Andrews University will partner with other organizations to operate a small Adventist Book Shop in St. Louis, Missouri, as a service particularly for international delegates during the 61st Seventh-day Adventist General Conference Session, to be held June 6–11, according to Andrea Luxton, Andrews president.

Luxton said the primary purpose of Andrews’ participation in the book shop is to introduce the new Andrews Bible Commentary to the world church. The two-volume concise Commentary has been a ten-year project commissioned and funded by the General Conference and Andrews University, involving more than 60 biblical scholars from around the world.

“This commentary project marks a huge event in Adventist publishing history,” Luxton said. “It was conceptualized specifically to be a concise, two-volume work where the scholars of the church produce a truly accessible commentary for the people of the church. And they did all that work under the expert guidance of general editor Angel Rodriguez, former director of the General Conference Biblical Research Institute.”

Luxton said the small book shop will be located in the Hampton Inn at 333 Washington Street, an easy, six-minute, two-block walk from the America’s Center Convention Complex, where the GC Session business will be held.

“There will be hundreds of delegates and their guests at the GC Session. With today’s huge challenges in supply chains and international shipping, it is extremely difficult to get books efficiently and inexpensively to other places. This little book shop, just around the corner from the session hall, will be the place where delegates and their families can purchase the Andrews Bible Commentary and other books for themselves and for others back home,” Luxton said. “Andrews University, as the church’s flagship education institution, has an obligation to use every reasonable opportunity to make the commentary, and these other important works, accessible to other parts of the world.”

Besides the Andrews Bible Commentary, other books from Andrews University Press will be available, according to Stephen Payne, university spokesperson and assistant to the president for university and public affairs.

“Andrews University Press is the primary academic publishing house to serve the world church,” Payne said. He noted that Andrews has operated the press for more than 50 years, publishing the works of major church thinkers and writers, including Gerhard Hasel, George Knight, Normal Gulley, Ranko Stefanovic, Calvin Rock, and many others.

Payne said other organizations and business partners featuring books in the shop will include the General Conference Biblical Research Institute, publisher of Richard Davidson’s new Song for the Sanctuary; Types & Symbols, a private publisher of high-quality editions of The Conflict Beautiful, Ellen White’s Conflict of the Ages series and the Light and Life collection, which includes Steps to Christ, Christ’s Object Lessons, and Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings; and Pacific Press Publishing Association, which will offer a selection of key titles, including a major new release, The Three Angels’ Messages, a compilation of Ellen White’s writings on that foundational Adventist topic.

Payne noted this year’s General Conference Session will be the first one in decades that does not include a huge exhibit hall where various church organizations profile their work. “The world response to the global pandemic required a different approach to doing church business at a session,” Payne said. “Andrews understands and supports the Session Management decision not to have an exhibit hall for this session, and we are major sponsors of the General Conference online Virtual Exhibit Hall. At the same time, a bookstore is not an exhibit. It is a vital service to the church. The twin engines of our movement, under the Holy Spirit, are preaching and books, and when [a] large number of Adventists from around the world are gathered in one place, they expect to be able to take home the best books the church has.”

The Adventist Book Shop will be open Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5–9 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Saturday, June 11, 9–11 p.m.

More information about the sponsors of the book shop is as follows: Andrews University Press at universitypress.andrews.edu; Types & Symbols at typesandsymbols.com; Biblical Research Institute at adventistbiblicalresearch.org; and Pacific Press Publishing Association at pacificpress.com/.

The original version of this story was posted on the Andrews University news site.