Reading Congregation
Article Date: 23/09/2014 14:06:56
No matter your church denomination —
be a ‘Reading Congregation’!
Read together, Explore together, Grow together...
We’re delighted to announce the launch of Reading Congregations, a new opportunity for churches.
Reading has become something of a lost art among Christians today but, at CLC Wholesale, we’re convinced that Christian books can spread the good news, encourage us in our faith, and help us grow in godliness. With this in mind, we aim to help you get your congregation reading again.
Offering great titles at affordable prices, Reading Congregations is designed to encourage small groups and whole church families to commit to reading the same book together. As they do so, our hope is that congregations will grow as a body and rediscover the joy of reading Christian books.
For the launch of Reading Congregations, we’ve chosen two stories of personal journeys to faith reviewed below.
We’re offering each of these titles in packs of ten books at £24.99 per pack. To take part in Reading Congregations, use the order form and take it to your local Take Note bookshop (see back cover) or order online at www.clcbookshops.com
More Than a Carpenter - Pack of 10 Only Ł24,99
One Step Beyond - Pack of 10 Only Ł24,99
We pray that Reading Congregations will reignite a love for Christian literature in your church. Yours faithfully, Chris Magee, Head of CLC Wholesale
CLC asked best-selling author, Richard Bewes, to share about the importance of having a congregation that reads. Here’s what he had to say:
“Hey, what ever made you put that title on your youth fellowship bookstall?” It was decades back. I had arrived as new assistant minister at a well-known evangelical church, and it was my first evening with the youth. The book in question was entitled The Date of Ezra’s Coming to Jerusalem.
“Ah,” came the reply, “This is the latest Tyndale Monograph.” “Monograph, eh? That sounds like some kind of fire-screen.”
The fact is that a revolution has taken place in evangelical publishing since those days when The New Bible Commentary and a few fine titles by writers such as R.A. Torrey, Guy King and F.B. Meyer virtually provided the entire bookstall menu on offer.... plus, of course, Tyndale Monographs.
Go today to the Christian Resources Exhibition or any Christian convention such as Keswick, Spring Harvest or New Wine, and you are confronted by an avalanche of new books—in all forms of publication. Bible doctrine, discipleship, biographies, commentaries, devotion and outreach—all are covered.... and the question arises, how do these books get to the bookshelves of our churches across Britain?
It is ultimately a matter of vision. By his writings, Alexsander Solzhenitsyn did as much as any to bring about the fall of the brutal Soviet regime. It was his Christian faith that framed his world-view. In his acceptance speech of the Nobel Literature Prize, he cited a Russian proverb: ‘One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.’
How true this has been in the case of writers like Luther, Bunyan, Wilberforce or Billy Graham! Today it seems to be the Christians of China and Iran that are clamouring for Christian literature. To what extent is this true in the case of your own local church here in Britain? Who runs your bookstall? How often are its contents monitored and replenished? Which books are your new believers introduced to? Who is appointed to announce ‘The Book of the Month’ at church services? Who writes the book review in the monthly newsletter?
Let us salute the writers, the publishers, and the Christian bookshops of today who make so much possible. It is the easiest thing for any church to access the written word, but we must question the strength of our own excitement and vision for books. Can we see them as an essential means of establishing for ourselves and our fellowships an unassailable Christian world-view with which we, too, can outweigh the world?
Keywords: Reading Congregations, CLC Wholesale, More than a Carpenter, Josh McDowell, One Step Beyond
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