The winners of the 2018 Christian Book Awards were announced earlier this week. While awards alone don’t make me want to read a book it’s always interesting to find out who won. Of course, Bibles are the category Bible Buying Guide pays the most attention to.

The Swindoll Study Bible NLT by Charles R. Swindoll and published by Tyndale House is the 2018 ECPA Christian Book Award winner. (Our review here) This Bible is packed with study material most of which focuses on applying biblical principles to our lives.

The other finalists in the Bible category were

  • NIrV Adventures in Odyssey Bible from Focus on the Family Publishing
  • Christian Basics Bible NLT from Tyndale House Publishers (Our review here)
  • Faithlife Illustrated Study Bible NIV from Lexham from Faithlife and Zondervan (Our review here)
  • Kids’ Visual Study Bible NIV from Zonderkidz

Since they differ more in content study and speciality Bibles tend to make the finalist list instead of text-only and reference Bibles.

The rest of the 2018 ECPA Christian Book Awards went to

  • Bible Reference Works – Evidence That Demands a Verdict (completely updated and expanded) by Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell, PhD
  • Bible Study – Adorned by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
  • Biography and Memoir – I’ll Push You by Patrick Gray and Justin Skeesuck
  • Children – Good Good Father by Chris Tomlin and Pat Barrett, Illustrated by Lorna Hussey
  • Christian Living – a tie between Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community by Brett McCracken  and Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God by Mark Batterson
  • Devotion and Gift – GraceLaced by Ruth Chou Simons
  • Faith and Culture – Finding Grace in the Face of Dementia by John Dunlop, MD
  • Ministry Resources – Who Lynched Willie Earle? Preaching to Confront Racism by William H. Willimon
  • New Author – Follow the Cloud by John Stickl
  • Young People’s Literature – a tie between The Bible Explorers Guide by Nancy I. Sanders  and The Radical Book for Kids: Exploring the Roots and Shoots of Faith by Champ Thornton
  • Christian Book of the Year – Jesus Always by Sarah Young

A very interesting collection of books. I’m not a Sarah Young fan so Jesus Always being the Book of the Year surprised me a bit. I was thrilled to see Gracelaced by Ruth Chou Simons win one of the awards. While I haven’t read the book (yet). I’ve been following her blog for quite awhile and I love both her writing and her artwork.

If you want to see the runners-up you can find a complete list of the finalists here. Be warned that after looking at the list of finalists and winners I have a larger TBR pile.

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Photography by hannah C brown and borrowed from the Christian Book Award and GraceLaced websites