What is The Preacher’s Bible, and why is it being produced?
First of all, it is not just for preachers, but it is designed with preaching in mind.
Now for the story. When I was around 10th grade (14 years ago or so), my father purchased matching Bibles for him and me. That Bible is currently sitting on my desk – I still use it sometimes, but I have to greatly limit its use because the binding has broken, and the leather has holes worn in it in several places. At first, I accepted this as the general life span of a Bible and also accepted that leather, when it has received the amount of use and wear that a pastor gives, can have holes worn through it. I began to look for someone to rebind this special Bible, and I got in contact with a fantastic, old-school bindery in Vermont who happened to be somewhat of a leather expert.
As I spoke with this wonderful gentleman, he informed me that real, authentic leather will never wear to the point of having holes in it. As disappointed as I was at hearing that (especially as it was marketed as genuine calfskin of high quality), I learned several other things about that Bible that were substandard in its production. Over the next several months, I developed the idea of designing and producing a Bible that would be ideal for writing outlines and notes (while keeping the Scofield layout that I loved and was familiar with) while being of a high enough quality to last my lifetime. As I began to speak with experts in different fields (printing, binding, leather work, etc.), I learned that truly authentic leather would last for hundreds of years, and, if bound correctly, this Bible would easily have a longer life than I would have.
Throughout the last two years, we (Brother Joshua Jones and I) came up with a number of different features that we have wished that our Bibles had. Since we are faced with the unique opportunity to design everything we want in a Bible, we are trying to include everything that would aid in the business of preaching.
I will take the time to write a post for each feature over the next few weeks. If you think of any features that should be included in this completely custom built Bible, feel free to write me! I can’t guarantee that it will make it in, but I can guarantee that we will consider it.