Bookstores are a vital part of the Great Commission in Asia (2)

Attracting students to bookstores:

A typical bookstore in a Asian campus area needs to look clean and peaceful. It does not need to be fancy or expensive.

It could have a café attached to it, selling affordable drinks and affordable snacks. Besides serving as a place to meet friends, Asian students often use a café as their study area. Students who can’t afford drinks should also feel welcome just to hangout at the café. In most Asian countries, often the only places where students can hangout are morally unhealthy places (eg. cybercafés, drinking places).

An “international” flavour (eg. foreign travel magazines, videos of foreign lands, presence of foreigners) may draw students.

Regular seminars on topics of interest at the bookstores may draw them in.

If Christian foreign English teachers are available, “English dialogue sessions” where students can practise spoken English with the foreigner may draw some in.

Making contacts with bookstore customers:

The most important element in the entire bookstore concept is the “sales personnel.”

They must be committed Christians who understand that the purpose of the bookstore is not to sell books but to be a platform for reaching out to customers with God’s love.

They must be prayerful believing that if they ask for opportunities to reach out, then God will answer their prayers.
They must be wise and trained evangelists who know when to share the Gospel and how to share the Gospel in a RAN.

In other words, they must be Spirit-led evangelists rather than “mechanical, robotic” evangelists.

They must be trained to disciple their converts and then pass them on to a good co-operating local church.

Additional functions of the bookstore:

In RAN’s a bookstore often ends up as the local Christian community center, where local Christians gather to meet. Because most Christians in RAN’s don’t have church buildings to meet in, Christians also tend to hold their church meetings in the bookstore.

Bookstores in RAN’s also tend to serve as resource-centers for local pastors to get good materials.

Bookstores in RAN’s are a Ministry not a Marketplace:

It is not easy to make money running a Christian bookstore in any country. Even in affluent countries, Christian bookstores have to resort to selling knick-knacks to make ends meet.

In RAN’s where there are few Christians to buy books and where there are few Christian books to sell, it is almost impossible to make money from a Christian bookstore.

To be an effective platform for outreach, Christian bookstores in RAN’s should be a ministry that is supported by Christians (eg. a church, or Christian businessmen). If a RAN bookstore tries to survive financially as a business, it will most likely focus more on selling trinkets, coffee and food rather than focus on outreach.

Conclusion:

I have been involved with 5 RAN bookstores in the past 5 years.

I have learned that RAN bookstores are wonderful platforms for outreach.

I have learned that RAN bookstores must be ministries not businesses.

There is potential for opening bookstores in almost any RAN.

If we don’t reach out to students, Satan will! In fact, he is already doing a very effective job reaching them!

Please pray for Christian entrepreneurs to start RAN bookstores now!

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Bookstores are a vital part of the Great Commission Part 1