"Common English Bible Change Your Heart and Life" Blog Tour & Marathon is Starting

An international network of bloggers is now contributing to a 90-day blog tour for the new bestselling Common English Bible (http://CommonEnglishBible.com) translation. The “Common English Bible Change Your Heart and Life” tour extends from February through May, honoring the Christian observances of Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, the Ascension of Jesus, and Pentecost. Complete schedule and joining information is available at http://CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/blogtour. You can also sign up using this form (https://adobeformscentral.com/?f=W8R37r%2AYUbcgX02O3qCg1Q).

In addition to the blog tour (Twitter #CEBtour), the Common English Bible National Public Reading Marathon is being synchronized for Holy Week (April 1-7) and Easter Sunday (April 8), conducted by churches, seminaries and colleges, and other organizations and streamed online. Readings will be scripture verses for the season selected from the Revised Common Lectionary (Year B). Information about groups hosting the reading marathon is available at http://CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/blogtour or by contacting jpetersen@somersaultgroup.com.

Churches, bloggers, and others can also share Lenten Bible readings leading up to Easter in a free PowerPoint® presentation consisting of vivid color photography of nature scenes combined with scripture verses from the Common English Bible (Twitter @CommonEngBible – http://twitter.com/CommonEngBible).

The presentation (http://www.commonenglishbible.com/CEB/LentDownloads and http://slideshare.net/CommonEnglishBible) is comprised of nine Bible readings to observe Ash Wednesday, each Sunday of Lent, Good Friday, and Easter. It’s flexible enough to display only portions from it or all the slides, and to present them prior to or during church services, embed in blogs and other websites, or email to friends.

Along with embedding the slide presentation, bloggers can also embed a new 60-second video (http://vimeo.com/commonenglishbible and http://www.youtube.com/commonenglishbible), showing how the Common English Bible is an uncommon translation that clearly communicates in today’s terms God’s message of love to everyone, no matter what age, gender, station in life, or other personal outlook.

Beginning Feb. 22 (Ash Wednesday) and running through May 27 (Pentecost), the blog tour is an opportunity for bloggers to join together in writing posts around upcoming seasonal events using the Common English Bible, including commenting on verses from it, reviewing the Bible translation itself, interviewing the translators or associate publisher behind the translation, or discussing the translation with their readers.

Participating bloggers in the tour will receive a copy of the leather-like bound Thinline Bible DecoTone Tan/Brick Red edition, suggested themes, topics, and verses on which to write, an invitation to interview Bible scholars, and badges to place on their blogs indicating their involvement. Bloggers will have the opportunity to offer to their readers a free copy of the softcover edition: one copy per week for every week the bloggers write a blogpost that includes mention of the Common English Bible during the tour. The blogger with the most number of blogposts that reference the Common English Bible at the end of the tour will receive either a Kindle Fire or a Nook Tablet (their choice). Blogposts can be in the form of text, audio, video, and photo.

The Common English Bible text, including the Apocrypha, is available to search for free online at Bible Gateway (http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Common-English-Bible-CEB/), YouVersion.com, and the translation’s website.

The Common English Bible is a collaboration of 120 Bible scholars and editors, 77 reading group leaders, and more than 500 average readers from around the world. The translators – from 24 denominations in American, African, Asian, European, and Latino communities – represent such academic institutions as Asbury Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, Bethel Seminary, Denver Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Seattle Pacific University, Wheaton College, Yale University, and many others.

The Common English Bible is written in contemporary idiom at the same reading level as the newspaper USA TODAY—using language that’s comfortable and accessible for today’s English readers. More than half-a-million copies of the Bible are already in print, including an edition with the Apocrypha. The Common English Bible is available for purchase online and in 20 digital formats. A Reference Bible edition and a Daily Companion devotional edition are now also available. Additionally, in the coming year, Church/Pew Bibles, Gift and Award Bibles, Large Print Bibles, and Children’s Bible editions will be in stores, joining the existing Thinline Bibles, Compact Thin Bibles, and Pocket-Size Bibles, bringing the total variety of Common English Bible stock-keeping units (SKUs) to more than 40.

Visit CommonEnglishBible.com to see comparison translations, learn about the translators, get free downloads, and more.

The Common English Bible is sponsored by the Common English Bible Committee, an alliance of five publishers that serve the general market, as well as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (Chalice Press), Presbyterian Church (USA) (Westminster John Knox Press), Episcopal Church (Church Publishing, Inc.), United Church of Christ (The Pilgrim Press), and The United Methodist Church (Abingdon Press).

For a media review copy of the Common English Bible and to schedule an interview with Paul Franklyn, please contact Audra Jennings, ajennings@tbbmedia.com at 1.800.927.1517.

PowerPoint Slides Available for Lenten Bible Readings from the Common English Bible

In time for the beginning of the centuries-old tradition of Lent on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 22), churches, bloggers, and others can now share the season’s official and coordinated Bible readings in a free PowerPoint® presentation consisting of vivid color photography of nature scenes combined with Scripture verses from the new bestselling Bible translation Common English Bible (http://CommonEnglishBible.com).

The presentation (http://CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/LentDownloads and http://slideshare.com/CommonEnglishBible) is comprised of 9 Bible readings to observe Ash Wednesday, each Sunday of Lent, Good Friday, and Easter. It’s flexible enough to display only portions from it or all the slides, and to present them prior to or during church services, embed in blogs and other websites, or email to friends. Verses are selected from the Revised Common Lectionary (Year B).

“On the church liturgical calendar, Lent is the Christian season of preparation 40 days before Easter,” says Paul Franklin, PhD, associate publisher of the Common English Bible (Twitter @CommonEngBible – http://twitter.com/CommonEngBible). “This presentation beautifully helps church leaders and others guide viewers into scripture verses they can quickly comprehend in 21st century English so they can enjoy a time of personal reflection, prayer, and a change of heart and life.”

An example is from the readings for Ash Wednesday: “Purify me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and celebration again; let the bones you crushed rejoice once more. Hide your face from my sins; wipe away all my guilty deeds! Create a clean heart for me, God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!” Psalm 51:7-10 (CEB).

In addition to the PowerPoint presentation, a Lenten blog tour is being planned and a Lenten Bible reading marathon is being coordinated with churches, schools, and civic organizations (to participate, email jpetersen@somersaultgroup.com).

Along with embedding the presentation, bloggers can also embed a new 60-second video (http://vimeo.com/CommonEnglishBible), showing how the Common English Bible is an uncommon translation that clearly communicates in today’s terms God’s message of love to everyone, no matter what age, gender, station in life, or other personal outlook.

The Common English Bible’s popularity has soared since it was first released last September. It’s a bestseller in Christian retail stores; people are printing its verses in calligraphy when they LIKE the Facebook page http://facebook.com/LiveTheBible; and churches are using it to read through the Bible in a year (e.g. http://www.fourthchurch.org/bibleyear.html).

The Common English Bible text, including the Apocrypha, is available to search for free online at Bible Gateway (http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Common-English-Bible-CEB/), YouVersion.com, and the translation’s website.

The Common English Bible is a collaboration of 120 Bible scholars and editors, 77 reading group leaders, and more than 500 average readers from around the world. The translators – from 24 denominations in American, African, Asian, European, and Latino communities – represent such academic institutions as Asbury Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, Bethel Seminary, Denver Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Seattle Pacific University, Wheaton College, Yale University, and many others.

The Common English Bible is written in contemporary idiom at the same reading level as the newspaper USA TODAY—using language that’s comfortable and accessible for today’s English readers. More than half-a-million copies of the Bible are already in print, including an edition with the Apocrypha. The Common English Bible is available for purchase online and in 20 digital formats. A Reference Bible edition and a Daily Companion devotional edition are now also available. Additionally, in the coming year, Church/Pew Bibles, Gift and Award Bibles, Large Print Bibles, and Children’s Bible editions will be in stores, joining the existing Thinline Bibles, Compact Thin Bibles, and Pocket-Size Bibles, bringing the total variety of Common English Bible stock-keeping units (SKUs) to more than 40.

Visit CommonEnglishBible.com to see comparison translations, learn about the translators, get free downloads, and more.

The Common English Bible is sponsored by the Common English Bible Committee, an alliance of five publishers that serve the general market, as well as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (Chalice Press), Presbyterian Church (USA) (Westminster John Knox Press), Episcopal Church (Church Publishing, Inc.), United Church of Christ (The Pilgrim Press), and The United Methodist Church (Abingdon Press).

For a media review copy of the Common English Bible and to schedule an interview with Paul Franklyn, please contact Audra Jennings, ajennings@tbbmedia.com at 1.800.927.1517.

Common English Bible Being Used for National Group Reading

The new bestselling Bible translation Common English Bible (http://CommonEnglishBible.com) is being adopted by churches to help people become more scripturally literate.

One such church is the 6200-member Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, reading the entire Bible in a year (http://www.fourthchurch.org/bibleyear.html) and making its program available to anyone internationally online. It conducts two weekly Bible studies, as well as offers daily devotions on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/fourthchurch) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/FourthChicago).

Another church is Arlington Heights United Methodist Church, Fort Worth, TX (http://ahumcfw.org/90days.html), where members are using the Common English Bible (Twitter @CommonEngBible – http://twitter.com/CommonEngBible) to read the entire New Testament in 90 Days (the reading plan is available at http://j.mp/wiYhFf).

Church (pew) Bibles are available in bulk quantities for churches to use in the course of their sanctuary or education center use. Less than traditional-looking “Casual Church Editions” (hardcover 9781609260750; softcover 9781609260941) are designed for more contemporary and mobile worship settings. The softcover editions are priced strategically to encourage churches to give these to visitors to take home after attending a service. More information is at http://j.mp/nxLFHZ.

According to Gallup surveys, readership of the Bible has declined from the 1980s, from 73% to 59% today. Only 28% of Americans say they regularly study the Bible to find direction in their lives. And 61% of Americans think the Bible should be easier to read.*

“The Common English Bible is a highly exact yet very readable Bible translation, built on common ground with academic rigor and denomination neutrality, which clearly communicates ancient sacred text in understandable 21st century English,” says Paul Franklin, PhD, associate publisher.

A new embeddable 60-second video is now available online (http://vimeo.com/CommonEnglishBible), showing how the Common English Bible is an uncommon translation that clearly communicates in today’s terms God’s message of love to everyone, no matter what age, gender, station in life, or other personal outlook.

The Common English Bible is a collaboration of 120 Bible scholars and editors, 77 reading group leaders, and more than 500 average readers from around the world. The translators – from 24 denominations in American, African, Asian, European, and Latino communities – represent such academic institutions as Asbury Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, Bethel Seminary, Denver Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Seattle Pacific University, Wheaton College, Yale University, and many others.

The Common English Bible is written in contemporary idiom at the same reading level as the newspaper USA TODAY—using language that’s comfortable and accessible for today’s English readers. More than half-a-million copies of the Bible are already in print, including an edition with the Apocrypha. The Common English Bible is available for purchase online and in 20 digital formats. A Reference Bible edition and a Daily Companion devotional edition are now also available. Additionally, in 2012, Church/Pew Bibles, Gift and Award Bibles, Large Print Bibles, and Children’s Bible editions will be in stores, joining the existing Thinline Bibles, Compact Thin Bibles, and Pocket-Size Bibles, bringing the total variety of Common English Bible stock-keeping units (SKUs) to more than 40.

Visit CommonEnglishBible.com to see comparison translations, learn about the translators, get free downloads, and more.

The Common English Bible is sponsored by the Common English Bible Committee, an alliance of five publishers that serve the general market, as well as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (Chalice Press), Presbyterian Church (USA) (Westminster John Knox Press), Episcopal Church (Church Publishing, Inc.), United Church of Christ (The Pilgrim Press), and The United Methodist Church (Abingdon Press).

For a media review copy of the Common English Bible and to schedule an interview with Paul Franklyn, please contact Audra Jennings, ajennings@tbbmedia.com at 1.800.927.1517.

The Hand-Held Highlighter

Hilary Greenbaum (@HilaryGreenbaum) and Dana Rubinstein (@danarubinstein) write in The New York Times Magazine (@NYTmag) about the history of the highlighter.

Before the rise of the highlighter, says Dennis Baron (@DrGrammar), a University of Illinois professor and the author of A Better Pencil, attentive readers relied on “a combination of underlining and marginal notes.”

Like so much else, that began to change in the 1960s. It was then that the Japanese inventor Yukio Horie created a felt-tip pen that used water-based ink. The following year, in 1963, the Massachusetts print-media giant Carter’s Ink developed a similar water-based marker that emitted an eye-catching translucent ink. They called it the Hi-Liter.

... The highlighter’s appeal has flourished in the digital age. Most word-processing and e-reader software products have a highlighter function. And the hand-held highlighter continues to evolve, too....When the highlighter business saw that it wasn’t being embraced by holdouts who preferred pens, it made the dual highlighter/pen. There are now retractable highlighters. And flat ones. And ones that smell like pizza.

...Due to the thin paper used in most Bibles, typical highlighters often bleed through. For that reason, G.T. Luscombe (@GTLuscombe), a distributor of Bible-study accessories based in Frankfort, Ill., got into the business of Bible-paper-friendly highlighters. John Luscombe, the president and chief executive, explains….

Read this in full.

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Common English Bible Broadens Its Appeal

With the dawning of 2012, the new Bible translation Common English Bible (http://CommonEnglishBible.com) is establishing itself on multiple websites, celebrating its second consecutive month as a best seller, creating a growing buzz among bloggers, and is twice considered by journalists as being one of the top religion stories of 2011.

As reported in The Christian Post, BibleGateway.com, the highest ranked (according to Alexa) website in the world for Bible search activity, is now featuring the Common English Bible (Twitter @CommonEngBible – http://twitter.com/CommonEngBible) in its Verse of the Day free email subscription (http://www.biblegateway.com/newsletters/). And Patheos.com, the international online hub for faith communities, is now featuring the Common English Bible as its Daily Verse, appearing on its Library Bible Resources page (http://www.patheos.com/Library/Bible-Resources.html), Evangelical Portal (http://www.patheos.com/Religion-Portals/Evangelical.html), and Progressive Christian Portal (http://www.patheos.com/Religion-Portals/Progressive-Christian.html).

The free-to-search text of the Common English Bible, including the Apocrypha, is available online at the translation’s website (http://www.commonenglishbible.com/Explore/PassageLookup/tabid/210/Default.aspx), Bible Gateway (http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Common-English-Bible-CEB/), and YouVersion (http://www.youversion.com/bible/ceb). A Bible Passage Lookup widget is also available (http://www.commonenglishbible.com/Explore/PassageLookupWidget/tabid/393/Default.aspx) for placement on personal websites.

The Common English Bible is on the January CBA Bible Translation Best Seller list (based on actual unit sales in Christian retail stores in the United States through Dec. 3, 2011) (http://cbaonline.org/nm/documents/BSLs/Bible_Translations.pdf). Its debut on the list in December came after being in stores just less than three months.

More than 150 international bloggers are currently participating in the three-month long “Thank You-Come Again-I Promise” blog tour (from November 2011 through January 2012). The tour’s Twitter hashtag is #CEBtour (http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23CEBTour). The complete tour schedule, and information about joining the tour, is available at CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/blogtour (http://www.CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/blogtour).

And the completion of the Common English Bible after four years of translation work was named one of the top 10 religion stories of 2011 as decided by leading international religion journalists in the 30th annual Religion Newswriters Association survey (http://www.rna.org/news/79176/2011-Top-10-Religion-Stories-of-the-Year.htm) and by editors of the Associated Baptist Press (http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/7035/53/).

“There’s a reason the Common English Bible is receiving such a positive and popular reception,” says Paul Franklin, PhD, associate publisher. “It’s probably the most literal Bible translation, built on common ground with academic rigor and denomination neutrality, which clearly communicates ancient sacred text in understandable 21st century English.”

The Common English Bible is a collaboration of 120 Bible scholars and editors, 77 reading group leaders, and more than 500 average readers from around the world. The translators – from 24 denominations in American, African, Asian, European, and Latino communities – represent such academic institutions as Asbury Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, Bethel Seminary, Denver Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Seattle Pacific University, Wheaton College, Yale University, and many others.

The Common English Bible is written in contemporary idiom at the same reading level as the newspaper USA TODAY—using language that’s comfortable and accessible for today’s English readers. More than half-a-million copies of the Bible are already in print, including an edition with the Apocrypha. The Common English Bible is available for purchase online and in 20 digital formats. A Reference Bible edition and a Daily Companion devotional edition are now also available. Additionally, in 2012, Church/Pew Bibles, Gift and Award Bibles, Large Print Bibles, and Children’s Bible editions will be in stores, joining the existing Thinline Bibles, Compact Thin Bibles, and Pocket-Size Bibles, bringing the total variety of Common English Bible stock-keeping units (SKUs) to more than 40.

Visit CommonEnglishBible.com to see comparison translations, learn about the translators, get free downloads, and more.

The Common English Bible is sponsored by the Common English Bible Committee, an alliance of five publishers that serve the general market, as well as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (Chalice Press), Presbyterian Church (USA) (Westminster John Knox Press), Episcopal Church (Church Publishing, Inc.), United Church of Christ (The Pilgrim Press), and The United Methodist Church (Abingdon Press).

For a media review copy of the Common English Bible and to schedule an interview with Paul Franklyn, please contact Audra Jennings, ajennings@tbbmedia.com at 1.800.927.1517.