28 March, 2024

Standard Publishing Annual Report: Joining Hands in Ministry

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by | 8 July, 2007 | 0 comments

By Matthew Thibeau

“Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not.” Those words, found in the King James Version of Jeremiah 50, are significant for two reasons.

They meant much to those who first heard them: God is warning his people to flee the nation of Babylon and the doom that is about to come upon it. The pagan idols will be destroyed. The divided nation, “the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the Lord their God.” They will return to Jerusalem to join themselves to the Lord, never to forget the eternal covenant (vv. 4, 5).

While this passage is a wonderful example of God”s faithfulness to his people and to his purposes, it also means much to us at Standard Publishing for another reason: The words “Set up a standard; publish, and conceal not” adorn the very first issue of CHRISTIAN STANDARD, published April 7, 1866. We can only guess that CHRISTIAN STANDARD got its name from that verse. And CHRISTIAN STANDARD grew into Standard Publishing, which was incorporated a few years later.

Waving the Banner

In the 14 decades since then, Standard Publishing has been faithful to that mission: waving the banner of God”s truth so it can be seen and learned and lived. Since CHRISTIAN STANDARD was first published, Standard Publishing has sought to serve Christian leaders and Christian churches with true-to-the-Bible resources.

We know times have changed since those days when the scars of the great war between the states were seen everywhere across our land.

Communication is different. Today”s CHRISTIAN STANDARD editor does not personally address the tens of thousands of copies we send around the world or carry them to the post office in a wheelbarrow as the first editor, Isaac Errett, did in the 19th century.

Today”s church is coping with 21st-century challenges and opportunities Errett never could have anticipated. But this week, in what we hope will be the first of many Standard Publishing Annual Reports, we declare that your brothers and sisters in Christ at Standard Publishing are as committed as any generation before them to help the church fulfill its mission.

Leading and Serving

This is nothing new for our company. Throughout its history, Standard Publishing has been a partner. In addition to what we have published, we have supported great causes among members of the Restoration Movement.

Mount Healthy Christian Home, the North American Christian Convention, a hospital ministry in what was then Rhodesia, the Christian Church Foundation for the Handicapped””these are a few prominent examples of institutions that might not exist today if Standard Publishing had not helped.

But you know us best for what we”ve published. And throughout our history, we have been leaders. When the Sunday school movement caught fire before the turn of the 20th century, Standard Publishing fanned the flames. We published Bible lessons for every age, from children through adults, in a format everyday church members could use to teach precious truths of God”s Word.

We invented Vacation Bible School in the 1920s and pioneered the use of full-color printing in Bible teaching materials. In the first half of the century we created a library of full-color Bible paintings that has been valued today in the thousands of dollars.

And still today we”re working to make Bible teaching meaningful. Our HeartShaper curriculum helps teachers hide God”s Word in children”s hearts. Our Encounter Bible lessons for youth speak their language. Our Standard Lesson Commentary is the most popular Sunday school annual for adults in the world! Our Vacation Bible School continues to touch and teach millions of students with all-new material summer after summer.

But that”s not all. Today we”re partnering with Christ In Youth of Joplin, Missouri, to create an all-new middle-school curriculum to reach and teach that crucial age group.

We partnered with LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado, and authors Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson who wrote The Externally Focused Church to extend their message. Rick and Eric wrote Life on Loan, the sequel to Externally Focused, and published it with us last year. This spring they hosted the first Externally Focused Church Conference in Longmont, and Standard Publishing was a principal sponsor. We partnered with the Christian education staff of LifeBridge church to publish a six-week all-church Life on Loan campaign complete with lessons for children and teenagers, small-group sessions for adults, video, sermon outlines, and promotion tips.

In their publicity for the conference, Rick and Eric said, “The Church Has Left the Building.” Standard Publishing is helping to make it happen.

We introduced several fresh, new materials for small groups this spring, and this summer we”re introducing a series of On Demand Bible Studies by Bob Russell, one of the most popular Bible teachers in America. These DVDs offer a plug-and-play Bible study through the book of Genesis, perfect for any group that wants an easy-to-use, true-to-the-Bible study. These are the first four in a series of On Demand Bible Studies outlined by Bob.

Later this year we”ll introduce Faith Café, a new way to attract adults to Bible study on Sunday mornings. We”re praying that soon we”ll find Faith Cafés in church buildings across America.

Reaching for the Future

Each of these is a reflection of our commitment to the church and the future. I like to say we”re a one-year-old company with a 141-year heritage. For the second time in all those years, Standard Publishing has been sold to new owners.

In 1955, Isaac Errett”s heirs sold the company to Christian businessman John Bolten. From that purchase, Bolten eventually built a multinational corporation that came to be called Standex International.

Standex owned Standard Publishing till last summer, when it sold it to the Wicks Group, a private equity firm based in New York City.

Soon after Bolten bought the company in the “50s, Standard”s Publishing Committee was formed. These 15 leaders in the Christian church are people you know.

One of the first things I did after I became president last summer was to convene a conference call with the Publishing Committee. At that time, and more than once since then, I have gone on record with my commitment to Standard Publishing”s historic position. We are seeking newer, deeper ways to involve the Publishing Committee in our ministry and pledging our faithfulness to the nondenominational commitment to the Bible Standard Publishing has taken through the decades.

At the same time, I hope you can sense that this is a new day for Standard Publishing. Three years ago we got out of the printing business to focus fully on our mission of producing resources to help the church teach the Bible. This spring we moved out of our 50-year-old facility in Cincinnati to a comfortable, contemporary suite of offices on the growing northeastern edge of the city.

We”re developing a five-year publishing plan that will bring fresh resources for your Bible-teaching ministry. We”re committed to revitalizing our Web sites and offering a wider range of digital downloadable resources.

Last fall 20 of our employees””managers and leaders from every segment of our company””met to set a strategic direction for our company. From their work came five key objectives to direct our future, fleshed out by 25 specific goals. Each goal has a different volunteer champion from our staff, and a circle of his or her colleagues to lead the process of achieving that goal.

This project is involving more than 80 percent of our office employees in setting the agenda for our service in the years to come. None of them can remember this kind of involvement ever happening among them before.

Honoring Christ

I”m excited about Standard Publishing”s potential. I”m challenged and pleased to work with my colleagues here. I believe the prophet”s mandate to lift high the truth of God”s Word is as crucial today as it was so many centuries ago. We see the evidence for this need all around us in our troubled world.

At Standard Publishing we will work as hard as we can to provide resources worthy of the task. And we look forward to joining hands with Christians around the world in a shared ministry of teaching the Bible and pointing people to Christ.


 

 

Matt Thibeau is president and chief executive officer of Standard Publishing.

Standard Publishing’s Web site is www.standardpub.com.

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