I Have A Dream...

So earlier today i heard about the closing of Good News Bookstore. i was sad when i heard about it because i remember going there as a toddler and youngster and going to the little knick knack section and looking at erasers and bookmarks and other little toys they had. Then as I got older, I would go there to buy cds. I kept stickers on the outside of them so i could get one free after buying 5. I actually still have two of the stickers in my wallet today. Then I became interested in books and i remember i had about $60 to spend and wanted a reference book. So i went to the reference book section, tried to recognize some names, and ended up buying this huge commentary of the whole Bible because it had Matthew Henry's name on it and i recognized that name. Then I moved into college and would go there when I was home to buy some good books, but that got harder and harder to do. Why? Because they simply weren't there.

I had to walk past displays of various D.C. Talk books, past Joel Osteen's face, past the Jabez collection, through the Purpose Driven series, around the Left Behind books, and then finally get to a growingly disappointing christian non-fiction section. I went to buy some books for my brother-in-law, and they didn't have J.C. Ryle's 'Thoughts for Young Men'. In fact, there was no J.C. Ryle to be found. I struggled to find a good version of Pilgrim's Progress, nevermind even bothering to find something by John Owens. It was then that I realized that Good News Bookstore was not the same Bookstore anymore. Then I found the "Biblezines" and got sick to my stomach. They were right next to the bathroom, so i guess they fell short of what should have been their intended destination.

So you may be asking what my dream would be... All day i've just been getting ideas about how awesome it would be to salvage that bookstore and make it useful again. I talked to my mom about how we should buy it and make it into a Mother-Son bookstore. I would model it somewhat after the mecca of bookstores out here, Archives. It would be Archives-East. I would get all the classics, stock up on useful reference tools and commentaries. I would provide work stations and reading stations for people to come in and read at. We could even have a little coffee bar, since that would be huge in that area of the country. We could have a little library section where for a small fee each year, people could check good books out if they could not afford to buy the books. We would network with local pastors to supply them with what they really needed. I would scower used book sales and the such and have a used book section that would rival Archive's used book section. Then we could use the upstairs section of Good News as a location for the Institute, to link up with them. We would advertise the classes to the people so we could get more people involved. We would offer reading groups to go through various books. We could provide reading lists for people bring their families through. We would communicate with the local Christian schools so we could provide the resources their students need at our bookstore.

But more significantly, we would be known for what we wouldn't have. We wouldn't carry Bible-zines, we wouldn't carry romantic Christian fiction, we wouldn't carry potpourrie, we wouldn't carry 'Testamints', we wouldn't carry anything authored by a Gaither, we wouldn't carry anything by a Hinn, a Crouch, a Tilton, a Jakes, or a Tammy Fay. We wouldn't carry anything with a TBN stamp on it. We wouldn't carry anything that would be psuedo Christian that would pass as Catholic, Mormon, or JW. We wouldn't carry bubblegum devotionals. We wouldn't carry anything I would be ashamed to have on my bookshelf.

We would work with the local pastors throughout northern Mass and new hampshire to provide a more personal, evangelical bookstore than CBD. We would provide an atmosphere where people could come and talk. We would provide a place where everyone would know your name, where we served the soul, heart, and the mind. We would help unite churches who stand on the same doctrines so pastors wouldn't seem to be on an island to themselves. We would provide a place where these pastors can send their sheep without fearing the wolves. We would provide an atmosphere where peoples hearts, souls, and minds are directed to God for His glory.

any ideas on what I could do with my dream?