News...

Wow, time is really flying this month.  And so are the Christmas cards & calendars.  We are selling Christmas Cards in aid of Savannah Education Trust again this year.  Please have a look at their website and find out about the work that is going on in the Christian schools they have set up in Ghana.
Follow these links to browse our Christmas cards & Calendars...
Charity Christmas Cards
All Christmas Cards
2015 Calendars & Diaries
Printable PDF of all Christmas cards and calendars

To keep up to date with all our news regularly please subscribe to our monthly eBulletin.  At this time of year there is always lots going on and we would hate you to miss out!  Have a read of our October eBulletin - we have a great deal on the wonderful Christian Biographies for Young Readers series plus advance notice of some events going on at the shop during November...

We also have bookstalls planned in various places so keep an eye on our Events details on Facebook (you don't have to log in to Facebook to access our page, just scroll down the page and the events are shown on the left).
Keep in touch!
Lorna

Latest News

The day after the night before.  We're just getting the shop back to a Christmas look after a very successful special sales night.  It was really encouraging to see the response to the invitations sent out to this event, when all new books were on sale at a minimum of 20% off, and secondhand books were half price.  It's always good to see local pastors setting an example and heading our way.  Thanks for your support!  Obviously coffee and cakes help oil the wheels on such occasions too...

The last week or so has been particularly busy.  We have also done two external events - bookstalls locally and further afield.  The AV block calendar is selling steadily despite the small price rise which we regretfully had to make.  The Savannah Charity Christmas cards have proved so popular that we are going to get two of the designs reprinted to meet demand.  However it's not just Christmas/New Year stock that has been bought up, but now that we are able to take some of our secondhand books out for browsing through, they have sold well too.  We hope to get a spreadsheet listing of some secondhand stock online soon to give better exposure to them.  Finding the time is the hard part.

New Focus Conference 2011

It is a real pleasure to take good books where they are really appreciated.  This has always been the case at the New Focus Conference.  After doing a local bookstall at the Pennine Bible Witness last Friday evening, we went down to Gornal, near Dudley, West Midlands, for the day on Saturday. It was a tough schedule, but the Lord blessed us.  The driving conditions were ideal, the children were commendable, the books were mopped up by avid readers, and there was some good fellowship, ministry, and conversations.  Not to mention the excellent hospitality!  Where else in this country could you take books and easily sell edifying old authors like Robert Hawker and William Gadsby?  If you can tell me, I'd love to know!  Given half a chance, we would move heaven and earth to go, and count it a real privilege to do so.
Jeremy

3 into 1 Does Go...Just!

10th - 16th April 2010.
7 days, 3 events.
2 out-of-shop bookstalls, 1 in-shop activity day. What a week!

No shortage of helpers for setting up one of the bookstalls...The activity day...

Plenty of children in the children's corner... just what we like to see!

Exhausted, but encouraged I think is my assessment at the end of a busy week.

Lorna

New Focus Conference 2010

Thank you to Peter Meney for once again inviting us to take a bookstall out to the New Focus Conference this year. It has been a heartwarming occasion in the past, meeting old friends and some regular mail order customers of ours. Please come along if you can. We will just be there on the Saturday, but the Conference runs from 9th - 11th April. See the official details here: http://www.egglesburn.org.uk

The location in upper Teesdale is utterly charming (as are the hosts!) When I go up there I am torn between sneaking off and hiking up to the high fells and doing my duty and attending to the Conference. No, seriously, it promises to be a bigger event than ever this year and I look forward to ministry from some men I haven't heard before, as well as Don Fortner from Stateside. May the Lord grant safe journeys and happy landings to all.

Jeremy

On the Road Again

Please come and see us at the Christian Values in Education (CViE) Midland regional meeting this coming Saturday (20th February). We have been kindly permitted to take a bookstall there. CViE material has been made freely available in our shop since the inception of CVE - as it was first called. The difficulty for us is not what to take, but what not to take! We expect the event to be well attended and hope it will be a win-win situation for CViE and us. The subject is on the Dangers of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Two speakers will represent the police and teaching professions. For families with younger children there is a separate interactive meeting for 5 - 10 year olds. For full details go to http://www.cvie.org.uk/Events.aspx

The venue is Weddington church hall, near Nuneaton. Kick off is 3pm. We would love to see you there.

Jeremy

Breathing more freely again...

Wow, it's been a crazy couple of weeks! Out of shop bookstalls, evening events, hosting school groups, baking for the events, re-organising the shopfloor to highlight special offers and talking books, books, books! I can't say I don't enjoy it, but I don't think I could quite keep up this pace all year round! (and I don't think I could expect all our loyal helpers to either - thanks everyone!) Now that I'm breathing a little more freely I have realised that the website has been badly neglected and is quite out of date. Apologies. We have had a ton of new books in to add to the chaos and I am desperate to get them on the site so that you all know about them... here's a few as a taster...
This Little Church had None by Gary Gilley, the third title in his 'This little Church' series is apparently a must-read. I really must find the time...
Amazing Conversions by John Ashworth is a reprint of his 'Life and Strange Tales', originally published by Gospel Tidings. Over the years many customers have asked for this title and it had become very scarce. So it is nice to see it available again in a nice quality hardback done by Tentmaker Publications.
Matthew Henry's Daily Readings edited by Randall Pederson. Published in a lovely quality leather bound gift edition. Matthew Henry's portions have been lightly edited and the ESV is used (which sadly I suspect may put many of Matthew Henry's fans off).
Douglas Bond's latest novel The Betrayal is based on Calvin and by all accounts is not only a good read from a fiction point of view, but a profitable read because of the amount of original content from Calvin's own works. Jeremy has been recommending this to anyone prepared to listen to him!
Who Made God? by Edgar Andrews is another one that has been flying off the shelf and is next on my own reading list. The publishers claim that it is 'a really effective riposte to the "new atheism" of Richard Dawkins and others - gently humorous, highly readable, deeply serious, razor sharp, and written by an internationally respected scientist'. I have heard many positive reviews and look forward to getting my teeth into it.
Our 3 for 2 offer on children's books has been running this week and we have decided to extend it another few weeks or as long as stocks last. Have a look at our children's catalogue, there really are some great children's books around at the moment.
Don't forget to get your orders in for the AV Block Calendar, it is selling fast this year and stock levels are getting low.
Lorna

New Focus Conference 2009

Congratulations to Peter and Jill Meney for very successfully hosting another conference in Teesdale this year. We were delighted to be invited to take a bookstall to the event last Saturday. Our feelings were more mixed when Peter badgered us into accepting 2 x 10 minute slots for stand up book reviews! Not exactly our cup of tea being the world's worst marketing managers. But we were among friends (albeit around 60 of them) and it went off OK. Lorna particularly did a great plug for sound children's literature, singling out the 'History Lives' series for special praise. This was light relief after a Dr Ella paper on John Brine. Sorry George, but she's got a prettier face! Maybe I'm biased...
It was good to meet some longstanding mail order customers for the first time - one from the Isle of North Uist! And it felt great to be selling really good books to really appreciative people. Don Fortner was once again over from Danville, Kentucky and spoke well. I just hope that he hasn't packed too much into his UK itinerary after his health setback last year. I remain amazed that Evangelical Press appeared to snub him again, despite being (presumably) happy to have published around half a dozen of his books. There's nowt so queer as folk to use a good Yorkshire expression. Ken Cotty completed the line up and complemented it very well with a most gracious meditation of the Mount of Transfiguration.
Jeremy

Crisp back at Brinkworth

It was a fascinating and ultimately encouraging afternoon. Puritan preacher Tobias Crisp's words were once again heard in his parish church at Brinkworth. Dr David Samuel gave an unusually balanced lecture on Crisp and his theology to an unusually mixed audience. It can be obtained from the Protestant Reformation Society of which Dr Samuel is President. There were vicars aplenty, rubbing shoulders with Strict Baptists and Calvinistic Independents. Even a lineal descendent of Crisp was present...and a good time was had by all. The books we provided (see list in the previous post) were readily snapped up. It's good to think that although Crisp has been often dismissed, his clear spiritual understanding of free grace - God always looks upon his people as accepted in Christ, yet this is no open door to ungodliness to them - hasn't been destroyed.
Jeremy

Tobias Crisp Lecture

Dr D N Samuel is to give a lecture on Tobias Crisp DD under the auspices of the Protestant Reformation Society on Saturday 14th June at 2.30pm (tomorrow!) at Brinkworth Parish Church in Wiltshire. It is appropriately titled 'Christ Alone Exalted' because that was the great theme evident in the sermons which have been preserved in his Works. For any who don't know, Crisp (1600-1642) was a Puritan, under whose gospel ministry the Church building was filled to capacity and beyond. On the back of his pulpit seat he had a motto text carved which he would have seen every time he went up into it 'Woe be unto me if I preach not the gospel'. This took place in a quiet, remote (especially in those days) village, far from more famous people/places.

I hope to get down to the event, and will be very interested to see how Dr Samuel handles his subject. The Society have accepted my suggestion of having Crisp's sermons available for any attendees who are interested in further reading. My experience is that they express the worth of Christ and yet the freeness of his salvation. Crisp is good at meticulously removing all perceived obstacles that a sinner feels must surely stand in the way of his acceptance with God.

Books in print by Crisp which we stock are:-

Christ Alone Exalted - a 4 volume paperback edition by Gospel Mission. This is a scanned version of the original Works. £22.95

Christ Alone Exalted - a 1 volume paperback edition by Diggory Press. This has been re-typeset. £24.95

Christ Alone Exalted Series - an edition in 8 booklets by CBO Publications (that's us!). Re-typeset, containing between 3 and 5 sermons each, to comprise the first 33 sermons in his Works. £2.50 each. Bargain.

Christ's Pre-eminence - slim booklet size edition by Zoar Publications (my Dad was part of that 2 man team!). Re-typeset as an edited version of material from 2 of the sermons on Colossians 1:18. £1 each - can you believe it! I might as well give them away.

Brinkworth is on the B4042 near Malmesbury, easily accessible from the M4. A tea is to be served in the village hall afterwards.

Jeremy

The New Focus Conference

The inaugural New Focus Conference was held over the past weekend in idyllic surroundings. Teesdale really is a lovely spot, and more so because it is often overlooked by tourists in favour of the better known dales further to the south. Somewhat a metaphor in fact for the conference itself. We just went up for the Saturday sessions to supply the bookstall, but it appeared that few local evangelical churches supported it. We counted 45 people, many of them from quite a distance. What is the organiser Peter Meney's crime? Is it that his 'New Focus' magazine has become synonymous with George Ella and his campaigning ways? Perhaps, but he deserves a voice. Like him, loathe him if you will, but at least engage with the research he does even if you don't like his conclusions. Leaving aside such things, Peter and his wife Jill did a great job of organising the conference down to the last sausage roll! Thanks again you two.

The (loose) theme of the conference was 'Salvation, past, present and future'. Re the past, George Ella presented an historical paper in two parts. He focused on a few individuals from the North of England who have been influential in the spread of the Gospel while this country was in its formative years. Indeed his opening thesis was that the true gospel arrived on these shores in the north long before Pope Gregory sent Augustine to 'convert' the heathen Saxons. He moved on to highlight the Venerable Bede and then Alcuin before devoting much time in the second part of the paper to John Wycliffe (from Teesdale!). Wycliffe was compared in some respects to Luther, and shown to be a great reformer. His sound biblical views were expounded, which are much less recognised than his bible translation work itself. I'd like to go on and read more about his views now.

In between George Ella's contribution a slot was given to Ken Cotty. He preached a sermon which I only got tantalising bits of, due to surpervising the children in a side room. It was an uplifting message on the future for the true christian and was well received. Lorna and I necessarily had to 'dip' in and out of sessions for the children's sake, but after a meal freely provided, we were all together for the final part at 7pm. Don Fortner (Pastor, Grace Baptist Church, Danville, Kentucky) preached a short sermon and set forth the gospel in his usual dogmatically God-honouring manner. All in all, we felt it was a very heart-warming and stirring conference. Heavy rain was the only dampener as people finally dispersed (and the lost hour!)

NB. New Focus can be obtained from us or directly from the editor Peter Meney http://www.go-newfocus.co.uk/
Evangelical Press have printed a number of books by Don Fortner, as well as Go Publications. All are obtainable from us.
Jeremy