no more Christian Books part 8
I have had questions for a long time about how serious the USA takes the UK when it comes to 'Christian' retail, 'Christian music' etc etc. I guess something to also ask is, actually, how big is the industry on this side of the Atlantic? If we stripped away all the worldwide imports of 'christian' product what would be left? Are we producing good & worthwhile stock for the Church in the UK?
On friday i sat in on a meeting with Michael from Authentic and then had lunch at madeinBelfast combined with discussions about a whole lot of stuff! I admit that for the first time i got a sense of excitement about the product being created & promoted by these guys as opposed to the imported stuff they sell. Fair play to Michael for taking time to meet us, inform us and encourage us. But are the efforts of UK based companies & organizations like this being thwarted by our yank brothers & sisters? Or are they even brothers & sisters? Sadly a lot of my issues and difficulties with CCM and such 'movements' are found in the fact that at the head of a lot of the leading companies & publishing houses there is no emphasis on 'christian' thinking or ethics, it usually about money. In fact a lot of the publishers we know and love are imprints of publishing companies that are in no way, Christian. A lot of consumers do not know that the reason some of the books you buy are on the shelf is JUST about the money, not about the impact it may have on your life or faith! Decisions like this one by Zondervan are often fueled by money. Perhaps the UK market is not doing so well and..............you know what, i needn't make that excuse because from where i sit, the UK market for Zondervan looks pretty sweet! They have top authors, big titles & nice marketing, and Rob Bell who is a marketers dream, but what has changed in the UK? Forgive me for being skeptical but much like in politics i can't help but feel like we are the smaller cousin who gets shafted (in Christian love of course) when the numbers do not add up! Its tough to put this point across though because more and more i see that 'christian' business is NOT 'christian' AT ALL. Some people just do not understand that in business you cannot turn off your Christianity! I suppose though, you cannot turn off something that is not there!
p.s i have decided to carry on the 'No More Christian Books' series as a look at the industry & products in general even though i am reading again!
Labels: books, christian, no more christian books
posted by supersimbo at 5/24/2009 10:34:00 AM
4 Comments:
I think it's safe to say that the Kingdom of God has been comprehensively compromised by financial considerations. Comes down to something J said about not being able to serve two masters...
Interesting post. Challenging though. I mean, the NIV Bible, for example is on show in mainstream bookshops because Hachette can use its influence within the faith division to get NIV Bibles into mainstream stores. Hachette also got The Shack into Tesco's stores, and an NIV Passion sampler into The Telegraph last Easter. All large projects which, i suspect, a 'christian' publisher like Authentic would find very difficult or even impossible to achieve. I'd rather that global-corporations were engaged in the promotion of Christian books than excluded. But there may be a cost so how do you determine if that cost is too high, given that people may encounter Christ as a result of the involvement of non-christian publishers?
Also, there's a the matter of financial stewardship and responsibility. Would it be right for christian publishers to just be 'nice' and never make anyone redundant choosing, instead, to run their business into debt or on a financial knife-edge? Could it be that the leaders of the Zondervan division within HaperCollins are christians, and have devoted themselves to prayer and seeking God's guidance about the situation?
I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on how Christians in business should go about making difficult decisions when the only options are 'undesirable' at best.
I agree that "global corporations' can and should be engaged in the promotion of Christian books................and i couldnt make a call on whether the 'cost is too high.' I was & am concerned about how a CEO or MD of a large corporation who is not a Christian can have the same aims & goals for the product they promote as someone who is a Christian?
Ultimately they are not & will not be concerned by the spiritual impact of a product if they do not know Jesus.
If the leaders at Zondervan have 'devoted themselves to prayer and seeking God's guidance about the situation' then great, and if i knew that i would perhaps retract my blog post
"Christians in business" is a topic that i am by no means an expert on. Of course there is a matter of financial 'stewardship & responsibility'
With re: to 'difficult decisions', Christians in business should pray & seek God's guidance as you state above, but the problem here is that some people do this & still genuinely think God has told them to 'not pay that client' or 'look after themselves first' or 'make that profit' when in fact it is their own selfish pride that is telling them those things!
Each situation is different i guess
It's not something I have ever thought much about, but I reckon it's a bit of a catch 22 situation. I mean obviously secular organisations are primarily concerned with turnover, but for christian books, cd's, dvd's, whatever, there has to be a financial side, I mean without turnover they won't be able to produce the material, but I think it becomes wrong, when the business becomes about more than covering costs (be that staff, distribution,rent), and instead about lining pockets of directors.
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