MERRILL, Dean 1943-

PERSONAL: Born December 17, 1943, in Los Angeles, CA; son of D. Raymond (a minister) and Mary Lucille (Frantz) Merrill; married Grace LaVonne Danielson, June 25, 1966; children: Nathan, Rhonda, Tricia. Education: Chicago Bible College, Th.B., 1964; Syracuse University, M.A., 1970. Religion: Christian.

ADDRESSES: Home—Colorado Springs, CO. Office— International Bible Society, 1820 Jet Stream Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80921.

CAREER: Ordained minister. Campus Life (magazine), Carol Stream, IL, various editorial positions, 1965-69, 1971-73; Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, OK, director of university information, 1970-71; Creation House, Inc. (publishers), Carol Stream, executive editor, 1973-74; David C. Cook Publishing Co., Elgin, IL, various editorial positions, 1974-81; Leadership (magazine), Carol Stream, senior editor, 1981-85; Christian Herald, Chappaqua, NY, editor and vice president, beginning 1985; Focus on the Family, Pomona, CA, vice president, until 1996; International Bible Society, Colorado Springs, CO, currently vice president of international publishing. Visiting lecturer in communications, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, 1973-75. Member of board, Global Publishers Alliance.

MEMBER: Evangelical Press Association (president, 1985-87).

WRITINGS:

(With Ken Taylor) The Jesus Book, Tyndale House (Wheaton, IL), 1971.

(With Ken Taylor) The Way, Tyndale House (Wheaton, IL), 1972.

(With Harold Myra) Rock, Bach, and Superschlock, A. J. Holman (Philadelphia, PA), 1972.

(With Janet Lynn) Peace and Love, Creation House (Carol Stream, IL), 1973.

(Editor, with Clayton Baumann) 125 Crowdbreakers, Regal Books, 1974.

The Husband Book: A Job Description for the Married Man, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 1977, published as How to Really Love Your Wife, 1980.

(Editor, with Marshall Shelley and Sharrel Keyes) Berkeley Mickelsen and Alvera Mickelsen, Bible Encyclopedia, D. C. Cook (Elgin, IL), 1978.

(Editor, with Ronal Wilson) Men in Mid Life Crisis, D. C. Cook (Elgin, IL), 1978.

(With Bonnie Thielmann) The Broken God, D. C. Cook (Elgin, IL), 1979.

Another Chance: How God Overrides Our Big Mistakes, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 1981.

(Editor, with Marshall Shelley) Fresh Ideas for Administration and Finance, Christianity Today (Carol Stream, IL)/Word Books (Waco, TX), 1984.

(Editor, with Marshall Shelley) Fresh Ideas for Discipleship and Nurture, Christianity Today (Carol Stream, IL)/Word Books (Waco, TX), 1984.

(Editor, with Marshall Shelley) Fresh Ideas for Families, Youth and Children, Christianity Today (Carol Stream, IL)/Word Books (Waco, TX), 1984.

Clergy Couples in Crisis: The Impact of Stress on Pastoral Marriages, Word Books (Waco, TX)/CTi (Carol Stream, IL), 1985.

(With wife, Grace Merrill) Together at Home: 100 Proven Ways to Nurture Your Child's Faith, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1985, published as A Proven Plan to Nurture Your Child's Faith and to Spend Time Together at Home, Focus on the Family (Pomona, CA), 1988, revised and expanded edition published as Together at Home, Tyndale House (Wheaton, IL), 1996.

Liberating the Leader's Prayer Life, Word Publishing, 1985.

Teaching for Life Response, David C. Cook (Elgin, IL), 1986.

Wait Quietly: Devotions for a Busy Parent, Tyndale House (Wheaton, IL), 1994.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Church: Finding a Better Way to Influence Our Culture, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 1997.

(With Jim Cymbala) Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: What Happens When God's Spirit Invades the Heart of His People, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 1997.

The God Who Won't Let Go: Divine Grace in the Face of Guilt, Tragedy, and Failure, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 1998.

(With Jim Cymbala) Fresh Faith: What Happens When Real Faith Ignites God's People, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 1999.

(With Jim Cymbala) Fresh Power: Experiencing the Vast Resources of the Spirit of God, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 2003.

(With Bill Butterworth) The Promise of the Second Wind: It's Never Too Late to Pursue God's Best, Waterbrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2003.

(With Gracia Burnham) In the Presence of My Enemies, Tyndale House (Wheaton, IL), 2003.

Also contributor to religious periodicals, including Eternity, Christianity Today, Today's Christian Woman, Decision, and Christian Reader.

ADAPTATIONS: Fresh Power was adapted into two audiocassettes, Zondervan Audio Pages.

SIDELIGHTS: Dean Merrill is an ordained Christian minister with an extensive background in Christian publishing for various religious magazines and organizations. He has also written, cowritten, and edited numerous books relating to theology, the Christian experience, and advice books from a Christian perspective. Common themes in many of his books include the redemptive powers of God, God's ability to give people second chances, and the belief that many Christians who assert they have a strong faith have actually lost their way. In his Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Church: Finding a Better Way to Influence Our Culture, for example, he writes that the hardball approach of the Christian Right is misguided and that Christians should live their convictions and begin to transform the world not through aggressive political action but by setting themselves up as examples of how to live one's life through Christ. Noting that the "good old days" were not really all that good and that Christians should not spend their time waiting for the end of the world, Merrill "calls for a fundamental change in the way Christians seek to influence the larger culture," reported John Wilson in Christianity Today. Merrill reminds readers that God "is still in charge" and that "instead of fighting fire with fire, we can be salt and light," according to Wilson. Although the critic felt that there is a certain "lack of tough-mindedness" in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Church, he concluded that it is "a valuable contribution to … [the] ongoing reexamination" of the meaning of Christianity in the modern world.

With The God Who Won't Let Go: Divine Grace in the Face of Guilt, Tragedy, and Failure, Merrill offers another important message about Christianity: its ability to give people a new stake in life. Here, the author and minister relates a series of true stories about people who have wasted their lives or hurt other people yet have managed to turn their futures around with the help of renewed faith. A Publishers Weekly reviewer, however, found the book to have a journalistic style that offers a "simplistic and predictable version of how redemption operates."

In addition to his solo books, Merrill has collaborated on a number of works by other Christian writers, including Jim Cymbala, whose trilogy, comprised of Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: What Happens When God's Spirit Invades the Heart of His People; Fresh Faith: What Happens When Real Faith Ignites God's People; and Fresh Power: Experiencing the Vast Resources of the Spirit of God, has been a best-seller and offers a message that is similar to Merrill's in trying to rouse Christians out of what a Publishers Weekly contributor described as "their comfort zones." Cymbala, who like Merrill is a minister, also feels that Christians have lost their way, trying to make Christianity a fun and entertaining faith that tries not to offend those who do not practice it. Writing about Fresh Faith, a Publishers Weekly reviewer praised the authors' "invigorating perspective" and Cymbala's ability to bring "Bible stories to life."

More recently, Merrill assisted Gracia Burnham in writing a book that is very relevant in today's age of terrorism. In the Presence of My Enemies relates Burnham's terrifying story of how she and her husband were captured by Muslim extremists in the Philippines. They and others were held captives for a year, which ended when the Philippine army tried to rescue them in a messy operation that resulted in many of the hostages' deaths, including Burnham's husband. Burnham and Merrill deliver a memoir that, according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, does not "dramatize these events for shock value, nor does [Burnham] … use this book as an occasion for Christian triumphalism."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Christianity Today, March 2, 1998, John Wilson, review of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Church: Finding a Better Way to Influence Our Culture, p. 58.

Publishers Weekly, May 25, 1998, review of The God Who Won't Let Go: Divine Grace in the Face of Guilt, Tragedy, and Failure, p. 82; August 30, 1999, review of Fresh Faith: What Happens When Real Faith Ignites God's People, p. 74; November 1, 1999, review of Fresh Faith, p. 54; December 11, 2000, review of Fresh Power: Experiencing the Vast Resources of the Spirit of God, p. 81; April 14, 2003, review of In the Presence of My Enemies, p. 62.*