Publisher Gets the Word Out to Kids

By BRENDA LOREE

Oct. 2, 1999 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

When asked if there is a guiding philosophy at Ventura’s Gospel Light Publications, Chairman Bill Greig II quoted the company’s founder, Henrietta Mears. In the 1930s, Mears had to resort to writing her Sunday school lessons at Hollywood Presbyterian Church because no other classroom materials were available anywhere else.

According to Greig, Mears used to say “the greatest sin in the world is to bore a child with the Bible.” With his son, Bill Greig III, who has taken over as president, Greig runs the house that focuses on publishing church school materials that are colorful, interactive and hold the interest of today’s child while also teaching practical applications of the Bible in everyday life. The materials are used in Sunday school or vacation Bible school classes.

A publishing house of any sort is rare in California--most general interest publishers are headquartered in New York City. Religious publishers tend to be clustered in Colorado Springs or around Nashville.

But Gospel Light Publications, headquartered in Ventura, bucks both trends.

Its 150 editors, designers, staff writers, illustrators and publicists, all based at the Knoll Drive corporate offices, manage to put out 30 new hardback titles each year, in addition to the mainstay product of age-appropriate Sunday school and Bible school materials, plus adult prayer group packages. Its main warehouse and printing facilities are in Cincinnati, more central for distribution, the Greigs said.

Gospel Light workbooks, textbooks, teachers’ manuals and videos are used in Christian churches through the English-speaking world.

The company contracts with its sister publisher, Gospel Literature International, which puts out Gospel Light religious school materials in another 100 languages, including Swahili, Arabic and Afrikaans. Victor and Lana Kazanin, artists from Russia who painted the icons at Holy Trinity Eastern Orthodox Church in Oxnard, recently illustrated a Gospel Light children’s Sunday school workbook printed in the Cyrillic alphabet.

The two Greigs, who are referred to by their employees as “Bill 2” and “Bill 3” publish what they call multidenominational materials--”for all Christian groups, even some Mormon churches,” said the younger Greig.

Although many of their titles can be found in general-interest bookstores, the elder Greig said the curriculum materials are usually sold or ordered through Christian bookstores worldwide, with most sales in the U.S.

The No. 1 hardback bestseller of Gospel Light Publications since its founding in 1933 is a Bible handbook that Mears wrote, called “What the Bible Is All About.” Four million have been sold, Greig said. Another hot seller under the Gospel Light imprint is the James Dobson paperback “Preparing for Adolescence,” which to date has sold over a million copies.

A typical Sunday school package aimed at, say, third- and fourth-graders might include a “Discover Activities” workbook with short stories taken from the Bible, such as “Elijah Depends on God,” the story of the prophet Elijah and the “evil” king Ahab. The grade-level, contemporary language text, adapted from the book of Kings, reads, “Ahab took to Baal worship like a fish to water.”

At the end of the story there is a moral: “Even when things go wrong, God cares for us.”

An assignment for children on the story of Elijah might be to look up the definition of “prophet” in the dictionary and write a newspaper headline for the story’s events.

A typical Gospel Light workbook shows illustrations of Asian, African American, Caucasian and Latino children on the cover and throughout the book.

“We’re very conscious that we’re a multiethnic society, and that’s why we illustrate all our children’s materials with pictures of all ethnic groups,” the younger Greig said.

Greig III also believes that religious publishing is a growth industry.

“There are always trends, but right now, at the end of the millennium, people are asking for answers to questions--there’s more interest in religion now than 20 years ago. I think it’s a reflection of people’s curiosity about the future,” he said.

Greig III added that people in America typically turn to religion in hard economic times. Despite today’s economy, though, there is still an unusual level of interest.

He also said that Gospel Light has no interest in the current politicization of religion in current events. “Politics aren’t part of our focus. We’re not called to public affairs. We believe the Bible has the answers,” Greig III said.

The father and son aren’t the only Greigs at Gospel Light. Greig III’s sister, Jane Greig, is the executive producer of the video division. His brother Gary, who teaches at a seminary on the East Coast, is a Gospel Light consultant, sister Kathy is a board member of the company, and their mother, Doris Greig, wife of Greig II, has written a Bible studies course called “Joy of Living.”

Although Gospel Light publishes an illustrated children’s Bible, it no longer produces the New American Standard Bible.

“We’ve found what we’re best at--focusing on curriculum for young people and contemporary books with a Christian theme,” Greig III said.