THE JOURNEY SO FAR

I'm not sure whether visiting Group Publishing was a good thing or a bad thing for me. It's truly amazing to see the development of this ministry/business from the early 70's as a one man effort to probably the largest publisher in the US that focuses on resources for churches.

350+ employees, with specialty groups working in everything from their "Genesis" group (my personal preference) concentrating on new ideas and products to graphic designers, video folks, educational specialists, an army of people doing sales, tech support, customer helplines, and shipping.

There are many publishing companies in the US. But these guys really do on a big scale what CreativeWorks aspires to. Excellent media production and curricula for VBS clubs. Service trips to get church small groups involved in missions. Regional training events to give instruction to church voluteers tryng to make a difference.

My heart goes out to Europe. Companies like Group can grow in the US because there are churches here to pay enough for their materials that Group can invest to create even more. They'll send out thousands of VBS kits each summer. (I thought I was dreaming big to try and produce 200 Imagin'Air kits to be used by teams over the next 3-5 years!)

But Europe, with it's approximately 1% of evangelical believers is too big a risk for companies like Group to develop materials for. It's just not financially feasible right now.

Still, CreativeWorks needs the support of great ministries like Group. We have so much to learn. And I think we have a lot to share with them about ways for them to make a difference in Europe. That's why I'm meeting with people there. I want to explore partnerships that would help provide the needed resources for healthy ministry in Europe without reinventing the wheel.

Our next meeting together is in September.