Opening a Church Bookstore

In Ephesians 4, when describing the many good gifts that Jesus Christ gives to his church, one of the gifts listed is the gift of “teachers” (v. 11). Some of these teachers are the godly women and men who teach primarily in the context of their local church. Others, through their speaking and writing, have a wider ministry. Regardless of the breath of a particular teacher’s ministry, what I’ve always thought is that if God gives his church teachers (which he has certainly done), than I want to be a learner.

And one of the great ways for us to be learners is through books.

But if you’ve been to a Christian bookstore recently, then you might have been overwhelmed by the amount of stuff there, especially because there is often a small portion of the store filled with . . . how shall I say this . . . junk—religious paraphernalia and authors with suspect doctrine.

Of course, among the garbage there is also gold. But I sympathize with those who find it hard to tell the difference. On first glance, it’s often hard for me to tell.

That’s why two weeks ago our church launched a bookstore. I don’t think, however, we’ll be putting our local Lifeway (a national chain of good Christian bookstores) out of business anytime soon. Our bookstore is really just a bookshelf that sits in the café. We filled it with 25-30 Christian books that were handpicked by our elders and staff. We are selling each book a little below cost (i.e., we’re not trying to make money!) at $10 each, except of course for Grudem’s Systematic Theology which is actually $20, but that’s because it’s the size of four books!

We organized the books by favorite authors and category. Our three favorite authors, in no particular order, are Timothy Keller, John Piper, and Kevin DeYoung. And our four categories are (1) Bible & Theology, (2) Marriage & Family, (3), Christian Living & Miscellaneous and (4) Apologetics & Evangelism.

Please scroll through our list below, and in the comments section, let me know what books we missed!

[Also, CLICK each book cover for more information.]

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