The "paradox" of Christian publishing worldwide was spotlighted by Christian Trade Association International (CTAI) Chairman PLN Murthy as he reported on the group's work to more than 300 overseas guests at its annual International Vision Celebration yesterday.

While most Christian publishing occurs in the Western world, where there are an estimated 200 million professing Christians, the number of believers in the East is four times larger, he said.

"In the Global West, we have huge warehouses that are full of books, and (we are) chasing the customers at astronomical advertising costs, whereas in the Global East, there are empty warehouses, no books and customers are chasing the books," he said.

In a reception room displaying the flags of CTAI's 19 member nations, Murthy welcomed representatives of the two latest countries to join the organization, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Among those who gave brief reports of what was happening in their part of the world was Rob Tucker, president of ZDL Publishing in China, who said that the country represented one of the fastest-growing markets for Christian books and would probably become the most important in the next 20 to 30 years.

Powell took up a special offering to help pay for 25 managers of Christian bookstores in mainland China-of which there are now around 160-to travel to Hong Kong later this year to be part of CTAI's Marketsquare Asia and benefit from the training available there.

Keynote speaker at the event was Rev. Joshua Choonmin Kang, pastor of 7,000-member Oriental Mission Church in Los Angeles. Known as "Korea's Max Lucado" in his homeland, Kang has written and co-authored 31 books that have sold more than 1.5 million copies.

He noted how books had played an important part in changing his life. Ultimately though, he said, his desire was to be "a man of one book," the Bible. "I want to be a master of the Bible," he said, "And I also want to be mastered by the Bible."

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