The Good Book Company

The Good Book Company (TGBC) is an evangelical Christian publisher, located in Epsom, Surrey, England.[1] They are structured as a large unquoted, private company, limited by share capital.[2] Their practices include publishing, mission outreach and training. The Publisher was declared runner up in the Christian Publisher of the Year Award by the Trade Body for Christian Publishing and Retailing in the UK. [3]

The Good Book Company
Founded1991
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Headquarters locationEpsom, Surrey, England
Publication typesBooks
Nonfiction topicsChristianity
Official websitewww.thegoodbook.com

History

TGBC began in 1991 under the name St. Matthias Press UK,[4] in response to what TGBC saw as a "resurgence of Bible-based reformed evangelicalism in the UK." [5] Their name was later changed to The Good Book Company in 2000.[6] TGBC now supplies books, along with Bible study notes, to multiple countries including that of the UK, US, Australia and the developing world.

Activities

Publishing

TGBC writes and publishes Bible studies, training and evangelism resources, including Bible reading notes, youth materials and the Christianity Explored range. They distribute in the UK for the Australian evangelical, reformed publisher Matthias Media. They co-published The Briefing magazine in association with Matthias Media, with whom they had an early association.[7] The Briefing ceased publication in 2007. (As noted above, TGBC was originally called St. Matthias Press UK, while Matthias Media in Australia was called St. Matthias Press and Tapes).[8] They also promote and distribute a number of imprints of other publishers, including Intervarsity-Press UK, Good News Crossway, Evangelical Press, Christian Focus[9] and Anglican Youthworks.

In 2013 it established a new imprint for children's publishing, styled The Good Book for Kids (TGBC4K).[10] It quickly established a best-selling range of illustrated books called Tales that Tell the Truth (T5), written by a variety of authors and illustrated by Colombian artist Catalina Echeverri.[11] One of the titles in the series The One o'Clock Miracle won the Speaking Volumes UK Christian Children's Book of the Year Award in 2016.[12] The Friend who Forgives won the Christianity Today Children's Book of the Year Award in 2019.[13]

Mission Outreach

As part of the not for profit side of their activities, TGBC provides basic sermon outlines on a number of Bible books, named the Pray Prepare Preach (PPP) series. The Forum of Bible Agencies International states that this is because some pastors and teachers in third-world countries have little Bible training and few resources in their own language.[14]

Aside from direct sales from TGBC, distribution to third-world countries includes: UK mission organisations that send out literature to pastors, Organisations and individuals that organise preaching seminars, and Overseas organisations which distribute literature in their own country.[15]

Conferences and Training Events

TGBC is part of a conservative group (along with London City Mission, All Souls Langham Place and Oak Hill College) that organises the annual Evangelists' Conference.[16] TGBC is also involved in the annual London and Northern Men's and Women's Conferences (and has published the talks, seminars and handbooks from those conferences)[17] for local church ministry. They also ran training events for Youth and Children's work in the UK and Northern Ireland. TGBC co-hosted the Urban Plant Life Conference in November 2008.[18] Since 2016, these events have been outsourced to a separate organisation as part of a business rationalisation which has seen the organisation focus on its publishing activities.

The Good Book College and the Moore College Extension Course

In 1999, TGBC began administering Moore Theological College extension courses in the UK - an established distance learning course from Sydney, Australia. The Open Bible Institute states that this was consistent with TGBC's desire to build on the training events it had been running.[19] The Open Bible Institute was renamed The Good Book College in 2012.

Over the next five years, enrolments in the Moore College course grew to just under 1,000 students. TGBC set up the Open Bible Institute in 2005/2006, as a distance learning college that could accommodate students of varying levels of competency. The Good Book College offered validated courses to Cert HE level as a UK Academic Partner of Middlesex University[20] and handled Moore College enrolments for students in the UK, Europe and Africa,[21] including students of the Bible Training Partnership.[22] The Programme closed down in 2016 as part of a business refocussing exercise.

Overseas Distributors

The TGBC USA website began in February 2009,[23] in conjunction with the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference. TGBC exhibits at large North American evangelical, reformed conferences, such as Together For the Gospel and Desiring God Pastor’s Conference.[24] The company now maintains a permanent office based in Charlotte, NC, which employs Five full-time staff as of 2019. Trade distribution is performed in Australia by Reformers Bookshop,[25] who also perform order-fulfilment for the TGBC Australian website.[26] Canadian distribution is managed through Parasource. In 2019 TGBC opened an Indian Website as part of its desire to develop

Authors

TGBC publishes works by a number of prominent evangelical leaders in the UK, the USA and Australia, including Tim Keller (pastor), Albert Mohler, Alistair Begg, Matt Chandler (pastor), Vaughan Roberts, John Lennox and Phillip Jensen.

See also

References
  1. Address details obtained from the Booksellers Association of the UK & Ireland Webpage
  2. See the UK Data Ltd Company Summary Page for the Good Book Company
  3. See Website of Christian Resources Together
  4. See the Matthias Media History Webpage for information about TGBC's early history.
  5. See the Gospel Coalition's profile on TGBC
  6. See The Good Book Company About Us Webpage
  7. See The Good Book Company About Us Webpage. Matthias Media describes the relationship as "very long and close" - see the Matthias Media International Contact Webpage
  8. "Matthias Media History Webpage".
  9. Christian Focus is a large, evangelical, Scottish publisher.
  10. "Children | The Good Book Company". www.thegoodbook.co.uk.
  12. "Speaking Volumes award winners revealed | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com.
  13. "Christianity Today's 2019 Book Awards". ChristianityToday.com.
  14. As noted on the Resources Page of the Scripture Engagement group of the Forum of Bible Agencies International.
  15. See the Sussex Gospel Partnership for more details.
  16. As noted on the Evangelists Conference Website
  17. See the Evangelical Alliance Website.
  18. See the Autumn 08 Article by the London City Mission
  19. As noted on the Open Bible Institute History Webpage
  20. See the Middlesex University UK Academic Partners Webpage
  21. As stated on Moore College's Certificate in Theology Course Enrolment Webpage.
  22. The Bible Training Partnership in the UK is independent of the Open Bible Institute but states that its current training strategy is to use the Moore College Correspondence Course as the basis for the training they provide.
  23. See the article on the Anglican Church League Website
  24. See the Christian Today article describing the North American launch and TGBC's promotion at large conferences of evangelical reformed pastors.
  25. See the article on the Sydney Anglicans website Archived 2009-09-16 at the Wayback Machine about the distributorship. Retrieved on 28 May 2009.
  26. The Good Book Company Australia Website began in October 2008. Retrieved on 19 May 2009.
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