Tracy Lawrence among 14 recording artists for NIV Country Gospel Audio New Testament

Tracy Lawrence among 14 recording artists for NIV Country Gospel Audio New Testament


Some of Nashville’s biggest names have joined forces to record one of history’s biggest bestsellers.

The NIV Country Gospel Audio New Testament features readings by 14 recording artists, including Arkansan Tracy Lawrence.

The Southern Arkansas University alumnus was tapped to read 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth.

One of its most-quoted verses is in the 5th chapter and 17th verse: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

NIV stands for “New International Version,” a translation completed by evangelical scholars in the 1970s, with the New Testament appearing in 1973 and the rest of the Bible available in 1978.

Updated most recently in 2011, it has long been the bestselling English translation, according to the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, which tracks the data.

The country audio Bible, released by Zondervan this month, has a list price of $39.99 on CD and $38.99 as a digital audiobook.

It takes just over 19 to play the new recording from start to finish. The package includes not only the 27 books of the New Testament but also testimonies from nearly all of the artists themselves.

“The Bible is alive. It’s actually alive. And you will get different things out of it every time you read it,” Lawrence said on the recording.

“Sometimes different lines and different chapters will completely jump out at you that you might have read 10 times before and you never got the same meaning out of it,” he said. “It grabs a hold of you and shows you how it is relevant in your life today.”

Growing up in Little River County, Lawrence was exposed to plenty of gospel music, and the Scriptures, too, while attending First United Methodist Church in Foreman.

After a string of blockbuster country albums and a slew of No. 1 singles, released his first gospel album, “The Rock,” which debuted in 2009 at No. 4 on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart and at No. 20 on the country albums list.

One of the songs, about an unopened Bible, includes the lyrics: “Your granddaddy carried me in World War II. Your grandma swears that I am the truth. … I’m in the drawer by your bed. I’m the book you never read.”

OPENING THE BOOK

In the new recording, Lawrence emphasized the importance of opening the book, not just owning a copy.

“Take the time to read the Bible every now and then. It’s a very important thing,” he said. “If you’ve never taken the time or don’t really have an understanding of it, the Bible will speak to you. It will enlighten you and it’ll give you hope. That’s what Christ is all about.”

In addition to Lawrence, the NIV Country Gospel Audio New Testament also includes readings by Rory Feek (Matthew), Charlie Daniels (Mark), Hillary Scott (Luke) and Cheryl White (John).

Daniels died before the project revved up, but he left behind a recording of the entire New Testament that he’d made in his spare time.

The good news is, Daniels was reading from his own copy of the NIV. The bad news is, it was the 1984 edition.

The owner of the Bible’s copyright, Colorado-based Biblica, doesn’t authorize the use of previous versions for new projects. It took a lot of posthumous editing to comply with their requirements.

Fortunately, the new translation didn’t introduce any exotic or particularly unusual words. They were able to remove wrong words and add the right ones, plucking them from an audio recording of his 2017 autobiography.

The Acts of the Apostles was assigned to Sharon White; Randy Owen received Romans. Carly Pearce tackled 1 Corinthians, including a passage from Chapter 13 that is sometimes read at weddings: “Love is patient. Love is kind. … It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

EAGER TO PARTICIPATE

Ricky Skaggs, the 15-time Grammy winner, was eager to participate in the project. He read the book of Hebrews and also witnessed awhile.

“There’s a deep relationship between country music and faith,” he told listeners.

“If you go back and look at people that’s made it in the business, so to speak, their early beginnings [were] singing in church. Mine certainly was,” he said.

Lawrence said Christian roots run deep in country music circles.

“Most of the people that I’ve become friends with, peers and things, … come from small towns like me that had a mom and a daddy that made them go to church on Sunday mornings,” he said.

Gabe Wicks, vice president, creative services for HarperCollins Christian Publishing, said word spread quickly once the project got underway.

Lauren Alaina handled the book of James. Other epistles were divvied up, with four going to Linda Davis and six each going to Neal McCoy and Josh Turner.

T.G. Sheppard wrapped it up by reading Revelation.

“Really everyone that was on the recording was really honored to be part of it and they didn’t really take much convincing,” Wicks said.

SEVERAL DECADES AGO

This isn’t the first country music audio production, he noted. Johnny Cash recorded the entire New Testament, all by himself, several decades ago.

Actors Charlton Heston and James Earl Jones have also tried it on their own.

The Bible Experience, released in 2007, featured a Who’s Who of Black Hollywood celebrities, gospel singers and preachers.

The Word of Promise Audio Bible, another star-studded effort, soon followed.

Zondervan, which is part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., holds the North American publishing rights to the New International Version and guided the latest project from start to finish.

Melinda Bouma, vice president and publisher of Bibles for Zondervan, said the goal is to make the Scriptures accessible to people from all walks of life and from every generation.

More than 40 years after its debut, the NIV “continues to be the bestselling” Bible translation, she said, attributing its success to “how broadly it is trusted and utilized.”

The format is flexible, the print size can be changed, new translations can be undertaken, but the message itself is timeless, she noted.

“The Bible is the Bible. We’re not changing the text. We’re not adding words, subtracting words,” she said.

NO SURPRISES

People who have soaked up the Scriptures over the years, won’t find any surprises in the texts themselves.

The testimonies, nonetheless, provide something new.

These are more than readings; they’re confessions of faith.

The goal was to find people who not only read the Bible but believe it, Wicks noted.

“We want everyone on here to actually be a believing Christian,” he said. “I didn’t want, you know, a bunch of voices that were essentially actors and were playing a part. I want these to be people that were actually known by reputation as being the kind of folks who should be reading this.”

“I’m proud to say I think that’s who we were able to get together,” he added.

  Tracy Lawrence among 14 recording artists for NIV Country Gospel Audio New Testament  The NIV Country Gospel Audio New Testament, released this month, features Scripture readings and testimonies from 14 of the genre’s stars, including Tracy Lawrence of Foreman. The cover art includes their images. (Courtesy photo)
 
 
  photo  Charlie Daniels died in 2020, but he left behind an audio recording of the entire New Testament, which he had created in his spare time. A portion of the recording is included in the NIV Country Gospel Audio New Testament, which was released this month. (Courtesy photo)
 
 

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