A Big Vision for Small Books

by Trevor Meers

You need a lot more than efficient shipping to deliver solid biblical training to every corner of the world. Take language alone. Native speakers translate books into their language while editors translate scholars’ words into concepts accessible for the target audience. Sometimes biblical training may even mean dipping into the farming business. At Authenticity Book House’s tenth anniversary dinner, I learned about a ministry that keeps finding ways to bridge any gaps encountered on the way to training ministry leaders.  

I headed to the dinner with both excitement and a question in my mind. I shared ABH’s burden for worldwide theological training. But I also wondered: “Does the world really need another startup Christian publisher?” Every year seems like we may have hit “peak Christian publishing,” but the feeling goes back much further than that. In the stylus-and-scroll days, the writer of Ecclesiastes already noticed that “of making books, there is no end” (Ecc. 12:12). 

But Howard and Fran Joslin didn’t take long to convince me that ABH fills a very real niche ignored by big publishers who need scale to make a profit. Ten years in, ABH proves that thinking small can actually create big results. Key ideas I heard clearly at the anniversary dinner include: 

Clear writing isn’t lesser writing. 

Most ministry books pile on words like “perspicuity” and “immutability” when the writer could just as easily say “clarity” and “unchanging.” Maybe too many pastors (and authors writing for pastors) feel haunted by the thought of an old seminary professor popping up and deducting points for talking too much like a commoner.  

ABH writers aren’t talking to the academic world, so they keep their books simple and actionable. Editors coach writers to speak understandably to a rural pastor who probably has a Bible, a roughly 7^th grade education, and little else in terms of training or resources. First, ABH writers produce English sentences that deliver meat-and-potatoes truth for hungry church leaders. Then the translation to Swahili, Spanish, and more begins. 

Smaller travels better. 

A key moment of truth for ABH came when Fran traveled to a major conference and saw herself surrounded by bigger players already doing what she attempted. Then she and Howard found the courage to reimagine ABH’s core offering. The answer lay in realizing that less truly could be more. The team dropped the original concept of regular-size books and started producing pocket-size books. These bite-size books are cheaper to produce, simpler to read, and easier to transport around the world and across borders. ABH landed on a model purpose-built for spreading biblical resources as widely as possible around developing nations.  

Books aren’t always enough. 

Wisdom calls for doing one task well. But sometimes you need to take an extra step before you can even get started on that one task. ABH’s mission is training church leaders. But in Tanzania they realized that people suffering from hunger struggle to study the Bible. So ABH provided a shipment of single-furrow plows that let pastors ramp up their agricultural production from around two acres to seven or more acres. Producing more food in less time gives pastors extra energy and capacity to use ABH books to grow their skills and make disciples.  

My own travels show the clear need for ABH’s work. I’ve worked with church leaders in developing nations on three continents. And in every country, I’ve found leaders with a sincere desire to teach the Bible accurately but almost no training or reference materials to guide them. In ABH, I see a ministry committed to a simple proposition with the potential to transform churches. And with a network of African pastors in place, ABH has the local connections to get their books into the right hands.

ABH convinced me that the world does have a place for another Christian publisher with a very specific target. And I’m looking forward to helping wherever I can.