Greg Laurie’s New Believer’s Bible hits 10 million in sales milestone
A version of the Bible geared toward recent converts to Christianity recently achieved 10 million in sales.
Tyndale House Publishers announced Wednesday that the New Believer’s Bible had reached the milestone, being honored with a Diamond Award by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.
The New Believer’s Bible was originally released in 1996 and uses the New Living Translation, with notes written by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California.
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Tyndale House Bible Brand Director Dave Thornton told The Christian Post in an interview that he was “thrilled” at the success of the Bible version.
“We’re also delighted that new Christians are able to deepen their relationship with God through His Word in both print and digital form, as well as in Spanish and Portuguese,” he said.
Thornton saw the sales as indicating that “so many new Christians” were taking “their first steps of faith with the helpful direction of Pastor Greg Laurie, and the easy-to-understand text of the New Living Translation.”
“We expected it to be a very important Bible, with such helpful notes and direction for new believers from Greg Laurie,” he continued.
“Predicting total sales over time is a difficult thing, so I don’t think we had that in view when it was first published in 1996.”
A portion of the sales come from Laurie’s own Harvest ministry, which often sends copies of the New Believer’s Bible out to those who have reached them with an interest in converting.
For example, according to Thornton, in March and April the online services of Harvest reported around 35,000 people who “indicated their desire to follow Jesus Christ.”
“Each one of those new believers are sent a New Believers New Testament from the Harvest ministry,” he explained.
The New Believer’s Bible is not the first Tyndale product to receive the Diamond Award. Others include the NLT Bible, The Living Bible, and the book More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell.
In an emailed statement in response to the news, Laurie spoke of releasing the most recent edition of the New Believer’s Bible earlier this year.
“And not only does it include my original notes, but I’ve added many new ones to help today’s readers better understand the power of the incredible story of creation, the fall of mankind, and redemption through Jesus Christ found throughout its pages,” he stated.
“I could not be more grateful for the chance to introduce this Bible to a new generation … of new believers.”
