How Do Adventist Book Centers Make Money?

[caption id="attachment_2635" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Image by Moe"][/caption]OK...I gotta admit that I don't have any inside information on how profitable they are. But it really seems like they have some hard times. Let me tell you what I mean...

Used to be back in the day the Adventist staple (vegetarian meat substitutes) were only obtained from the Adventist Book Center (ABC). But if you want to get some Vege-meat, guess what, head on over to Kroger or Wal-Mart Supercenter and purchase all kinds of meat substitutes. Even if you hooked on the Adventist brands you can find them there as well. And often for cheaper prices in that the big supermarkets can purchase many more than your local small ABC. And lets not forget that you can even go to Burger King and get a Vegetarian burger (see picture). Even if you want the "Adventist brands" you can get those at your local supermarket for a cheaper price than our ABCs can give.

Well what about buying some books. Surprise..Surprise...Head into your average ABC and it looks like a regular Christian bookstore...They have Max Lucado, T.D. Jakes, and John McArthur. While it is true that you can also get Clifford Goldstein and Herbert Douglass and of course there is a large section of Ellen Gould White (EGW) books, my point is that a good amount of the books that are in that store are available elsewhere.

At the end of the day, I wonder how many "Adventist" books they are selling? I wonder how many books they sell besides EGW. Really I wonder how many of her books they sell. I mean how many times can you buy Acts of the Apostles. No wonder they keep changing the cover of EGW books and creating paraphrases and the like of her books. But to be honest, this is a problem for all book sellers. But it has got to hit small specialty publishers like our Adventist publishers hard. I mean, how many books on such subjects as the Sanctuary, EGW apologetics, and state of the dead can you sell when the only people purchasing are a small segment of the church? And then they have to compete with many smaller publishers who have sprung up in the last few years. I understand why in many cases the book that they are pushing at this year's camp-meeting for 20 dollars will 20 dollars will be in the closeout bin for 3 dollars in a couple of years.

Of course there is the whole Sabbath School lesson game where they sell the lessons through the ABCs. That probably makes some money, but I do wonder if they can stay afloat with that alone. Especially in light of the fact that a growing number of sabbath schools at least in the US are using different materials.

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate on ABCs. I loved them, but I gotta admit, I only go in them every once in a while now. And often just to pick up a case of that Veggie Meat. I can't help but think that this Adventist social activity of going to an ABC will soon be a thing of the past. I'll probably miss it, but I will just get my reading materials online and my vege meat at the Grocery Store...

Sabbath - Necessity of Unplugging From The Matrix

We find ourselves in a society where leisure time is shrinking. We are on a long trend of work, work and more work. Many of us judge ourselves by how busy we are. Some see a beeper as a sign of "importance."

We are busy, but what are we doing? Sometimes you can be so busy doing things that you don't ever take a step back and see how this busyness affects our families, friendships, and connection to God.

I can remember someone telling me that he must be must always retain a connection to the activities and events of the world during the hours of the Sabbath. His fear is that something important will happen and he will not know. Something big that he needs to address could come up during the hours of Sabbath that require him to respond. Many of us think just like that. We need to know so that we can be able to "do" and "work" at a minutes notice.

In light of these observations one might come to the conclusion that a time of complete disconnect from the powers-that-be during a 24 hour period is not possible. A time when we can "unplug from the Matrix" is something we cannot afford. We may miss something. We may be disconnected from something that may happen that we want to know about. We cannot afford Sabbath because the society in which we live makes Sabbath impossible.

We Come Back With A New Mind

One thing that we will learn when we begin keeping Sabbath is that the world goes on just as it has always been without us. When we begin our "six days of work" we learn that we are not indispensable to the working of this present world. It goes on, and we will have to "plug back in at the end of Sabbath. However we come back to the world with a different mindset.

We come to the world with a mindset enlightened by taking time off to live outside the confines of the kingdoms of this world. We come back to this world knowing that our society does not have the final word on what is possible and what is truth for we have boycotted that society for 24 hours and tasted at least partially the coming Basilea of God.

We have learned that our disconnecting from this world is the point. We need that disconnection! We must take time to see a vision. A vision where people are not judged by what they can produce, for all production and work is to cease. No we are are judged from the vision of the coming Basilea.

We have learned that family, faith, and friendship is important and must be celebrated and intentionally valued if we are to live in the coming Basilea rather than the Kingdoms of this world.

Is The Sabbath Relevant?

Is the Sabbath relevant? Certainly the Kingdom's of this world would rather you take an hour or so to "go to church" as long as you don't catch this vision of the new paradigm that we call the Basilea of God. Certainly the Kingdoms of the world would rather you keep looking at your clock hoping that this time period will go away so we all can get back to more pressing matters of ceaseless activity...

But let us not give up Sabbath. Hold on to it. It is the vision that God has given to us of what is to come. Let us hold on to Sabbath. For while the Kingdoms of this world might see it as unnecessary or a hindrance, it is a training bed for living the coming Basilea. Finally, it provides direction to help us during every other day of the week.