Publishing for the Nations

What is the current state of global Christian publishing?

What are the biggest challenges, the most promising opportunities, and the best possibilities for collaboration? A THF partner in Colorado Springs has convened a Global Publishing Symposium this week. It’s a gathering of more than two dozen international publishing professionals who will spend multiple days thinking, planning, strategizing, and praying together about how to address opportunities and overcome obstacles to Christian publishing worldwide.

Since Tyndale is a publishing company as well as a foundation, this is a topic we care deeply about. One of our strategic pillars is Reach, and our goal is to increase our ability to distribute products internationally so that more and more people around the world will have access to Tyndale books and Bibles. But since Tyndale is a foundation as well as a publishing company, we are committed to pursuing international growth in a way that does not harm our many THF global partners who are engaged in publishing. The last thing we want to do is create unhealthy competition that would drive an indigenous publishing operation out of business. So how can Tyndale and other Western publishing companies pursue growth in a responsible way?

That’s one of the issues we’ll be addressing at the symposium. Another is the degree to which collaboration between Western publishers and non-Western publishers is possible. Tyndale has many licensees that translate and republish our content all over the world. Is that the best model, or should we consider others? What does the international market for Christian books even look like?

Perhaps the most important question we’ll be thinking about is how global publishers can help equip and strengthen publishing industries in under-resourced countries and regions. There will be participants from Cote d’Ivoire, India, France, Brazil, Mexico, the UK, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Uganda, and the USA. We’ve also received input from publishers in South Korea, Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia who won’t be present at the symposium but are participating in offline conversations. This is a truly global group working on a truly global issue that has great implications for the future of the Global Church.

As you think of it this week, please pray for the gathering and for the participants, for safety in travel, for wisdom in considering the issues, for creativity in addressing concerns, and for fruitful outcomes.

Here’s what’s happening.

Pray for Burkina Faso
On Sunday, August 10, we received an urgent appeal from a THF partner in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in Western Africa. Here’s what she had to say: “We understand that the whole world is in turmoil and that life is getting more and more complicated for everybody. But in our mother tongue, we sometimes say, ‘Some sufferings are better than others.’ In Burkina Faso, we are going through the rainy season. It rains almost every two days. Can you imagine having to flee from your home while it is raining? This is what is happening to some of our brothers and sisters in areas invaded by terrorists. Today we were informed that villagers in the northern part of the country have been given 24 hours to evacuate their villages; otherwise, they will be killed by terrorists. The relatives of these people have called for a prayer meeting and asked for assistance because when people have to leave their homes, they will be exposed to suffering. We are appealing to you to join us in prayer for the hundreds of people who will leaving their homes by tomorrow.” Please pray for Christians in Burkina Faso who by now have already had to leave their homes, and pray for our partners in the capital who are trying to figure out how to provide relief for hundreds of refugees.

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Pray for Russian Missionaries
The day after we received the prayer request from Burkina Faso, we received another urgent email from a partner in Eastern Europe (I’m omitting the names of these partners for security reasons). This time the request was for prayer for two missionaries from Russia who were arrested while traveling home from a mission gathering in Western Europe. Because of the war in Ukraine, the European Union has imposed new restrictions on Russian passport holders traveling within the EU, and this seems likely to be the reason for the arrests. The problem is that as of Monday, no one had heard from the two men. Their families had not been notified, and their mission agency hadn’t been able to get any information on their location, the reason they had been detained, or what will happen next. One of the men’s wives shared, “I trust God and know that this is all for a reason. Maybe someone there needs to hear about God. Knowing my husband, I am sure he will be bold and preach, so this will all turn out for God’s glory.” Please pray for protection for these missionaries, for peace and comfort for their families, for wisdom for the mission leaders advocating on their behalf, and that God will use this situation to open doors for the gospel.

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THF Program Update
During the month of August, I’m highlighting a different THF program each week. Programs are a way for us to engage proactively and collaboratively with certain partners to meet specific needs. This week we’ll look at our Ministry Sustainability Initiative (MSI) program. One of the things we pay attention to in our grant review is whether the applying organization has other financial partners that could fill in the gaps if THF needed to take a break from funding, as we do periodically in order to give other organizations a chance to receive grants. If it appears that a partner is becoming too dependent on Tyndale, that’s not a good development. It’s bad for the organization, because it means they’re going to be in trouble if and when we cease our funding, and it’s bad for Tyndale because it means we aren’t being responsible partners. During Covid, we identified a number of partners who, it seemed, were developing an unhealthy dependency on Tyndale. So in 2021, the THF board approved the formation of the MSI program to address the issue of partner dependency. When we invite an organization to become part of MSI, we provide governance training, facilitate mentorship and specialized training for the organization’s leaders, and perform a number of site visits, all with the goal of helping the ministry become sustainable over the long term. We also provide targeted funding for up to three years. So far we only have one partner in the MSI, and 2025 is the final year of our commitment. The goal is for this organization and others in the future to move from a state of dependency to independent flourishing through our partnership.

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A Win for Religious Liberty
In 2021, Christian humanitarian organization and THF partner World Vision offered a job to a woman who, it turned out, was hiding the fact that she was in a same-sex relationship. When the organization discovered this, they rescinded the job offer, prompting a discrimination lawsuit from the woman. World Vision argued that as a Christian organization, they had the right to refuse employment to someone whose lifestyle was clearly out of alignment with the organization’s values and statement of faith. A district court disagreed and found World Vision guilty of wrongful discrimination. But last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that the lower court’s ruling was in error. The Ninth Circuit Court agreed with World Vision that employees in outward facing roles such as Customer Service Representatives function as the voice of the organization, engaging donors in prayer, communicating the organization’s mission, and facilitating spiritual engagement. Thus, the court ruled, World Vision has the right to hire people whose personal values align with the organization’s values. This decision has implications for other Christian organizations, including Tyndale, to be able to hire people whose personal faith aligns with the organization’s priorities. Since the whole reason we at Tyndale became a nonprofit in 2019 was to facilitate exactly this kind of hiring decision, this ruling in World Vision’s favor is a welcome development.

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That’s it for this week’s briefing. Please send any questions, comments, and any words of encouragement you’d like me to pass along to our friends and partners in Burkina Faso to [email protected]. Do you enjoy reading the THF Weekly Briefing? Subscribe to the email distribution list to get access to this resource the same day it’s published each week, and feel free to share it with others who may be interested, inside or outside of Tyndale. Thanks for continuing to pray for and support our partners around the world.

Jeremy Taylor
President | Tyndale House Foundation

The THF Weekly Briefing provides information about significant events happening in the wide universe of Tyndale House Foundation partner organizations as well as an occasional peek behind the scenes of THF’s operations. It is available to anyone who’s interested in learning more about the philanthropic activities of Tyndale House. Was this email forwarded to you? Contact [email protected] to be added to (or removed from) the distribution list.