my book deadline is february 28 march 14.

i sent this letter to my agent a few moments ago.

Oh, my dear Beth.

Sincerely yours,
Anne-Going-To-Hide-Under-My-Bed-Jackson

your role in this, bloggyfriends? pray…hard…for me! being sick/asleep twenty-one hours a day lately isn’t really helping my schedule.

“christians like info porn”

one of my friends, who’s been working in research and statistics for the last decade or so, wrote that in an email to me.

what led us to that conversation were some statistics many of us have seen before. i know i have, and i was hoping to use them in my book. but having been recently influenced by my brilliant stats-minded friend, i knew i had to track down the source and make sure it was indeed scientific and unbiased before claiming it gospel truth.

the stats i was looking up:

1500 ministers leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, burnout, or contention
50% of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce
80% feel unqualified and discouraged
50% would leave ministry but fear they couldn’t make a living
70% constantly fight depression
40% have had an extramarital affair while in ministry
70% say their only time reading the Bible is when they prepare sermons

i looked around and was able to track most of them down to an informal survey focus on the family did. sounds legit, right?

not so.

the survey was conducted at seminars for pastors/marriages. something i’ve learned in the course of writing mad church disease is just because you have a group of people answer questions, well, that doesn’t make it real research.

unfortunately, these stats cannot be considered accurate for a couple of reasons:

-it’s not a representative sample. the group is pastors who went to a FOF event. totally idiosyncratic.
-the wording of the questions are biased. and grouped. you can’t ask if they feel something AND something.

it would be like getting a group of 20 and 30 year old pastors together and then saying a majority of pastors are young. that’s just not the way statistics are done.

97% of christians get 80% of their stats from unreliable sources, and 73% of them will pass it on as truth. and yes, that whole sentence was a bunch of bull. christians like info porn!

moral of the story? take a stand against info porn. don’t spread bad stats!

on another note, i do have some scientific research that was conducted legitimately. and because i want you to wait a year and buy the book, i won’t put it up just yet… :)

but please let me say…things are not as bad as they may seem.

what do you think are some things that cause burnout in ministry - or in general?

thank you all for sharing your thoughts on yesterday’s question! did you know that by responding, you all were helping me research some stuff for mad church disease? you were! so thank you again, so so much!

i’d like to take a moment to give you all an exclusive peek at chapter 2 as a token of my appreciation. enjoy! i’d love to get your thoughts…

yep. that’s it…sorry… i know. i suck. :)

since i am still in my brain funk, i thought i’d share some good news with you guys before the holidays!

as you know, the book i am working on, mad church disease, will be released in february 2009.

i haven’t publicly (via blog) announced WHO the publisher is…

but why not today?

i am officially a zondervan author! woot!

the team there is amazing and they ooze creativity. they truly see this book as something that is needed in the church today! their excitement about the project keeps refueling my excitement about the project. i am so pumped to have such a strong partner for this adventure.

i am also VERY grateful for my agent beth jusino from alive communications. without beth’s knowledge of the industry, her passion for young writers and fresh ideas, and her willingness to hand-hold a rookie author, i would probably be neck-deep in things i don’t understand.

so those are a few things for which i am very thankful!!

what are you thankful for?

i’ve gotten a lot of email lately asking me advice on how to write a book and get it published. well, here is a post dedicated just to that topic.

the answer?

i don’t know.

but i’ll let you know as soon as i have it figured out :)