June 9, 2008

Dear Friends,

I’ve always liked the phrase “knee deep in June,” used by James Whitcomb Riley, that writer of popular verse who grew up in my home town, Greenfield, Indiana. I thought of the phrase once more when looking out over our back lawn Sunday afternoon. Having grown up a rather strict Presbyterian when it comes to respecting the Sabbath, I have never mown a lawn on a Sunday in my life, and I didn’t intend to break a lifetime discipline then.

Let me tell the story behind the high grass in our back yard. This is my last year before retirement, when one would expect things to be slowing down, and the general principle is that one should not start anything new. I may have grown up a strict Presbyterian, but I’ve always been a bit flexible on principles like this. In the weeks since Easter I have been up to my ears launching a new Christian book store here at City United Reformed Church.

We'd had a book store here at City Church for several years, but it recently closed. SPCK (that’s Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge) had been the resource for the mainline churches. About 15 years ago we took them in when they were no longer able to pay rising city center rents. We saw doing this as an important mission of the church.

The shop here managed to just tick over comfortably, but the SPCK chain as a whole struggled in recent years. About 20 months ago, they basically gave the chain away to a couple of American brothers who formed “St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust” and used the chain to promote the Orthodox communion. Having grown up Presbyterian, they were adult converts to Orthodoxy, and were enthusiastic, as adult converts to anything will be.

Despite their enthusiasm, their idea just didn’t work. Customers weren’t buying the icons which now filled the gift cabinets and the books on Orthodox saints that now filled the shelves just weren’t moving. Sales plummeted, and since suppliers weren’t being paid, they couldn’t get new stock. Last December, when our shop would have expected to take in £18k - £20k, they only took in £3,500. In January, they started closing shops.

Because of customer comments and the concern of denominational leaders, we had already been considering strategies for taking over the shop, as this shop here in Cardiff was the only resource like it for all of Wales. The elders proposed that I and our church secretary, Patrick (that’s “clerk of session” in Presby-speak) should explore our options. So Patrick and I convened a meeting of concerned people from across Cardiff’s ecumenical spectrum, and with the backing of that group we took the project on.

That meant writing a business plan. Can you imagine me writing a business plan, creating a cash flow projection, managing a business? They say learning new skills keeps old brains functioning. I started making connections all around the country. I contacted the bookshop in Edinburgh from whom we order our curriculum. They went independent from SPCK a dozen years ago and have been successful. I asked them to tell me everything they had learned. I got in touch with the head of SCM-Canterbury Press, which had taken over the shop at Church House in London, the headquarters of the Anglican Church. He was immensely helpful, as was the head of the publishing arm of SPCK.

We now have an official connection to CYTÛN, the national ecumenical body for Wales. The shop will be called “Churches Together Bookshop.” Denominational leaders in Wales have been very encouraging. We might actually become the retail outlet for Church in Wales (Anglican) publications. City Church has thrown in £20k for start-up capital. We are getting at least $10k from our Synod, and the Church in Wales is throwing in another £20k. We might just be able to make it on that.

We are hoping to open by July. Every week I discover a new reason to revise the business plan. People think you only produce these business plans to have something to show the bank, but in our case we need one that is deadly accurate to tell us what we are supposed to do. We are forming an independent company to be part of the church, and Patrick and I and someone from the Synod of Wales are the directors. We will also have an ecumenical management board, a couple of paid staff members to run the place, plus some volunteers. Although getting this thing up and running has become a passion for me, I want to turn it over to someone else so I can retire and have time to mow that lawn.

The bookshop isn’t the only thing in my life. Since last fall I have been teaching a university course in New Testament Greek. I’ve been using my day off to prepare so that it has minimal interference with my pastoral work, and I’ve been having immense fun with this, but I have to admit it is a luxury.

The church keeps rolling along with a bevy of new members, including adult baptisms. Our music director has been off since last December with late-onset epilepsy, so that has been a major concern and a struggle, but things are going well. Apart from this business with the book store, which I am committed to, I am generally good at delegating, and there is a good entrepreneurial spirit across the church. It may be good that I am kept so busy with extracurricular things. I can just sneak out the side door without anyone noticing I have retired. Tina and Rachel, by the way, have both given us new grandchildren in 2008, girls, Carys and Mia. Life is wonderful. If you need any books, please be in touch!

Tom

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 152