GBC Publisher Tim Thornborough explains why our abundance should rightfully supply the need of others and why the ‘resource rich’ West should honor the Lord with its wealth.

Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity, Cash is Reality goes the age-old wisdom of the business world. For most companies that is true - because their primary aim is to make profit and cash for the owners. But not for The Good Book Company. We take seriously Jesus’ words to us that we should be seeking above all things a treasure in heaven. That's why we measure our true progress by the volume of resources that we ship to people, and which are actually a use in helping people teach and preach Christ, or understand more deeply all that He is and has done for us.

We are very conscious that God has put us in a privileged position, so we aim to do three things:

– Set the lowest possible retail price for our books and study resources, and offer significant discounts for bulk purchase.

– We pay realistic but modest salaries to all our staff.

– We aim to re-invest any profit we make in resourcing areas of ministry that could never be self-supporting.

The Western world has been 'resource rich' for years. There is a large choice of bible-study booklets and evangelistic tools available to people and churches, and no end of training opportunities to sign up for. Although the quality varies, we are still rich in these things in a way that our brothers and sisters in the wider world are not. Even worse, many parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America are flooded with poor quality cast offs from western publishers, inappropriately high level books, or by ruinous false teaching. They are crying out for basic, reliable material that teaches the Bible carefully, accurately and consistently.

That's part of the idea behind our Pray, Prepare, Preach series of simple preaching guides, which we are in the process of developing. These low-cost guides will help pastors round the world teach the Bible more clearly week by week to their congregations.

We are also involved in the costly and time-consuming business of enabling translations of key material to be published in languages and for people groups that are hungry for solid spiritual food.

And closer to home, we are working on evangelistic and discipleship resources to reach less literate sectors of our community. Our Access for All brand places the emphasis on materials that have crystal clear, simple English that is not patronizing or childish in its tone.

We seek to fund all these ministries out of our other publishing and training activities. So you can be confident that what you pay for a book or a study guide is not only an investment in your own spiritual health, but also contributes towards bringing the life-giving message of Christ to many others.