Win, Disciple and Send...
by Dan Wooding
April 10, 2007
SAN DIEGO, CA (ANS) -- A vision that began some thirty years ago for Southern California pastor and evangelist, Mike MacIntosh, has been fulfilled after the San Diego church, Horizon Christian Fellowship, recently purchased the publishing and distribution rights to Loizeaux Brothers list of publications.This includes the publishing rights to Bible teachers and pastors such as H.A. Ironside, Lehman Strauss, Alexander Hislop, and C.H. Mackintosh.
"We are humbled and thrilled to have the task of keeping these great men of the faith in print and available for students of the Bible everywhere," said Mike MacIntosh. "We are honored that the faithful people of Loizeaux Brothers have entrusted these volumes into our care and we will do our best to be faithful stewards of these wonderful works. These are deep spiritual authors who have penned truth like no others. It will bring a revival to many that have never read these Godly men."
MacIntosh explained why these titles are important. "The modern church is lacking good solid Bible teaching and Loizeaux Brothers published so many great volumes that, at its root, honored the inerrant and inspired Word of God. The body of Christ is heaping unto itself teachers, having itching ears. The Christian is being told that cliche and method is the truth. Jesus Christ is the Truth and these books will help the Bible reader and student to unlock truths they have struggled with."
MacIntosh added, "We didn't buy the company and name - just the rights and the inventory. We are finding some real treasures in the archived volumes and we are now in the process of revitalizing them. Not only does our revitalization include reprinting great volumes, but we also plan to take many of the works and make them available to electronic publishers and distributors so that these great books and Bible studies can be fully searchable on your favorite Bible software platform."
Tom Phillips, the COO of Horizon Christian Fellowship, explained the importance of this acquisition.
"We believe the fit is perfect and are humbled that God would allow Horizon the opportunity to keep these volumes in print. The vision the Lord gave to Mike Macintosh over thirty years ago for the ministry of Horizon was Win, Disciple and Send," he said. "As we look at the Godly heritage of Loizeaux Brothers and we see the materials they have published over the years, we see Gospel Tracts and booklets (Win), solid Biblical commentaries and discipleship materials to help people grow (Disciple), and biographies of some great missionaries of the past (Send).
Lance Emma will oversee Horizon's publishing and distribution efforts. He spent eleven years managing Calvary Distribution (Costa Mesa, CA) and assisted churches in setting up book tables, book rooms, and book stores throughout the United States. In the eleven years there, Calvary Distribution saw over 700 book ministries begin and tens of thousands of people ministered to by the materials these ministries offered. Through Calvary's continued efforts to serve the Body, a publishing ministry began that republished such classic authors as F.B. Meyer, J. Oswald Sanders, Donald Barnhouse, and Alan Redpath.
"From the early days of my walk with Lord," Emma explains, "I used the Ironside and Gaebelein commentaries to help me understand the Scriptures and it was the C.H. Mackintosh book on the Pentateuch that made those Old Testament books come alive for me; all of the those books were Loizeaux titles."
"Through attending the Christian Booksellers Association conventions through the years, I developed a strong appreciation and admiration for the ministry of Loizeaux Brothers," Emma continued. "Eventually, Loizeaux was not at these CBA conventions and I learned of their financial struggles. In my heart, I thought this was a sad day for the Christian Publishing industry because there was no longer a strong demand for these classic works, many of which our pastors of today studied and learned from.
"I prayed that these works would not just go away, but that a demand would develop and that God's people would develop a hunger and thirst for these solid works."
Here is some background on four of the authors Horizon will be re-publishing:
H.A. Ironside was born on 1876 in Toronto, Canada to John and Sophia Ironside, who were both active in the Plymouth Brethren. At birth, Harry was thought to be dead, so the attending nurses focused their attention on Sophia, who was dangerously ill. Only when a pulse was detected in Harry, 40 minutes later, was an attempt made to resuscitate the infant. When Harry was just two years old, his father, John, died of typhoid at the age of 27.
After having moved to Los Angeles, CA, Harry decided to start his own Sunday school class at age 11. Gathering old burlap bags, Harry and his childhood friends sewed them together, producing a burlap tent that could accommodate up to 100 people. Unable to find an adult teacher, Ironside himself did the teaching, with attendance averaging 60 children - and a few adults - each week.
In 1888 well-known evangelist Dwight L. Moody preached at a campaign in Los Angeles. This inspired Ironside, who hoped to also be able to preach to such crowds one day. During the days, young Ironside worked full-time at a photography studio, and at night he preached at Salvation Army meetings, becoming known as the 'boy preacher.' At age 16, he left the photography business and became a preacher full-time with the Salvation Army. Commissioned a Lieutenant in the Salvation Army, Ironside was soon preaching over 500 sermons a year around Southern California.
At the age of 20, he moved to San Francisco, becoming associated with the Plymouth Brethren, and at 33, Ironside began writing and publishing several Bible commentary pamphlets. In 1914, he rented a storefront and established the Western Book and Tract Company, which operated successfully until the depression in the late 1920s. From 1916 to 1929, Ironside preached almost 7,000 sermons to over 1.25 million listeners.
After a series of sermons presented at the Moody Church in Chicago, IL, he was invited to a one-year trial as head pastor there in 1929. Almost every Sunday that he preached there, the 4,000-seat church was filled to capacity. Ironside preached the 1935 funeral of Billy Sunday at Moody Church. In 1942, he became president of the missionary organization, Africa Inland Mission.
After 18 years as pastor of The Moody Church, Ironside resigned and retired to Winona Lake, Indiana. H.A. Ironside has authored more than 60 volumes including a comprehensive 30-vomue commentary series. Dr. Ironside passed away in 1951 and was buried in Auckland, New Zealand.
Charles Henry Mackintosh was born on October 1820, in Ireland. Mackintosh was converted at 18 through the letters of a devout sister and the prayerful reading of J. N. Darby's, Operations of the Spirit. By the age of 25, he concluded he must give himself entirely to the ministry of the Word of God, in writing and in public speaking. Soon thereafter he felt led to establish a periodical, Things New and Old, which he continued to edit for 21 years.
Mr. Mackintosh's fame rests primarily upon the work, Notes on the Pentateuch, beginning with a volume of 334 pages on Genesis, and concluding with a two-volume work on Deuteronomy extending to over 800 pages. He took a great interest in, and actively participated in, the great revival of 1859 and 1860. He died on November 2, 1896.
Lehman Strauss was a well known Bible teacher on the weekly broadcast, "Bible Study Time." Strauss taught Old Testament history for eight years at, then called, Philadelphia Bible Institute, and served as pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church, Bristol, Pennsylvania, from 1939 to 1957. He was pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church (Highland Park, Michigan) until the end of 1963 when he resigned to devote full time to an itinerant Bible conference work. He was residing in Florida and writing his 19th book at age 86 when he went home to be with Christ in June 1997.
Arno Gaebelein was born in Germany in 1861 and emigrated to the U.S in 1879, settling in Lawrence, Massachusetts, working at a local mill.
He began attending worship at a local German Methodist church, and was soon hired by the Methodist church in New York City as an assistant pastor. Through his time as a pastor in the Northwest region of the U.S., it was apparent that Arno developed a passion for the original languages of the Old Testament. He devoted much if his life to studying Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Arabic.
After the tragic death of Arno's infant daughter, Arno began to devote his life to evangelism and missions. Because of Arno's love for the Old Testament, he began to look for evangelistic opportunities among the Jewish immigrants. In 1893, Gaebelein started a publication entitled, The Hope of Israel Monthly. This gave him an opportunity like none other to speak around the world and to offer evangelistic and social services to the Jewish communities all around the United States, Russia, and Europe.
"We count it an honor and privilege to be allowed to carry on the amazing heritage of the Loizeaux legacy," says pastor Mike MacIntosh.
© 2007 ASSIST News Service, used with permission.
