My intentions to write more short pithy posts notwithstanding, this post is a little longer because it basically consists of part of an email that Sandy Grant recently sent round to the small group leaders and youth leaders at his church. For reasons that will become obvious as you read, Sandy is saying things that I strongly endorse! Can I suggest you follow his lead, and give some encouragement in this vein to your leaders?
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… Fourthly, can I make an appeal. The appeal is this: Would you please give strong consideration to your group using Matthias Media studies/courses this year, especially for the first couple of terms. (And I mean buying them legally, copies for each member, and not just photocopying which is always wrong as a breach of copyright.) Let me explain why.
As you may know, I am the Chairman of the Board of Matthias Media. This means I get a bit of an insight into the publishing world. I can tell you that…
(1) Publishing is hard. It always has been hard to get anything published, let alone successfully sold. The competition is enormous. (Didn’t a philosopher preacher once say that “Of making many books there is no end”!? Eccl 12:12)
It is even harder now to sell physical books, as people take to the electronic world of e-books and Kindles and blogs.
(2) Publishing in Australia is very hard. Publishers in Australia have struggles with the tyranny of distance and a small market, compared to the rest of the world. It’s just hard to be economic.
In the last couple of years this has been exacerbated by high exchange rates, and the explosion of internet shopping, which make it harder to sell Australian published books overseas, and easier and often cheaper for customers to import overseas books via Amazon, Book Depository etc.
(3) Christian publishing in Australia is exceptionally difficult. The Christian market is certainly well below 10% of the Australian population. If it’s getting harder to find a decent local book shop, it’s near impossible to find a local Christian one. And sadly many Christians of various varieties are not that interested in reading good biblical Christian literature. And all the other challenges above also apply!
That probably helps explain why there are hardly any Australian Christian publishers. (I could bore you with the names of publishers that have closed over the last two decades).
But Australian Christians have many good things to say. We know the Australian scene better than anyone else. And in our own circles via Moore College and the Sydney Diocese and other evangelical friends, we have a doctrinally rich, biblical-theology heritage, and an evangelistically enterprising ministry mindset. For example, The Trellis and the Vine from Matthias Media was widely received in North America as a revolutionary and helpful book about ministry. Something of a surprise hit, for those us here in Australia who took it for granted.
How to ensure Australian Christian publishing survives into the new era of electronic publishing? One good way is support Matthias Media. Deliberately be positively biased towards buying Matthias Media products over overseas products where they are of equivalent quality. (And they are often better.)
(Of course, the same can apply towards Anglican Youthworks or Acorn Press in Melbourne too.)
And subscribe to The Briefing, even though you can get it free on the web. I think you are more likely to read it through in magazine-style hard copy. Much easier to read and digest.
But right now, I am asking you all to consider, if at all possible, committing to your group to using Matthias Media Bible studies or study courses especially for the first couple of terms this year, even if you could write your own, or get something somewhere else. The cash flow will really help MM in what is a very tough publishing environment at the moment.
Some people might think that Matthias Media studies are too hard for your type of group. Some of them may be, but MM also now produces a simpler more straightforward Bible study series (the Pathway Bible Guides), as well as the video-based resources for groups like Six Step to Reading Your Bible, Where to Lord?, and so on.
The Matthias Media webstore is here. You might find it useful to go straight to their special small group page.
I understand the MM Resource Guide (i.e. catalogue) will be available in the next 7-10 days. I also understand they will be giving some really great specials in the next month.
You can order direct online or via phone, or if you prefer, it can be arranged via the church office. (However in that case, we really need you to collect all the cash and bring it in, so we can pay our bills without being out of pocket.)
Please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Yours in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Senior Minister, St Michael’s Anglican Cathedral
