . . The challenge of media consumption is so real for these kids, but how do we say something better than just, “Stay off it?” Or how do we tell them more than just say it’s bad for them while showing by our actions that it’s good for Mom and Dad because we are on it all the time? The feedback from moms is that these kinds of books with gospel emphasis have been very helpful and encouraging as they entertain neighbor kids while teaching their own kids.

Books with gospel-centered content that apply to real-life circumstances help both parents and children alike to learn how to honor the Lord with their lives and to share those truths with others. When believers read these books, Alex believes that it will spread to others. Like the mother in Alex’s example who has been teaching gospel truths to the neighbor kids when they visit, he hopes that these situations will mean that more people come to know the saving truth of Jesus. “[I] believe that publishing books can, and most likely will, go hand in hand. They will be tools that God will use to strengthen and awaken the German-speaking church. . . . It’s crucial to get these lasting—maybe for generations—impactful resources out there.” By the working of the Spirit, men and women, boys and girls, have the opportunity to hear the good news through these gospel resources.

This spring, Crossway’s Global Ministry Fund is seeking to provide theological resources to believers around the world in need of the good news. Our aim is to raise $200,000 for the support of resources like these German translation projects. Would you consider joining us in providing theological resources to men and women, young and old?

Pray for the Verbum team to maintain a gospel culture in a really busy season of ministry. Pray that Alex and his team would create a healthy company culture centered around the gospel.

Pray for the provision of resources the Verbum team needs in terms of time, finances, and people and to do what God has called them to do.