The call goes out to keep Jesus on the High Street

homer911

From Times Online
January 15, 2010

Drastic action is being demanded from the pulpit to keep Christian bookshops in business

In Christian bookshops up and down the country books are being cleared from shelves. But this is no ordinary January sale — it is further evidence of a trade in turmoil after the travails suffered by the big secular booksellers such as Waterstone’s and Borders.
The Christian bookselling industry was hit before Christmas with news that its largest remaining chain, Wesley Owen, was going into administration. Of its 40 shops, 14 have been bought out, but the remaining 26 have not found buyers and some have already closed.
Booksellers fear another SPCK debacle, as when the well-known Christian bookseller collapsed between 2007 and 2009 amid acrimonious claims of mismanagement and employment tribunals.
Wesley Owen is the biggest but by no means the only Christian bookshop to have fallen in recent months — smaller chains of bookshops such St Andrew’s are splitting up, and scores of little, independently owned shops are quietly closing their doors for good.
Yet some staff and local Christians and clergy are not giving in easily. They have turned to the internet — which, ironically, is blamed by some for the trade’s downfall — to campaign for a future for Christian bookshops as churches on the high street.
An online petition is hoping to save a store in Edinburgh, and in South Woodford, London, pledges of £31,000 have already been received to keep the shop open.
The manager of Wesley Owen in South Woodford, Dominic Stinchcombe, is in no doubt that even if his supporters can find the other £30,000, the trade as a whole faces a bleak future without radical action.
“If it was just keeping the bookshop going I wouldn’t bother,” he says, “but it’s the Christian ministry side of it. Many people use us as a kind of church. We are here Monday to Saturday. It might be new Christians moving into the area, or someone at the end of their tether who doesn’t know where to turn. We listen and pray with them all if they ask for it.”
Stinchcombe’s campaign has been lifted by direct support from the pulpit of local churches. The Rev Steve Clark, vicar of St Andrew’s with All Saints, issued a rallying cry during his Sunday sermon for people to support the “ministry” of the South Woodford shop near by.
“It’s not just a shop,” says Clark. “Often you can walk in and find staff praying with somebody. I wasn’t asking people to feel guilty about not using the bookshop, just asking them if they would like to support the vision. And the next day the first person walked in and laid down £1,000.”
People in the trade talk a lot about their shops as a ministry and a Christian presence on the high street. But the hard facts are that, like every other bookshop, Christian booksellers have been hit by the power of Amazon.
Stinchcombe insists that Christians will soon realise what they are missing: “You might be able to buy your books on the internet, but you can’t buy ministry on the internet.”
One of the rescuers of some former Wesley Owen stores shares that vision. Phil Burnham is director of CLC (the evangelical missionary organisation formerly known as Christian Literature Crusade), which has taken over six shops. Yet although he believes strongly that bookshops have a ministry as much as any church, he still describes the move as a huge leap of faith.
“We have been greatly saddened in recent years to see so many other shops closing down and we have felt powerless to step in when asked if we could do something. But with the trickle suddenly becoming a torrent we saw the need to act.” But Burnham is by no means certain that the CLC — which is primarily a missionary organisation — can make things work.
“The problem is a booktrade issue not a Christian issue it is Amazon hitting everybody. Christians are as susceptible to making that click of the mouse instead of going down the shops as everyone else,” he says. “They think it won’t make a big difference to their local bookshops but it does.”
He also blames the inexorable rise and rise of the mega-festivals, such as Greenbelt and New Wine, where bookstalls flourish and large discounts are on offer, and the prevailing celebrity culture is much in evidence.
“We are getting that sort of cult following among Christians where people ask for books by one author and wait for the next one, rather than buying what they need. It is the celebrity culture affecting Christians as much as anyone else.”
Phil Groom writes a blog on the future of the Christian bookshop. He runs one himself at the London School of Theology which, despite having a guaranteed customer base, is still struggling. He believes the only future is for shops to be run in partnership with local churches as community hubs.
“Shops have got to be much more than just bookshops. They have to be destinations for community,” he says.
“We could ham up the guilt for Christians or local churches to get them to support us, but that would only work for so long. They have to realise that they need to work more closely with shops if they want to keep them.”
This model has led to one shop rising phoenix-like from the ashes of a former SPCK shop in Chichester.
St Olav Christian bookshop closed under the SPCK name in the summer but reopened four months later as an independent shop, with a board of trustees representing every denomination in the city.
The shop’s manager, Bradley Smith, says there is “every sign” that the shop will do well: “We have very loyal customers, we didn’t realise how loyal at first.”
And in South Woodford, faithful staff are still exploring every option to keep going, while lending a hand to pack up nearby Wesley Owen shops. Moira Clarke-Moisley, 19, started out at Wesley Owen by doing work experience when she was 14. “It has been my home from home, my church from church and above all my family,” she says. “I don’t think people realise the full ramifications that closing these shops is going to have — these are 26 high street churches that are being closed. Our shop isn’t like other shops — We are a safe place to just be, to get prayer, to get fellowship, to ask questions. You don’t often get that at your local supermarket.”

Although this is a UK story, Support your local Christian Bookshop or they may not be around much longer!

Veritas, Victory, Footprints, Hibernian Bible Society, CPC(?)...
(Maybe we need a sticky...?)

PDN

Well, I guess I'm part of the problem. I set foot in a Christian bookshop only once in all of 2009 - and that was to meet Fanny Cradock for a coffee and to buy a second hand copy of a commentary by Calvin.

I've bought 30 or 40 books this year, but most of them were downloaded digitally onto my Kindle electronic reader. They cost less, I carry my library with me wherever I go, and I can download a title within one minute of you recommending it to me. Compared to that, I have no wish to find a parking space in a town centre, then to check out a bookshop that might well turn out not to have what I'm looking for.

Fanny Cradock

Yeah, I usually use the new and used section in Amazon. The exact same is happening to record shops - especially independent ones such as Road Records. Perhaps I'll start paying more trips to SU upon my triumphant return to Ireland.

I realise that Christian bookshops offer more than consumer products, but they are really are up against the wall. UNness they find some other business model (like the one suggested in the article) then digital downloads and one-click purchases will always be more attractive. It's going to be tough for secular and non-secular business alike.

chozometroid

I still appreciate the brick-and-mortar book shops where I can browse through physical books, whether they be Christian or not. I almost always buy my books online, but a Christian bookstore is nice in that it has a presence out in the real world, where you can be in a "Christian" environment and not be surrounded by secular books. Also, you could perhaps meet someone there with similar interests. There is the added bonus of being able to view any physical items they have, such as Bible gifts with name-engraving. I suppose they don't have a lot going for them, but I appreciate it when I see them.

Amazon is where I buy 99% of my books, followed by a book store which sells every type of book at discounted prices (which buys books from customers as well), and followed lastly by Christian book stores.