My New Book and an Invitation

The Wolf in Their Pockets is almost here...

Hello there! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. I am not as refreshed as I thought I would be, but I am here. :-)

My New Book!

I decided to write another book at the intersection of social media and faith, one that is specifically written for pastors, lay church leaders, parents, and anyone else who sees that social media has a vice grip on the people they lead and love.

That book is called The Wolf in Their Pockets: 13 Ways the Social Internet Threatens the People You Lead and it will be published in March.

My Invitation

I am an author. I also work in publishing. This means that I know the outsized importance of Amazon reviews, Goodreads reviews, and other such reviewing mechanisms online.

So, I am inviting you to join the review team for The Wolf in Their Pockets.

Your support would help me out tremendously. So I and my publishing partners want to give you some free stuff for your help.

Here is what you get:

• A free copy of The Wolf in Their Pockets before it releases to the public.

• Access to a private email group, where you'll interact with me and receive exclusive updates. 

• Livestream interaction with me as I talk about the book. 

• The opportunity to win free books and other prizes from Moody Publishers. 

Here is what I am asking you to do:

• Read the early copy of The Wolf in Their Pockets (we’ll provide you with that!).

• Rate and review the book on Amazon, Goodreads, and another of your choice.

• Share with your friends and followers online by posting about the book before, during, and after launch week. In your place of influence (blog, group, ministry, club, website), we’d love for you to blog or write about the book! We’ll provide images, links, and resources for this.

You can sign up for the review team using this form.

I am grateful for all of you being here and reading this newsletter.

If you’ve been around here for any amount of time you know that promoting my book makes me even more uncomfortable than it makes you as a subscriber. So, thanks for any grace you’ll give me in this. :-)

BUT, I think this book is truly helpful. I wouldn’t have written it or let it be published if I thought otherwise.

Here is a bit of an explainer on why I wrote this book:

Why I Decided to Write the Book

Most of you who are subscribed to this newsletter know that my first book Terms of Service published in February of last year.

The message of terms summarized simply is this: “What is my relationship with social media doing to my heart, mind, and soul?”

Terms is really mean to serve as a mirror—as an opportunity for us to check our own social media habits and investigate how we are being molded by our relationship with the social internet.

Without a doubt, the most common feedback I received following the release of Terms about a year ago was this: “This is a great book, but can you write something for leaders specifically?”

I heard requests like this from pastors, lay church leaders, parents, and others who are in positions of leadership in their communities. This makes sense!

So I wrote Wolf to be less “What is social media doing to me and what do I do about it?” and more “What is social media doing to the people I lead, and how do I lead them amidst that?”

More Info on the Book

Here is a little bit about the book from the Amazon page:

The world has changed. And we feel it in our homes, schools, and congregations.

We can hardly remember a time when we didn’t feel the influence of that back pocket device. The average social media user spends about two-and-a-half hours a day using social media. That’s more than enough time to shape our values and desires. Pastors, teachers, and parents feel their influence slipping away. We’re seeing increased loneliness, disunity, and self-absorption. But where do we go from here?

In The Wolf in Their Pockets, Internet expert Chris Martin examines the many ways we are being changed by social media. With a biblically informed voice, Martin both exposes the ways the Internet is distorting our life in Christ and shows us how to faithfully respond. Martin teaches us how to care for people who are obsessed with followers, views, and likes—and how to love those whose online influences have filled them with cynicism and contempt. Martin looks at how the social Internet is changing how we understand sex and beauty—what to do about the epidemic levels of anxiety—and how to redirect our hearts to worship Jesus Christ.

Shepherding and leading people has never been easy, but the social Internet has brought new challenges. We need the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and a powerful prayer life. Martin provides the biblical wisdom, direction, and hope necessary to combat The Wolf in Their Pockets.

Here are some of the endorsements:

“We cannot avoid the fact, we cannot downplay it, we cannot even do a whole lot to change it. The fact as Chris Martin expresses it so well is that ‘social media is not a fad. It’s not going away. And it’s arguably the most pervasive discipleship force in the world right now.’ That being the case, those responsible for teaching kids to live well in this world—parents foremost, but also pastors and teachers and youth leaders—need to deliberately inform and equip themselves. I’m convinced that Chris is just the right man and The Wolf in Their Pockets is just the right book. I can’t recommend this resource too highly.”
—TIM CHALLIES
Author of Seasons of Sorrow and founder, Challies.com

“I talk to pastors often, and the impact of social media on their churches is a common topic of conversation. I trust Chris Martin, and I know that this book will help all kinds of pastors, parents, and other Christian leaders lead people faithfully in an age in which social media seems to disciple people as much as Christians do.”
—ED STETZER
Wheaton College; host of Moody Radio’s Ed Stetzer Live

“Much has been written recently warning us about the misuse, abuse, and effects of social media—a lot of it helpful and good. I welcome Chris Martin’s voice to this wake-up call. And yet, in The Wolf in Their Pockets, Martin does not merely warn us, he provides us with a simple, clear, biblical response. Parents and pastors, educators and administrators, and all concerned about the harmful effects of social media, pick up this book, read it, and implement the wise and biblical counsel offered in its pages.”
—JUAN R. SANCHEZ
Senior pastor, High Pointe Baptist Church, Austin, TX

“Social media is probably the most powerful force of discipleship in the average American’s life. Chris Martin calls our attention to this crisis of discipleship with fantastic and practical advice on how Christian leaders can point people back to the God for whom they long.”
—JUSTIN WHITMEL EARLEY
Business lawyer, speaker, and author of The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction

“There’s a lot of wisdom in this book. Not just information on the impact of social media, and not just instruction on what pastors and church leaders can do to counter some of the negative effects of the social internet—but wisdom, the kind of knowledge and discernment that will help us live according to God’s design for the world and His revelation to us in Scripture. Chris Martin is one of my go-to thinkers on matters related to social media and discipleship, and this book shows why.”
—TREVIN WAX
Vice president for research and resource development at the North American Mission Board; visiting professor at Cedarville University; author of The Thrill of Orthodoxy, Rethink Your Self, and This Is Our Time

“In our social media saturated world, we need voices that speak with clarity and conviction about more than what these new technologies are doing for us; we need voices that speak compellingly about what they’re doing to us. Chris Martin is such a voice, as he helps us think critically about and respond practically to ‘the parade of distractions that . . . vibrates in our pockets every day.’ The Wolf in Their Pockets is a book I’ll be recommending to many in the months and years to come.”
—JAY Y. KIM
pastor and author of Analog Christian

I am grateful for you.

Again, you can sign up for the review team here.

It would mean so much to me if you would help me launch this book and get it into the hands of lots of readers.

Thank you.