A few days ago Family Christian Stores, a nationwide bookstore chain, announced that they will be shutting down all operations, but no date was given. They tried bankruptcy in 2015 but that wasn't enough to keep them going. My Christian walk began in Christian bookstores back in 1982 and I owned a Christian bookstore for two years about 15 years ago.
Is the Internet the primary reason for not only Christian bookstores but all bookstores struggling to survive? Possibly, but the Internet would not get my vote in the case of the Christian bookstores. Barnes & Noble gets a lot of business from me for I very rarely order books off the Internet....but I do have one being shipped to me as I write for it's hard to find The Evidence Bible... and I like to have one at all times to give away when the opportunity arrives... and I gave my last one away a few days ago.... but Barnes & Noble generally only stocks the newer books because they are limited with space and because people don't want older books anyway.
Christian bookstores are in trouble because what is being published today is generally just not very good...and what is good is not recognized as such. That's the main reason. Yes, there are a number of books every year that sell well but they are usually novelties...crazy stories about trips to heaven or seven step plans for this or that. It's nonsense and most of the rest of the store is merchandise for the home. This is the foundation of what Christian bookstores have become. Not only is there no future in this but there is little good to help the Christian community let alone the nation.
It wasn't like this back in the 80s. Yes, the bad books were there but so were good books! I found them easily and they were part of my life being changed. I watched the quality of literature go down as the years went by and opened my own bookstore with all good Christian literature. Why aren't I still in business you might ask? I ran a commercial on our local Christian radio station and people who knew what sound Christian literature was did travel even distances to get to our town but the local Christian community did not support the store. This because they didn't know what good Christian books were...and they still don't know...and that was my reason in opening the store to begin with.....to inform them. I was not successful in getting this message across but I did close the store still confident that Christians...churches...and consequently our entire nation... would benefit greatly if only they recognized and took advantage of the great blessings in reading great Christian books. I still believe that!
So what is a good Christian book? Everything that R. C. Sproul, or John MacArthur, or Michael Horton writes...just to name a three of many...is going to be a good and edifying Christian book. Any book with blurbs from these authors on the back cover is going to be a good Christian book. Anything from Banner Of Truth publishers is going to be a good Christian book, and there are other publishers. Anything bought, for example, at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Store is going to be a good book. These are only a few names and examples but there are many more. The key is finding out what is good and is what isn't, and what can strengthen and edify and what can only thrill or massage. This is not only the key but it's also the hard part, but if you start on books such as these they will lead to others.
If you are confused or if you are happy with these books of today that you not only are reading but enjoying... books that I am insinuating are not good... then try reading...let me pick two...try reading Michael Horton's Putting The Amazing Back Into Grace...or John MacArthur's Ashamed Of The Gospel...and see if you don't at least wind up saying that these are a different animal altogether? John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is today thought of as a children's book! Charles Spurgeon read this...children's book...100 times during his life. Harry Blamires' The Christian Mind is over 50 years old, J. I. Packer's Knowing God is over 40 years old, and R. C. Sproul's The Holiness Of God is over 30 years old.
To your left on this page should be a link...Isaac Crockett......Novella. It's a short novel that I wrote many years ago...probably twenty years ago now...that is about what I am addressing in this post. Isaac Crockett is a famous rock star...and a Christian...who quits Rock & Roll to find out what God really wants him to do in life. There are two themes in this attempt at a novel...and that's all it is...an attempt...a Protestant young man in love with a Roman Catholic young woman is one...and opening a Christian bookstore on the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey is the other.
Is the Internet the primary reason for not only Christian bookstores but all bookstores struggling to survive? Possibly, but the Internet would not get my vote in the case of the Christian bookstores. Barnes & Noble gets a lot of business from me for I very rarely order books off the Internet....but I do have one being shipped to me as I write for it's hard to find The Evidence Bible... and I like to have one at all times to give away when the opportunity arrives... and I gave my last one away a few days ago.... but Barnes & Noble generally only stocks the newer books because they are limited with space and because people don't want older books anyway.
Christian bookstores are in trouble because what is being published today is generally just not very good...and what is good is not recognized as such. That's the main reason. Yes, there are a number of books every year that sell well but they are usually novelties...crazy stories about trips to heaven or seven step plans for this or that. It's nonsense and most of the rest of the store is merchandise for the home. This is the foundation of what Christian bookstores have become. Not only is there no future in this but there is little good to help the Christian community let alone the nation.
It wasn't like this back in the 80s. Yes, the bad books were there but so were good books! I found them easily and they were part of my life being changed. I watched the quality of literature go down as the years went by and opened my own bookstore with all good Christian literature. Why aren't I still in business you might ask? I ran a commercial on our local Christian radio station and people who knew what sound Christian literature was did travel even distances to get to our town but the local Christian community did not support the store. This because they didn't know what good Christian books were...and they still don't know...and that was my reason in opening the store to begin with.....to inform them. I was not successful in getting this message across but I did close the store still confident that Christians...churches...and consequently our entire nation... would benefit greatly if only they recognized and took advantage of the great blessings in reading great Christian books. I still believe that!
So what is a good Christian book? Everything that R. C. Sproul, or John MacArthur, or Michael Horton writes...just to name a three of many...is going to be a good and edifying Christian book. Any book with blurbs from these authors on the back cover is going to be a good Christian book. Anything from Banner Of Truth publishers is going to be a good Christian book, and there are other publishers. Anything bought, for example, at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Store is going to be a good book. These are only a few names and examples but there are many more. The key is finding out what is good and is what isn't, and what can strengthen and edify and what can only thrill or massage. This is not only the key but it's also the hard part, but if you start on books such as these they will lead to others.
If you are confused or if you are happy with these books of today that you not only are reading but enjoying... books that I am insinuating are not good... then try reading...let me pick two...try reading Michael Horton's Putting The Amazing Back Into Grace...or John MacArthur's Ashamed Of The Gospel...and see if you don't at least wind up saying that these are a different animal altogether? John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is today thought of as a children's book! Charles Spurgeon read this...children's book...100 times during his life. Harry Blamires' The Christian Mind is over 50 years old, J. I. Packer's Knowing God is over 40 years old, and R. C. Sproul's The Holiness Of God is over 30 years old.
To your left on this page should be a link...Isaac Crockett......Novella. It's a short novel that I wrote many years ago...probably twenty years ago now...that is about what I am addressing in this post. Isaac Crockett is a famous rock star...and a Christian...who quits Rock & Roll to find out what God really wants him to do in life. There are two themes in this attempt at a novel...and that's all it is...an attempt...a Protestant young man in love with a Roman Catholic young woman is one...and opening a Christian bookstore on the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey is the other.
