Write His Answer

ASSIST News Service (ANS) – PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net — E-mail: assistnews@aol.com

Friday, June 8, 2012

Addressing Today’s Critical Issues

For Immediate Release
Contact: Marlene Bagnull mbagnull@aol.com

LANGHORNE, PA (ANS) — August 1-4 hundreds of published and not-yet-published writers plus a faculty of more than 50 editors, agents, and authors from across the nation will meet on the campus of Philadelphia Biblical University in Langhorne, PA, for the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference (GPCWC).

Founded in 1983 by Lansdale, PA, author Marlene Bagnull, GPCWC’s goal is to “encourage and equip you to write about a God who is real, who is reachable, and who changes lives.” But GPCWC is more than just a conference for aspiring and published writers. GPCWC also offers workshops for concerned Christians to learn how to effectively address today’s critical issues. These “Thursday Specials” meet during the popular all-day Teens Write program on August 2 and include:

* A Culture in Peril (10:00 am to noon) – What can one Christian do in the face of our nation’s spiritual crisis? Rather than a traditional lecture, this is a forum where we will grieve for our nation’s ills and encourage each other as God’s warriors to defend biblical principles. Rick Marschall, author of many political, cultural, and biblical works and a correspondent for the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net), has addressed this before. So have others. And so have you . . . perhaps in frustration! What can you do in the face of society’s crises?

This forum offers a new approach. This will not be a lecture or seminar or workshop . . . but a creative blend of all these modes. There will be free-wheeling discussion on topics from biblical traditions, to our American heritage, to dilemmas Christians face living in today’s world. A highlight will be on-the-spot assignments, for discussion and writing. Whether you write sermons or novels, children’s books or romances, newsletters or letters to the editor [and we all can and need to write letters to the editor], you will be challenged to discover ways you can counter our cultural decline. You’ll discover your warrior’s strengths and weaknesses, exercise your skills in creative brainstorming, and come away with a clearer idea of what you can do, where you are, with what you have!

Rick Marschall has written or edited almost 70 books and hundreds of magazine articles in many fields, from popular culture (Bostonia magazine called him “perhaps America’s foremost authority on popular culture”) to history and criticism, country music, biography, and children’s books. He is a former political cartoonist, columnist, and editor of Rare Jewel magazine, the Christian worldview journal of culture and politics. He was on the editorial staff of the 1599 Geneva Bible Restoration Project (Tolle Lege Press, 2007).

* Compassion, Justice, Advocacy (1:00 – 3:00 pm) – Are you concerned about human trafficking, orphans, abortion, the poor, racism, the learning impaired, the handicapped, the hungry, the persecuted church, the oppressed, and so much more that is close to the heart and call of Jesus? If God has given you a burden to be an advocate, to tell a story, or make a cause or issue known, Steve Lawson, Senior Editor at Regal Publishing Group, invites you to join him to discover how we can be most effective. Steve ran a news service reporting on the Persecuted Church in the 1980s and formerly worked with Christian Solidarity International and on assignment for World Vision International.

* Telling the Truth – Writing, Speaking, and Living as a Christian in a Postmodern World (3:30 – 5:30 pm) – “In postmodern America,” says award-winning author, Ann Tatlock, “we are experiencing one huge compassionate love-fest on the deck of the Titanic. With the loss of absolute truth and the rise of relativism, people are celebrating diversity and a myriad of custom-designed paths to God–even as the ship is rapidly sinking. How did this come about and what are the philosophies behind postmodernism? What’s the connection between this cultural phenomenon and New Age spirituality? How is this cultural shift affecting the church? And how should we as Christians respond when what is contrary to God’s Word begins to appear both right and good? Come and find out answers to these questions, and learn how you can speak out boldly for the truth of the Gospel.”

Tatlock’s ninth novel, Travelers Rest, was released in May from Bethany House Publishers. Her previous novel, Promises to Keep, was named by Booklist Magazine as one of the top ten historical novels of the year. She has also authored a non-fiction eBook, Writing to a Post-Christian World.

To register for one or more of these Thursday Specials, Teens Write, or the writers’ conference, visit www.writehisanswer.com/Philadelphia. No registration is needed for the keynotes and general sessions in Chatlos Chapel that include “Praying the News” (Thursday, August 2, 7:30 pm) with Craig von Buseck, Ministries Director, CBN.com and “Answering the Call of the King” (Friday, August 3, 7:30 pm) with Ken Gire, award-winning author and founder of Reflective Living. Contact Marlene Bagnull, conference director, at mbagnull@aol.com or 484-991-8581 for a free 16-page conference brochure.

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