A Legacy Project in Honor of our Deceased Son, Jeremy

July 10, 2014 by admin

A little over 30 years ago, the first book in the Kingdom Tales Trilogy was published. It was titled The Tales of the Kingdom, and won a Gold Medallion Award. This book was to be followed over the next decade by two more in the series, Tales of the Resistance and Tales of the Restoration. For whatever reason, the original publisher chose to use a different artist to illustrate Book Three.

As many of you know, our son Jeremy died last year at age 41 from a rare and aggressive form of lymphoma. Because of his travels through the world and his growth as a multicultural specialist (he taught Spanish at Wheaton College and ran his own Dynamis Immigration Aid to counsel people seeking U.S. citizen status), it was always his wish to someday redo the 36 illustrations in the three books with artwork that included an array of multiethnic faces.

As a legacy project in his honor, we held a contest in which some 87 artists from various countries competed for the honor of illustrating the three books in the Kingdom Tales Trilogy. A winner has now been chosen, Zhivko Zhelev from Bulgaria. You can learn more about what’s happening by going to this website. For those of you who have been concerned for the Mains family, this is a perfect opportunity to be personally involved in this special legacy project, which will continue on Kickstarter through the end of July.

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Let Me Say It Again

July 9, 2014 by admin

“Listen closely; I don’t want to have to repeat this!”

Have you ever said that to someone? Has someone ever said words like that to you? The truth is that most of us need to be told certain things any number of times before we actually start to make the concepts our own.

My belief is that in the spiritual-learning process, repetition is quite important. Said differently, one sermon on a basic topic, such as learning to love in a Christ-like fashion, isn’t picked up by all your people just because you once said it forcefully several months ago in a sermon.

How many times did Jesus have to repeat lessons, like learning servanthood, to His Twelve?

As basic a Christian truth as doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, isn’t generally mastered after hearing it for the first time … or the tenth time … or even the hundredth time.

All this is to say that many elementary Christian truths need to be repeated over and over before they’re caught.

So, if as a pastor you feel like you have “nothing new” to say to your people this coming weekend, maybe it’s time to repeat something you’ve said before.

I mean, in the spiritual-learning process, repetition is important!

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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Notice One

July 9, 2014 by admin

One never knows where a sermon series might go on its way out into the world—particularly when the preacher is married to a writer. Some 40 years ago, in a Teamsters Union Hall on the west side of Chicago, I preached a series to a young idealistic congregation eager to do God’s work in the world. That series was titled “The Christian, the Church and Society.” It has been the one sermon series, above any other in my five decades of ministry, that has received the most comments regarding its impact.

So much so that my wife, Karen, a young and idealistic pastor’s wife, took the main concepts and built three award-winning story books out of that preaching effort. It is now 30 years since the first book, The Tales of the Kingdom, was written. Within the next decade, two more books followed, completing the Kingdom Tales Trilogy—Tales of the Resistance and Tales of the Restoration.

The basic thrust of the series was: The Kingdom of God is any setting where Christ is recognized as King, His will is obeyed and obedient subjects reap the benefit of His rule. Quite a key Biblical truth to integrate into three award-winning illustrated storybooks. But then that’s the proof of an agile and creative writer; it’s someone who can take spiritual meat and transform it into classic children’s literature (think John Bunyan with Pilgrim’s Progress or C. S. Lewis and the Narnia series).

My word to the wise is this: Be careful what you preach (particularly if a spouse is listening). You never know what someone else will do with your words.

This week we are launching a Kickstarter campaign (this is a crowd-funding Web site), to redesign, re-illustrate and republish the three Kingdom Tales books for a new generation.

In a rapidly globalizing world, we as a nation are realizing that the world is a complex and shining (and often difficult) conglomerate of multi-cultures and diverse races and ethnicities. Due to this rising global sensitivity, we feel strongly that it is time to re-release the three books, but representing the above verities in the illustrations.

Will you check out the Kickstarter campaign and see if there are ways you would like to become a backer? The link is www.kingdomtales.com/kickstarter.

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Kickstarter Artist: Roni Nurak

July 7, 2014 by admin

We found that when we put together our contest in 99Designs that we were working with artists from all over the world. One such artist, Roni Yulianus Nurak, is a big fan of the Website, not only because he has an opportunity to win assignments, but also because he enjoys immersing himself in the huge community of designers it provides, allowing him to test and improve his skills.

“Too,” Nurak, who was born in Indonesia but now lives in Bandung, West Java, added, “I have the opportunity to learn lessons from not only the artists in Asia, but from artists all over the world.”

Like so many of the artists who competed in the 99Designs contest regarding the Tales of the Kingdom Trilogy, Nurak has been pursuing his skills and talent in art since he was in elementary school. While he enjoys working with pencil and paper, he also enjoys computer design. In fact, he is most interested in discovering what new things can be accomplished with graphic design, illustration and animation.

“The Tales of the Kingdom project,” he shared, “allowed me to develop a project in my own unique style.”

One of his favorite parts of the assignment was the fact that Tales of the Kingdom is not only an excellent read, but so effectively brings the Christian message in a non-overbearing way. He knew that his efforts would help to provide inspiration for all those who read it.

His challenge, as he worked, was to create a quality illustration that would correspond to the core story. He accomplished this by first presenting the character, and then developing the “atmosphere” the illustration presents!

You can view Roni Nurak’s online portfolio and see his incredible illustration of Amanda and the Dragon, created for the 2015 Princess Amanda and the Dragon Wall Calendar, by going here.

When you Back Our KICKSTARTER Project you’ll RECEIVE 3 Award-winning CHILDREN’S BOOKS to READ & ENJOY WITH YOUR KIDS (or GRANDKIDS) — each story teaches character lessons for life, and comes fully Revised, Re-published in print and all eBook formats, and Re-illustrated with Captivating, Original Art!

If you would like to get the Wall Calendar and/or back our Kickstarter Campaign to revise, re-illustrate and re-publish the Kingdom Tales Trilogy, go here.

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