by AT News Team

Outreach is a magazine read by large numbers of Evangelical pastors across the United States and the latest issue includes an ad featuring Seventh-day Adventist pastor and television evangelist Doug Batchelor. It is selling his new book, A World of Wonder distributed by afbookstore.com.
 
The book is a daily devotional with 366 short readings for the coming year, “nineteen years in the making.” The ad states that it is “available at leading retail outlets,” although Adventist Today checked two local Barnes & Noble stores and found that it was not on the shelf. It is listed with Barnes & Noble’s online book sales web site.
 
Batchelor is senior pastor at the Central Church in Sacramento, California, and his Amazing Facts broadcasting ministry is an institution of the Northern California Conference. He is controversial for taking very conservative positions on topics such as ending gender discrimination in ordination.
 
“Adventist authors have generally had great difficulty breaking into the Evangelical market,” a publishing executive told Adventist Today. “It is interesting how Batchelor is attempting to work his way into this. It can be lucrative, if he is able to sell enough books.”
 
“A number of scholars have pointed out a trend toward connections across denominational lines among leaders with common views on various issues,” one researcher told Adventist Today. “Perhaps this can be seen along those lines.” It remains to be seen what kind of sales the book has outside of Adventist circles and the reaction of Evangelical pastors.