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The Selling of Jesus: the confessions of a christian bookstore owner
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January 25, 2023
THE EXPERIENCE OF A DISCOURAGED BOOKSELLER
Former Christian bookstore owner Victor V. Bryditzki wrote in the first chapter of this 1985 book, “we should have bailed out a long time ago. But all we had ever wanted was to provide our town a Christian bookstore that would be a real help---a ministry and business combined. We kept hoping that God could still use us and would somehow restore our financial stability. The time was past for godly planning; nothing short of a miracle would do now…” (Pg. 13)
He recalls, “it was fun living among the gods---the ‘anointed ones’ of the visible church. It was suggested that we should sell out house and give the money to God. The idea was to send it on ahead to heaven, making sure of our reservations at the heavenly banquet facilities. Being obedient, God-loving and fearing, and utterly stupid, we put our home on the market. But by the time the house sold, we had a falling out between ourselves and the church, so God got cheated out of the money we planned ‘on ahead.’ Instead we became ‘missionaries’ and went to work in a ‘Christian’ (how dumb can you get?) camp in the mountains. At first it was great fun, but as soon as the novelty wore off, we saw that our first real ‘ministry’ was actually a total disaster. It was terrible. Beware of those ‘vows of poverty’ other people are always to push onto you. Mostly they are for those who never had anything in the first place, and don’t know how to get it in the second place. We learned fast what it is to live and work with professing ‘Christians’ intent on self-emulation. Stay home, young man, stay home!” (Pg. 32)
He reluctantly ordered copies of a new ‘Angel’ book (which might have been Roland Buck’s
‘Angels On Assignment’), but after reading it for himself, “I went straight out and took the remaining copies off the book shelves. ‘I just can’t sell this junk,’ I said. I had the idea that God was holding me responsible for what I sold over the counter, and that He wouldn’t want me selling extra-Biblical experiences to naïve spiritual babes., enticing them to believe something contrary to the Scriptures… The public did not share my sentiments. The disease of ‘Angelitis’ had set in and was spreading. When I tried to point out that we no longer carried the book due to its questionable contents, I was accused of ‘judging,’ a new sort of Christian escapism… “No, I’m not judging,’ I would reply. ‘I’m not telling you NOT to read the book. If you want it, you can buy it somewhere else, but I simply cannot sell it to you.’ We lost many customers over that. We could not be forgiven for our Scriptural convictions. Since the author of the ‘angel’ book was an Assembly of God minister, we were accused of being anti-Assembly. The local Assembly stopped coming in. The scars of their continued unkind remarks toward us we bear to this day.” (Pg. 63-64)
He points out, “Surveys indicate that not more than 10% of active church members ever enter a Christian bookstore. Since many of the people who do come into the store do not buy BOOKS, one has to wonder what quality of membership we have in the visible church today. Giving our attention to the active 10% who at least come into the store, what do they buy?... actual sales figures show the following scale of popularity among items offered in the store. Topping the list are card and small gifts, mostly cheap jewelry. Next comes what is called ‘Jesus junk’ items like trinkets, bumper-stickers, decals, and toys and plastic prizes for Sunday School. Next comes the latest craze book on ‘666,’ giving the month and day of Jesus’ return… and a number of ‘end-time’ (mis)interpretations. Next to these are records and cassettes, skimmed -milk devotionals, and low-fat study guides. At the end come Bibles, reference books, Church History, and other serious works. When I opened the store, I actually thought the sequence would be the other way around.” (Pg. 72-73)
He continues, “Of the 10% of church members who go to Bible bookstores, only 1% (of the 10%) ever purchase serious books. This means 99% (of the 120%) are satisfied with trinkets or shallow or erroneous writings. I am also told that of the Christian reading public, 85% are women. That boggles my mind and confuses my arithmetic. (I have nothing against women; I just wish that men would read too.) At first, wanting to think the best, I supposed that perhaps the 80% of the church members, the ones we never see, already own a good library. Maybe they inherited these volumes from some departed saint, maybe they belong to a good Christian book club or send by mail for their reading. Maybe they bought books years ago and now stay home to read their treasures. But alas, I fear that I supposed too much. After numerous incidents I was forced to conclude that reading good time-tested literature has fallen out of style.” (Pg. 73)
He recounts, “I well remember an incident when I was invited to dinner at the home of the head elder in one of the local churches… He showed me through his home, and all the way I was eagerly looking for his library so I could look over his collection…. But there did not appear to be one… I thought he was a poor excuse for a church leader. Now, if his case was an exception to the norm, I would be horrified. But since I know that he IS the norm, I am not only horrified, but filled with righteous indignation. No wonder Christian church members remain in a state of ignorance and are held captive to erroneous teachings. The visible church is voids of teachers of the Scriptures… The blind leading the blind is, I am afraid, the indictment of today’s church.” (Pg. 73-74)
He summarizes, “We paid a tremendous price for what we thought of as our ministry, but it was worthwhile. If we still chuckle over some of our conversations, it is only to ease the heartache over the great needs, and the pride and prejudice of the visible church in our small town that finally intentionally annihilated our ministry.” (Pg. 83)
He concludes, “In our town, the opposition came chiefly from the candy-coated ‘gospel’ enthusiasts. The second wave came from the new, independent clericalism that says ‘I am your chief, your prophet---all your allegiance (and incidentally your money) belongs to ME. I have a new revelation, listen only to me…’ And sealing our doom was the apathy (and even sometimes opposition) of the mainstream churches who still claim the names begun in the Reformation… We lost more than our store. We lost years of our lives. Our home is still in jeopardy. Our future looks grim, for at our age it is very difficult to get a job or a fresh start. One thing this experience has done for us: we have nothing left to lose… If we can’t preach Truth from a store, then we’ll preach it from our garage. If they take away our garage, we’ll preach it from a street corner… If we die for that, so be it. Heaven looks good to us now.” (Pg. 127-128)
This book will appeal strongly to Christians who are still “book lovers,” and lament the demise of most Christian bookstores in the modern world.
Former Christian bookstore owner Victor V. Bryditzki wrote in the first chapter of this 1985 book, “we should have bailed out a long time ago. But all we had ever wanted was to provide our town a Christian bookstore that would be a real help---a ministry and business combined. We kept hoping that God could still use us and would somehow restore our financial stability. The time was past for godly planning; nothing short of a miracle would do now…” (Pg. 13)
He recalls, “it was fun living among the gods---the ‘anointed ones’ of the visible church. It was suggested that we should sell out house and give the money to God. The idea was to send it on ahead to heaven, making sure of our reservations at the heavenly banquet facilities. Being obedient, God-loving and fearing, and utterly stupid, we put our home on the market. But by the time the house sold, we had a falling out between ourselves and the church, so God got cheated out of the money we planned ‘on ahead.’ Instead we became ‘missionaries’ and went to work in a ‘Christian’ (how dumb can you get?) camp in the mountains. At first it was great fun, but as soon as the novelty wore off, we saw that our first real ‘ministry’ was actually a total disaster. It was terrible. Beware of those ‘vows of poverty’ other people are always to push onto you. Mostly they are for those who never had anything in the first place, and don’t know how to get it in the second place. We learned fast what it is to live and work with professing ‘Christians’ intent on self-emulation. Stay home, young man, stay home!” (Pg. 32)
He reluctantly ordered copies of a new ‘Angel’ book (which might have been Roland Buck’s
‘Angels On Assignment’), but after reading it for himself, “I went straight out and took the remaining copies off the book shelves. ‘I just can’t sell this junk,’ I said. I had the idea that God was holding me responsible for what I sold over the counter, and that He wouldn’t want me selling extra-Biblical experiences to naïve spiritual babes., enticing them to believe something contrary to the Scriptures… The public did not share my sentiments. The disease of ‘Angelitis’ had set in and was spreading. When I tried to point out that we no longer carried the book due to its questionable contents, I was accused of ‘judging,’ a new sort of Christian escapism… “No, I’m not judging,’ I would reply. ‘I’m not telling you NOT to read the book. If you want it, you can buy it somewhere else, but I simply cannot sell it to you.’ We lost many customers over that. We could not be forgiven for our Scriptural convictions. Since the author of the ‘angel’ book was an Assembly of God minister, we were accused of being anti-Assembly. The local Assembly stopped coming in. The scars of their continued unkind remarks toward us we bear to this day.” (Pg. 63-64)
He points out, “Surveys indicate that not more than 10% of active church members ever enter a Christian bookstore. Since many of the people who do come into the store do not buy BOOKS, one has to wonder what quality of membership we have in the visible church today. Giving our attention to the active 10% who at least come into the store, what do they buy?... actual sales figures show the following scale of popularity among items offered in the store. Topping the list are card and small gifts, mostly cheap jewelry. Next comes what is called ‘Jesus junk’ items like trinkets, bumper-stickers, decals, and toys and plastic prizes for Sunday School. Next comes the latest craze book on ‘666,’ giving the month and day of Jesus’ return… and a number of ‘end-time’ (mis)interpretations. Next to these are records and cassettes, skimmed -milk devotionals, and low-fat study guides. At the end come Bibles, reference books, Church History, and other serious works. When I opened the store, I actually thought the sequence would be the other way around.” (Pg. 72-73)
He continues, “Of the 10% of church members who go to Bible bookstores, only 1% (of the 10%) ever purchase serious books. This means 99% (of the 120%) are satisfied with trinkets or shallow or erroneous writings. I am also told that of the Christian reading public, 85% are women. That boggles my mind and confuses my arithmetic. (I have nothing against women; I just wish that men would read too.) At first, wanting to think the best, I supposed that perhaps the 80% of the church members, the ones we never see, already own a good library. Maybe they inherited these volumes from some departed saint, maybe they belong to a good Christian book club or send by mail for their reading. Maybe they bought books years ago and now stay home to read their treasures. But alas, I fear that I supposed too much. After numerous incidents I was forced to conclude that reading good time-tested literature has fallen out of style.” (Pg. 73)
He recounts, “I well remember an incident when I was invited to dinner at the home of the head elder in one of the local churches… He showed me through his home, and all the way I was eagerly looking for his library so I could look over his collection…. But there did not appear to be one… I thought he was a poor excuse for a church leader. Now, if his case was an exception to the norm, I would be horrified. But since I know that he IS the norm, I am not only horrified, but filled with righteous indignation. No wonder Christian church members remain in a state of ignorance and are held captive to erroneous teachings. The visible church is voids of teachers of the Scriptures… The blind leading the blind is, I am afraid, the indictment of today’s church.” (Pg. 73-74)
He summarizes, “We paid a tremendous price for what we thought of as our ministry, but it was worthwhile. If we still chuckle over some of our conversations, it is only to ease the heartache over the great needs, and the pride and prejudice of the visible church in our small town that finally intentionally annihilated our ministry.” (Pg. 83)
He concludes, “In our town, the opposition came chiefly from the candy-coated ‘gospel’ enthusiasts. The second wave came from the new, independent clericalism that says ‘I am your chief, your prophet---all your allegiance (and incidentally your money) belongs to ME. I have a new revelation, listen only to me…’ And sealing our doom was the apathy (and even sometimes opposition) of the mainstream churches who still claim the names begun in the Reformation… We lost more than our store. We lost years of our lives. Our home is still in jeopardy. Our future looks grim, for at our age it is very difficult to get a job or a fresh start. One thing this experience has done for us: we have nothing left to lose… If we can’t preach Truth from a store, then we’ll preach it from our garage. If they take away our garage, we’ll preach it from a street corner… If we die for that, so be it. Heaven looks good to us now.” (Pg. 127-128)
This book will appeal strongly to Christians who are still “book lovers,” and lament the demise of most Christian bookstores in the modern world.
April 1, 2015
Interesting and sad account of a bookstore that tried to honor Christ. I can't accept that everything was done by "Christians" (many "professors" of Christ are not possessors of Christ). The actions described were, of course, reprehensible.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews