It's a tremendous privilege to have you all
here.
And as I look around now and see
so many different people from different denominations, different
backgrounds, all sharing together in what is a
very happy occasion.
I wasn't sure that that was quite the
noise that we should say at that particular
moment.
Very happy occasion.
I'm privileged to be involved in this setup
here in Lancaster.
We are particularly privileged, too, to welcome George
Verwer here today.
Those of you who weren't here earlier won't
have perhaps heard that he was in Belgium
yesterday.
He got back about midnight last night.
He rang me at 7.30 this morning
to say he was here, and there was
great relief, and many prayers were answered, and
British Rail got him here at 5.32,
spot on time.
And the Lord has brought you all here.
Right at the beginning of this short time
now, I'd like to ask Dr. Redpath to
come here Dr. Redpath has been a personal
friend for a number of years.
He's been a man in this area whom
God has blessed amazingly, and who has been
used for the blessing of so many other
people.
And it is a real joy to have
him here today.
He's made a special journey to come.
And I'd like to ask him to dedicate
this building to God in prayer.
Let's pray together, shall we?
We're so overwhelmed, Lord, in your presence.
We would be still and recognize that you
are God.
The Lord God Omnipotent reigns.
And this has only occurred and been brought
about because we know our sovereign Lord, and
he has released the Spirit of God in
order that the ministry might be exercised here
in this place, which will greatly magnify our
wonderful Savior and cause great discomfort to the
devil.
We praise you for all the potential of
a place like this.
Thank you indeed for the hundreds of people
who, guided and directed by your Holy Spirit,
have stood with Peter in the plans and
the arrangements and all that has had to
be done.
And we just say thank you with all
our hearts, Lord Jesus.
Thank you for Peter and raising him up
to be the man of your choice for
this place.
Thank you for the spiritual leadership he's exercised
under the authority of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for this demonstration that when the
Holy Spirit is free to move, he works
miracles.
And this can only be accounted for on
the basis of miracle.
And therefore a work which has begun on
that dimension is meant to continue in that
way.
Lord, deliver us from ever just becoming a
commercial event, but grant continually that the river
of life may flow this way, the wind
of God may blow this way, and every
book that goes out of this place may
bear the authority of the Spirit of God.
And multitudes may come to know Jesus as
Lord, as the outcome of the ministry of
this shop.
We therefore commit it all to you and
dedicate this place to you in Jesus' name
and trust you for a great outpouring on
the meeting this evening.
Thank you for bringing George here.
Thank you for the years of fellowship he
and I have had together and praise you
for all that it means to all of
us here to know him, whom to know
is life eternal, and to be brought time
and time again, shattered to our knees, broken
in helplessness and hopelessness in ourselves, there to
find we are more than conquerors through him
who loved us.
We've been reminded time and time again, Lord,
that the way to any leadership at all
is just by wet eyes and bent knees
and a broken heart.
I want to go that way continually.
Lord, teach us to go down that you
might be exalted in our lives.
And grant that tonight your hand may be
upon your servant in Holy Spirit authority and
in power as he ministers the word to
us.
And may this just be the beginning of
a great movement of the Spirit of God
in this area through Mission England and all
the various fellowships and churches connected and interested
and concerned.
And we would covenant, all of us, to
be with this work in prayer, in holding
up the hands of your servant and grant
that continually the prayer of a righteous man
may avail much.
And here this may be what wins the
victory time and time again.
So we commit it all into your hands
with faith and joy and thanksgiving for all
that's gone in excitement, for all that's going
to take place till Jesus comes.
And praise you, praise you for the multitudes
who come to know him as Lord and
Master of their lives through the ministry of
this place.
Hear our prayer as we commit it all
to you in Jesus' precious name.
Amen.
Could I now ask Edgar Pye to come
and share with us a few words.
Edgar is the Chairman of the Trustees of
the Northwest Evangelistic Trust who has been responsible
for the work at Carnforth, at the Warehouse,
for so many years.
And he's going to share a few words
with us.
Well, thank you, Peter.
I do appreciate the privilege of just a
word because the opening of this bookshop marks
a very lovely and wonderful milestone in the
way in which God has been leading Christians
who've had a burden for the spread of
the Gospel through Christian literature over the years.
In the Warehouse, as many of you know,
we've had a Christian bookshop for many years.
God clearly led us to use part of
the premises for that purpose.
But all the time we had the feeling
that one day there should be a Christian
bookshop in Lancaster.
And there have been a number of attempts
if you like to at least start or
initiate such a venture and God has seemed
to block each one until this time.
And this bookshop, as far as those of
us at Carnforth are concerned, has really been
born out of many hours of heart-searching
and praying together.
And I want to say publicly how much
we at the Warehouse have appreciated the way
in which Peter has been willing to share
his burden and we've been able to talk
things over so openly.
And in the Warehouse work, as many of
you know, we've been led into new initiatives
in the last year or two, particularly, but
not exclusively, in our school's work, which is
growing quite remarkably and for which we really
do give praise and thanks to God.
Tremendous blessing through the school's work and if
I dare put a plug in when this
is really about the Christian bookshop here, we'd
value your prayers and support for that exciting
work.
We do need it very much.
But as God has been leading us on
into more and more of this outreach work,
it became clear that we were not the
people to continue in the business of a
Christian bookshop and that Peter's obvious opportunity and
the leading of the Holy Spirit for him
and Margaret to open this shop here was
God's answer to that particular situation.
So we are rejoicing, really rejoicing in this
day and this opening of the Christian bookshop
in Lancaster and I believe it's going to
be the beginning of much blessing in this
city.
And so it's with our prayers and our
goodwill and prayers that God will wonderfully bless
Peter and Margaret and John and all who
serve here in this ministry that we say
God bless you and we'll continue to be
praying for one another and working in partnership.
Thank you.
Thank you, Edgar.
Before we listen to George Vowa speak to
us and let him pronounce the official opening
formalities, we're just going to sing together that
chorus, He is Lord.
Greg's going to lead us.
He is Lord He is Lord He
is risen from the dead And He is
Lord Every knee shall bow
Every tongue confess That Jesus
Christ is Lord He is Lord
He is Lord He is risen from
the dead And He is Lord Every knee
shall bow Every tongue confess That
Jesus Christ is Lord Well, certainly
the privilege is mine to be able to
come and open this bookshop in each port
that our ship Doulos right now in Spain
and Lagos go into.
Lagos is in Edinburgh where I'll be going
on Saturday night.
I haven't sailed with Lagos in probably seven
or eight years so I'm going to sail
from Scotland to England on the ship Lagos.
But we always have an official opening of
the exhibition.
I've never had the privilege yet to do
that.
We always get some dignitary.
So I'm very humbled at the opportunity to
open this bookshop.
Another reason I'm happy to be here is
because it's to me tremendous when God's people
of different churches come together.
If you know anything about books, you know
there are books in the shop that absolutely
can contradict one book from the other.
You get into Christian books and you'll discover
how Christians don't agree.
And probably you have some of that maybe
even here in Lancaster.
Different Christians believing different things.
There's some going the house group way.
Others go the cathedral way.
Some like to stand and shout.
Others like to sit and be quiet.
Some are dancing.
Some are sleeping.
All kinds of things going on in the
church.
And there is an ongoing process of polarization
of Christians criticizing one another and going their
different ways.
And so it's an encouragement to be here
and to meet people from different churches.
Not that I'm the world's greatest ecumenicalist.
I'm probably not.
But I do believe that if a person
knows Christ personally and has put his faith
in God and what Christ did on the
cross for his salvation, that he's my brother
or my sister and that's very, very important.
Very, very important.
So it's a joy to be in a
place, a meeting, where people are here from
different churches and different backgrounds.
Another reason it's a very happy occasion for
me is I love to be among the
books.
I will share my testimony in the meeting
tonight, but I'm not from a Christian background.
Never saw my father read a Christian book
in all my childhood.
His father was an atheist from the Netherlands.
And really it's just the mercy of God
that I was converted, which I'll tell a
little bit about tonight, because it was because
of a mission.
But I think it was the greatest miracle
I ever went on because I'm just such
a skeptic, such a cynic, got such a
wicked heart and mouth.
At nine years of age I was going
to produce a dictionary of curses, blasphemies and
filthy stories, which I had been using ever
since age six.
And God saved me and then God brought
into my hands Christian books.
No one ever followed up on me.
I guess the Lord knew that if anybody
tried they would have probably got into difficulty,
so he just sent books my way.
Even to this very day I can say
that through Christian books I've received perhaps the
greatest help in my Christian life.
Another reason I'm happy to be here is
because I believe in this kind of ministry.
This is a ministry.
Don't think of this as a commercial operation.
Don't let rumors get circulated as sometimes it
does.
If it does go well, they're making a
bomb down there.
They may for a few months, but there's
hardly any Christian bookshops in Britain that are
not having it tough.
When my wife and I first came to
Britain 23 years ago we lived in, of
course, the most important county, Lancashire, and we
opened a bookshop in Bolton.
And I tell you, we almost closed it
last year.
They probably don't know that in Bolton because
it's such a battle.
But we kept praying and praying, and instead
it seems that we're going to have to
take over the Freehold.
We started in 86 Deansgate, right in the
heart.
It's now a secular bookshop.
And very few people realize it was in
that converted pub that was a Christian bookshop
that the whole vision for the ship and
then the ships was actually born when my
wife and I were living there.
So we love to be among the books,
but also we believe in this kind of
ministry.
The ministry of Christian literature is not widely
appreciated in our day.
Even if you move among Christian leaders, the
big thing in our day is in-depth
discipleship, or it's in building the kingdom, whatever
that means.
There's a half a dozen new books on
it.
Or church planting.
Those of us in missionary work, church planting.
In the 60s, literature was given a lot
greater esteem in missionary work, but now it's
not so much.
Because so often, the ministry of literature is
behind the scenes.
It isn't the book that necessarily brings the
man right to that moment of conversion.
Often it is an evangelist.
Often it is someone praying with a person,
or a meeting, or a Christian camp.
But behind the scenes, very few people that
know Jesus Christ have not been either helped
before conversion or certainly after conversion by Christian
books.
And it is one of the most needed
ministries in Great Britain today.
Because we notice the moment a person comes
to Christ, the enemy tries to get them
into false doctrines or into extremes, or into
something like the children of God, now the
family of love, which eventually taught immorality in
the name of Jesus.
And I think one of the reasons God
kept our work, which was in its early
days somewhat extreme and radical.
We were a bit fed up with the
status quo.
We felt God's people were sleeping.
We got in trouble in some of our
Bible colleges.
But I think one of the reasons we
didn't go completely off into a cult or
something weird, was the influence of Christian literature.
And I hope that all of us here
today, this won't just be a formality, but
somehow we'll recommit our lives.
Firstly, of course, to the Lord.
We want to talk about that tonight.
But also to the distribution of Christian books.
Many unconverted people, I don't know in a
place like Lancaster, but in London where I
live now, most unconverted people aren't going to
go to a bookshop.
I was going door to door in Bromley
where I live.
We've had a bookshop in Bromley for almost
20 years.
A very, very good Christian bookshop.
Though the Lord led us many years, a
little bit like he's led Edgar, to leave
Christian bookshops to others and give ourselves more
to the training of nationals and evangelism and
all kinds of other things that we're involved
in all over the world.
So we don't have so many Christian bookshops.
We always have a motto in OM, let
CLC do it when it comes to bookshops
or let someone else.
But we have that shop there in Bromley
because when we first started there, OM is
still in the north, but our literature division
moved to the south, at least the publishing
and the wholesale side.
But when I was going door to door
there in Bromley, I found that most of
the people on the doors, they didn't even
know this shop existed.
To get a good place right on the
high street of Bromley is a lot of
money.
Our place is just a little bit up.
You know how these high streets, they have
sort of a low section, you know, where
nobody goes.
And that's a good place, but it's just
out of that main center of traffic.
And so a lot of people live in
Bromley don't know anything about it.
And if this bookshop is going to have
the impact I'm sure God wants it to
have all over this part of Lancashire, it
really hinges on you.
Becoming a book agent or getting books in
quantity, seeing it as a ministry and doing
everything you can in your church.
Many, many people, the place where they have
got Christian books is their own church, that
little church bookstall.
If you have one, make sure who's ever
in charge of it is enthusiastic, knows how
to smile, has got a vision, has got
some fuel in his tank and is doing
something because there's nothing like a half-dead
church bookstall agent to kill the ministry of
Christian literature.
So really I consider it a great privilege,
maybe at this point I could just mention
a few of my favorite books.
I was going to come up in an
old, I have sort of a converted coach,
converted into a bookmobile, which I go all
over the world in.
Though I didn't get quite as far as
Pakistan, I had to turn back at the
Gulf, because the ferry was too expensive.
But I had a whole lot of extra
books that I was going to bring up
just in case we ran out.
But I can see there's no problem to
run out.
The STL van is also here outside.
They've just brought in some more books.
But sometimes when I go to a church
and I push books, I get criticized.
It's a miracle I don't get criticized more
than I do.
But usually if I get criticized, it's on
the pushing books.
They want you to mention books in a
church.
They like to keep it to one minute.
It's not easy when there's so many great
books.
But let me just take some moments, because
this is an appropriate place to mention some
of the books you need to get that
are here.
I just took a quick glance around the
shelves and almost jumped out of my shoes
at some of the exciting titles.
A man that's influenced my life since my
days in Chicago, from some providence of God,
happens to be here.
And that's Alan Redpath.
And if you haven't read some of his
books, they're directly across from where I'm standing
right now.
And I especially recommend you start with this
one, The Making of a Man of God.
Alan has moved to Birmingham, so you may
not see him as much up here anymore.
But you can get his books.
And I hope you'll get some even today.
Another book that I've just been reading is
this book, Strike the Original Match.
Now, he doesn't have many copies, but as
a good bookshop, he'll be willing to take
your order.
Every married couple, every family should read this
book.
I think he is one of the most
gifted communicators I've ever read.
His other book, Improving Your Serve.
My own daughter, who doesn't read many Christian
books, very, very busy type, read right through
this entire book.
Nineteen-year-old daughter.
Improving Your Serve.
It's not talking about tennis.
It's talking about being a servant.
So there's just two books that you may
not know about that are just so powerful
and will be such a blessing in your
marriage and in your church work.
You know, of all the books I've examined
in the last twenty-nine years since I've
become a Christian, I had to decide, well,
what do I feel is the best book?
Now, the Bible is the best second to
nothing.
And the way we evaluate a Christian book
is whether it's really faithful to the Word
of God.
That's one of the main ways we judge
a Christian book.
But I think one of the greatest books
in the last one hundred years is this
little book, Spiritual Depression, Its Cause and Cure.
We have some here on the counter.
I don't say that lightly.
I've said it all over the world for
five or I don't know how many years,
that of all the books, if this is
the one I had to take with me,
you know, on an island with only my
Bible, this is the one I would take.
The title turns people off.
It's a sad title because it's not about
depression.
It's just about a Christian life.
It's about discipline.
It's about dealing with trials, hassles, heartache, sin.
And I just recommend Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones,
Spiritual Depression, Its Cause and Cure, still at
a relatively low price for a book of
three hundred pages, if you know about how
the prices are going.
There's a whole big section of A.W.
Tozer.
If you're not into this man's writings, you
must be very new to the Christian book
world.
That's all right.
We don't want anybody to feel bad, too
bad.
Tozer will just be a great encouragement to
you.
Sometimes, because STL is based in London, people
here in the North think that OM, you
know, neglects the North.
But in fact, OM is based in Manchester.
And our new international associate coordinator, we now
work together in the worldwide leadership of OM,
actually lives in Carlisle.
And his name is Peter May, and that's
his book, Take My Silver, just published.
Charles Marsh, Muslim world for 45 years, into
action, and then a new book published on
whether there is a hell, God, that's not
fair.
An amazing and needed book.
Ralph Shallis, another man that always comes along
to the OM conferences, I've just come from
a month of conference, prayer and training, has
written from now on.
And we even have George Verwer books here.
How do you push your own books?
It's very difficult.
But I got 14,000 letters as a
result of this little book.
And so I allowed this one just to
go into print in July.
And I'm already now getting a lot of
letters from that book, which somehow the Lord
is using.
I wanted to just read this scripture for
you to think about as you go.
And before we just pronounce this bookshop opened,
or declare it opened, or whatever you want
to do.
I don't know where we're all going to
leap at that time.
We're going to jump on the floor.
But let me just read these verses that
have been a continual challenge for me.
I, at times, find the Christian life very
difficult.
I'm just not naturally a Christian.
I'm naturally a pagan.
I've got a pagan heart, a pagan mind.
I always say if God could keep me
29 years, and He's kept me every day
these 29 years, He can keep anybody.
Anybody.
And, you know, in any one day, my
emotions can go up and down even up
to 15, 20 times.
And I feel so unworthy.
I don't have a big hang-up about
it.
I'm too bull-headed and overconfident in some
ways to be that way.
But I am just amazed at God's mercy
toward me and my wife and my three
children.
I've had many failures in my life.
Not the big scandalous thing anyone writes about,
but the kind of thing that God's grieved
about.
And God's Holy Spirit's grieved about.
And yet, somehow, through much failure and fear
and unbelief, I find the Lord is still
able to work.
And I've taken, really, as my life principle
from the Bible, these words that are found
in several places, but I'll just read it
from Mark.
When He had called the people to Him,
verse 34, with His disciples also, He said
to them, Whoever desires to come after Me,
let him deny himself and take up his
cross and follow Me.
For whoever desires to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for
My sake and the Gospels will save it.
For what will it profit a man if
he gain the whole world and loses his
own soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange
for his soul?
For whosoever is ashamed of Me, in My
words, in this adulterous and sinful generation of
him, the Son of Man, also will be
ashamed when he comes in the glory of
his Father and with His holy angels.
I wish we had an hour to look
at that passage because it's just so powerful.
So powerful.
This ministry and this bookshop won't be any
stronger than the Christians who are involved with
it.
And it's a great danger in our Christian
thinking that we separate different ministries.
I know people do that to us in
OM.
OM, oh, we're over here.
If you're interested in ships or if you're
interested in unreached people or Muslims, well, maybe
OM would be interested.
Well, hardly anybody's interested in that.
So you can figure what an uphill climb
we're facing just to keep going.
And then, well, Christian bookshops.
Yeah, well, you know, those folk down there.
Is this the High Street?
The Bank Street.
Yeah, the Bank Street.
You know, they're in Christian literature.
Oh, well, Bible schools.
Oh, yeah, Cape and Reem.
Well, they're into that.
And everybody gets into different things.
And of course, to some degree, we have
to do that.
We understand that.
But how important it is for us to
realize this is our ministry.
This is a place being dedicated to the
work of God.
If this fails, it's not for the Christians
to sit back.
Oh, well, you know what they did the
other day?
I saw that book.
Did you realize they were selling books by
that particular author who we all know is
not really straight on his doctrine?
Christian bookshop is an impossible ministry.
People come in looking for books that don't
even exist.
People come in looking for a book and
they find a book by an author they
consider heretic.
Or, you know, there's about 100 things people
can come and complain.
And let me just tell the personnel.
Very few people last more than three years
in a bookshop ministry.
Because behind the till.
And I've been in it for 26 years.
Because they are a primary target of the
enemy.
And because a lot of the work isn't
glamorous like today with a great herd of
all kinds of interesting people piling through the
doors and snacking and eating and piling out
again.
But it's boring.
It's routine.
It's people complaining.
It's God's chosen people.
So often God's frozen people coming in, going
on about some twiddly little thing that has
about as much significance as a grasshopper in
Alaska.
And I would just really beg of you
as we consider this bookshop now opened and
in action, to consider it your responsibility to
pray.
Satan will counterattack this ministry.
He'll counterattack the people in this ministry.
My heart broke as I went back to
Germany a few days ago and found another
major Christian leader in Germany who had somewhat
of a literature ministry, a fantastic ministry to
drug addicts, right in the heart of the
city rescuing all kinds of dropouts to discover
that he's wiped out.
He's wiped out.
He's had to be removed from leadership in
the church.
His family is breaking in two.
He's running around with another woman.
You know, one year ago he was going
strong.
His ministry was recognized as one of the
outstanding in northern Germany.
And I really feel, my beloved brothers and
sisters, we're a little bit naive about what
the whole Christian life is about.
It's a battle.
And if we're not denying ourself and taking
up the cross, if we're not interceding and
praying for one another and exhorting one another
and loving one another, many will go down.
And even as we see new ones come
to Christ in Mission England, we'll see old
ones falling out of the saddle, zapped by
enemy arrows, because we so easily fail to
obey literally passages like this and daily deny
self when those subtle temptations come and daily
deny self when the temptation to gossip or
to make generalizations comes and to daily turn
away from all that is not from God.
It is a battle.
We do fail, and we know that when
we fail, God forgives us.
So I would just say that if we
really want this to be an ongoing ministry,
not one or two years.
This is one of the last large cities
in Britain or towns.
Is it a town or a city?
You have a cathedral?
City, yes.
Wow.
To have a Christian bookshop.
The little villages in Britain have Christian bookshops.
So praise the Lord.
Finally, as we say in America, you got
your act together.
The Lord bless you.
But now, let's hold that shield of faith
because the enemy is going to attack.
The enemy knows that through this shop hundreds
could come to know Christ.
The enemy knows that through this shop, through
some of the powerful books here, Christians could
come into balance and revival.
Some may even start loving one another.
And one thing surely every minister knows is
that a Christian bookshop is a brother, a
sister, a helper in the huge and most
important task of the local church.
So it's a great joy to be here
but it's also an awesome responsibility because I
know this is a spiritual ministry.
There are spiritual men who love Jesus behind
it.
We're dealing with holy things.
Also, it's filled with complications because there are
so many books and it's very difficult to
know where to draw the line.
A bookshop can't just have, generally speaking, only
one type of theological book.
That's not fair to the Christian community.
And yet when you broaden out a bit,
even in an evangelical bookshop, somebody is sure
to start throwing rocks, if not through the
window, at least spiritually speaking.
So I feel a real linking with you
and we in OM, we want to pray
for this ministry.
We want to do anything we can to
help you.
I don't think we can bring the ship
in here.
We still have some docks.
Yeah.
It just is a great privilege.
And maybe we could just right now cut
the tape.
Do you have a tape?
On our ship, we always have a tape.
We'll cut the tape and you can go
into the exhibition.
You're already in it.
And just perhaps give thanks to the Lord.
Let's just pray.
Father, we thank You for Your Word and
we're not here by accident today.
We haven't just come here for a reception
and to wish our blessing on our brothers
and sisters who are in this ministry.
But we're here in Your providence.
I know I am.
And we believe You want to challenge our
hearts about our own lives.
About whether we're really involved or whether we're
somewhere just in the grandstands watching other people
sweat and run and work.
Lord, we don't believe there's any grandstand spectator
Christians.
If we know You, we're in the race.
And we want to run with all of
our hearts.
Show us how we can be using literature
in our own ministry.
Show us how we can be perhaps going
door to door or have a church book
table or take literature to places where it
doesn't usually go.
Maybe some of these villages scattered around Lancashire.
We thank You for other literature ministries and
we thank You for the many publishers represented
in this shop.
We thank You for the grace, Your grace
and Your mercy that has made it possible
to have a shop right here in the
center of this strategic city.
Use it for Your glory.
We give it to You.
And we praise You in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you so much, George, for your challenging
words.
I think John, who's the manager of the
shop here, was perhaps quaking a little at
the three-year prospect.
I know he believes he's here for a
lot longer than three years.
He hasn't been in the bookshop ministry before.
He's got a lot of business experience and
he's going to need your loving support and
help and encouragement during these early days.
But very quickly, he'll be on top of
all that's necessary in this work.
So please encourage him and support him when
you do come in.
The shop here will be open until 7
.30 tonight.
At 7.30, the Mission England meeting will
begin in St. Thomas' Church, which is about
400 or 500 yards in that direction, those
who have not been there before.
There will be an introductory time of music,
so I doubt we'll get underway precisely at
7.30, so don't worry if you're a
little late.
And at that meeting, George will be speaking
further to us and his subject is the
challenge of Mission England.
But as you'll appreciate, that's a subject which
really he can say what he likes.
And I'm sure he will anyway.
In addition to the books that he has
recommended, we do have quite a lot of
George Bowie's books and there's also some cassettes
of his ministry which you can put into
your car.
He will sign them too.
Is that right?
Yes, he will.
Whatever you say, sir.
Right.
So thank you so much, everybody, for coming.
It's great to have you here and we
look forward to seeing you many, many times
in the future.
God bless you all.