Eighty years ago what is now an unremarkable industrial estate outside Swindon was a hive of activity. Scores of Supermarine Spitfires rolled off the production lines at the South Marston works in the fight to rid the world of Adolf Hitler.
Today a small part of the same site is, its occupiers claim, busily embroiled in the vital spiritual struggle to send to pastors across the developing world the books they need to teach the gospel accurately to their flocks.
Christian Books Worldwide (CBW) was formed in 2009, out of the ministry of Pastor Training International, seeking to distribute good-quality Christian material to pastors desperately needing it to underpin their preaching. Its theology has always been unashamedly conservative, evangelical and reformed. Its founding trustees – Jim Gough, David Ide, Friedhelm Anhuth, and Mike Taylor – began by printing John Blanchard’s Ultimate Questions in Punjabi and Urdu. They then commissioned translations of three further titles: Mysterious Ways by David Kingdon; Foundations of the Christian Faith by Roger Weil; and Walking with God, a simplified version of J.C. Ryle’s classic text, Practical Religion.
The elderly and bereaved: a growing gospel need
“Let me put it this way. I don’t expect there to be many people at my funeral.”My new friend …