My recent visit to a local Christian bookstore got me thinking about something and I thought I’d pose the question to the readers of this blog:
Do you patronize your local Christian Bookstore? By patronize I specifically mean, do you make purchases from your local Christian bookstore?
Here are my thoughts:
The Christian bookstore can be a light in the darkness of a somewhat spiritual desert in some communities. There are people who stumble into such establishments who would never darken the doors of a church. Usually the owner, (and workers), are professing Christians who could help lead a lost soul to Jesus Christ.
On the other hand, every Christian bookstore that I’ve been in sells tons of literature and books that contain enough heresy to lead any seeking soul who finds them to Hell. Alongside great books of the Christian faith can be found almost every purveyor of false doctrine, every wind of doctrine, and every doctrine of demons imaginable.
So the question arises, how much poison is permissible in your glass of water? Do you support such a den of heresy? If so, why? If not, why?
See this follow-up post.
Christ Alone Wyoming 
That is a very difficult question. I have asked myself the same before. We really need those lighthouses of Christian bookstores, but why can’t they take the unbiblical books out of the stores. So as you, I do not have an answer.
René from Denmark
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I recently made a trip to a couple of different local Christian bookstores. I was looking for K. P. Yohannan’s The Road to Reality to give as a gift. Naturally, they did not have it. However, I notice two full shelves of Joel Osteen books. The number of useful books found in most Christian bookstores is minuscule. And finding them is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. Of course, when you ask about the book, they tell you they don’t have it but they can order it for you. Book and mortar stores need to understand how times have changed. I can get online and have that book here tomorrow. If I am in your store it is because I need that book right now.
On the other hand, they are a business. They have to make money to stay in business. This means they stock what sells. So if the shelves are filled with Your Best Life Now, instead of Charnock’s The Attributes of God, that is more of an indictment on the church than the stores.
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I for one tend to steer clear of most Christian bookstores as most all of them put Osteen, T.D. Jakes and Meyers right on the front rows and rarely even carry good Christian material. If you ask them for it they tell you they have to order it. So sending someone to my local Christian bookstore is sometimes sending them right into the hands of the Prosperity Gospel. Frankly, I’ve noticed that my local Barnes & Noble has more copies of Piper, MacArthur, etc. than our local Lifeway and Family Christian.
As a sunday school teacher I always recommend to those who ask me to order their books online from resources like Monergismbooks.com and Westminster, etc. At least sending them there I know that they will NOT have copies of heretical books.
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Sadly, most Christian bookstores are a mixture of both good, scriptural books & false teachings. In my personal opinion, many Christian bookstore owners are born-again believers, however, as so many false teachers market themselves as “Christians” it can be easy for a bookstore owner to unwittingly put books promoting heresy on their shelves, and just as easy for a new, or undiscerning Christian to fall prey to those heresies.
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in a perfect world we would have perfect Christian book stores… i don’t tell anybody to go to the Christian bookstore unless I know they would be able to discern good from bad… if i want someone to have a book, i pick it up for them myself… there are just as many online bookstores that are the same… so what will you do? this falls along the line of living in the world but not being of the world… you just have to do what the Spirit leads you to do.. right?
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Jay, how did you find those good online stores?
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Hi Micey,
Honestly I frequent reformed blogs and websites and I too was so disappointed when I walked into a Christian bookstore only to find fluff and pop-gospel. So once I found out about these quality online bookstores I was hooked. Monergism’s bookstore is awesome – they review and actually read each book before placing it on their site. Westminster’s bookstore is also excellent and very reformed.
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Hello, Pilgrim!
I thought you might find this kind of interesting (in a funny way) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-plwB8AW58 It’s a video that makes fun of the “prosperity” gospel preachers.
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Hi Micey!
I agree with you, it is better to pick up the book for someone rather than take a chance they might pick up the latest Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, etc kind of books! The Christian bookstore in our town sells every kind of book and unfortunately, the owner knows nothing about Rick Warren other than the fact that her church supports him! Going online is a great idea!
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Hello!
I would like to invite readers at this blog to please watch the message at the following link. I also hope that you will be motivated to share your comments!
Marriage: The Image of God
Go to the site and click on the arrow on the right of that particular message.
When you view this video, you will see what the illicit sexual battles being faced by the church today are really all about. The fact is, it is not really only a physical battle, but more importantly, an ultimate type of spiritual battle that is transpiring.
Sincerely,
Christine W.
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Good question. I often go to the local “Christian” bookstore, wade through the junk that is always up front, back to the furthest corner from the front door to the books and reference books that I feel are worth buying. I look at the price then go home and buy online.
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Thanks for the heads up, Joy. I already featured this video (with links to some other good videos) here.
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Ha! I’m new at this 🙂 I have a question for you though. I keep hearing this “everything is spiritual” phrase thrown around. What does it really mean, and how do you respond to it? I’m still young, and so I’m just now learning about all this “emergent” church stuff, and opening my eyes to a lot of the lies, and I was just wondering if this is something Biblical, or if it is something I should steer clear from. Thanks,
Joy
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Phil wrote:
Hi – good to find this. We have a parallel discussion going over at the UK Christian Bookshops Blog: Christian Bookshops — who needs them?.
As for the question of why Christian bookshops stock what some call heresy: it’s simple really: the Christian church is much bigger than any one group within it. What one person labels heresy is sound doctrine to another. Does it matter? Of course it matters — insofar as it affects the way we behave, the way we relate to one another. If we believe that God is a narrow-minded bigot who wants to exclude most of the human race, then we’ll tend to do the same. If on the other hand we perceive God as gracious, loving, welcoming then we ourselves will seek to be the same in our attitudes.
In any event, in running my bookshop I’m not out to simply serve one sector of the church: I’m out to serve the entire Christian community of whatever denominational bias.
But thanks for asking the questions! 🙂
I will never understand how holiness, separation from the world, following the truth, and defending the pure doctrines of the Christian faith will always be viewed by some as “judgmental,” “bias,” and “narrow-minded.” Well in spite of the fact that most people on the broad path view these things in this manner, I will remain on that narrow, judgmental, bias path of Christianity just as the apostles did. I mean really, who was more narrow-minded than our Lord when He said that no one gets to the Father except through Him?
– The Pilgrim
P.S. See the follow-up post: Are Christian bookstore owners responsible for what they sell?
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I recently went into a local Christian bookshop (CLC) in Sheffield, England. I asked why TD Jakes etc. (a modalist – heretic)was being stocked. I was told that all books are ‘vetted’ by senior CLC staff and besides if they were to take all the (what was her word?)’dubious’ (she then mentioned Joyce Meyers) books of the shelf their sales would plummet.
I expect the later kind of reasoning from the world not a supposed evangelical ministry.
As for the first excuse, it only led me to understand that little discernment is going on at CLC HQ – perhaps because of the latter point.
Why, then, should I support a ‘Christian’ bookshop when they are selling non-Christian books (parading as Christian such as modalists, word-faith types etc.). There are online stores that sell only sound books. So I will support them.
As to the point made by the last guy. It is not about one man’s heresy is another man’s orthodoxy. It is about the preservation and defence of the true and apostolic faith recorded by the eye-witness testimony of the apostles in the New Testament.
Modalism does not fit within ‘denominational’ differences – it falls outside the pale of orthodoxy. It is the very failure to understand something as basic as that that shows the lack of knowledge of the Scriptures that is so prevalent in the church today.
By all means open a book store and sell Christian books. But don’t presume to call it a ‘Christian’ book store if it sells in print the ‘doctrine of demons’.
You cannot serve by God and Mammon.
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Dear Jim:
Amen, amen, and amen!
For our readers who want to buy Christian books without having to worry about the heretical doctrines of demons crowding out the genuine, I recommend checking out the following online bookstores for solid, doctrinally sound books:
Monergism
North Hampton Press
Westminster
The above resources can also be found on the right side of this blog. Just scroll down to “Online Bookstores.”
If anyone else has any good suggestions, feel free to recommend.
– The Pilgrim
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