A Church Bookstall: Why?

One of the jobs I inherited when I joined my current church was to manage the church bookstall. After nearly two years in the business, I thought it might be useful to consider just why a church bookstall can be useful - then tomorrow we'll think about how to do it.



So here are some good reasons to have a bookstall in your church:

1. It encourages people to read. There's no doubt that reading in general, and perhaps in particular among Christians, is in decline. Having a supply of good Christian books will encourage people to pick up a book and read.

2. It's convenient. People are getting busier, so free time for browsing and shopping for books is squeezed out. If they're going to be at church anyway, then it's a great opportunity for them to pause at the bookstall as they chat before or after the service.

3. It supports Christian publishers and bookshops. Our bookstall is maintained through a local Christian bookshop, so whatever we sell helps to support their work and ministry too.

4. It can tie in to your preaching. Say you're preaching a series on Sundays and a particular issue comes up. You might have twenty minutes in one sermon to deal with it. There's never enough time to go in-depth or discuss it fully. It can be helpful to point people to additional resources or books which explore the issue, which people can pick up and read if they want to go further. This may be useful if you have several books, one of which may be 'lighter' and another 'heavier' so readers have a choice.

5. It can promote good new books. Sometimes new books can take time to enter the awareness of ordinary Christians, but if you're running a bookstall and getting special offers on new books, it can be a good way to help promote and recommend new books.

6. It can be a strategic ministry. The bookstall can be a way of helping people and pastoring them in a low-key way. By flagging up books, you can be preparing the congregation for the future.

7. It can be evangelistic. By having a few well chosen evangelistic and apologetic resources, the bookstall can also help people explore Christianity or find answers to hard questions without having to embarrass yourself by asking someone!

8. It will lead to growth. This is the aim of the bookstall, after all. We don't just want people to be reading in order to know more stuff, but in order to grow in godliness and maturity. It's not even about the money - sometimes it may be productive to operate at a loss if it ensures people are reading and growing. As we seek growth, the bookstall naturally fits into the overall aim of the church. So why wouldn't you have a bookstall?

Convenient Consumption or Frozen Waste?

You've heard of the frozen wastelands of Siberia, or perhaps other places. Yet I think there's probably a frozen wasteland a lot closer to home, even inside your home.


The freezer can be a very convenient means of consumption, so if you see a bargain in the supermarket you stock up and put the excess in the freezer for some other day. It's useful for having vegetables out of season, if they've been stored up while in season. It can be good to make up meals and then freeze them for the days you don't want to face cooking when you get home from work. Very handy, very convenient, and yet still perhaps a frozen waste.


Just think for a moment - do you actually use the stuff in the freezer in time, or does it just lie there, literally frozen waste, long past its safe use, just waiting for the day you clear out the freezer and throw the food away? If that's the case, then it wasn't really a bargain in the first place - money spent on food which ultimately is thrown out, as well as the extra electricity used to freeze the food for that long period of time.


While it may be a matter of discipleship for Christians, it's important for everyone in these days of job uncertainty and falling incomes, so that every household takes care of how they steward their resources, making the most from every pound. Just think of the impact we could have if the money we spent on what will become frozen waste was instead directed towards charities to feed those who desperately need something, anything? Think of the reduction in energy bills, which would reduce our need for so much energy.


How long could your household survive if they weren't to go food shopping from today, simply using up the food already under your roof in the freezer, or cans, bottles or jars? While you might need to still get the fresh essentials, like milk etc, wouldn't it make sense to use up that food rather than leaving it to eventually be thrown out?

We've tried this over the past week, using up the freezer food, so that it's nearly empty, with minimal waste. Now what to do with those prawns...