June 24, 2002

El Paso Spanish publishing house
seeks new niche in changing market
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___After almost a century of ministry with Southern Baptist missions, the Baptist Spanish Publishing House in El Paso has spent two years coping with major changes in funding and relationships.
___Today, the publishing house functions both as a ministry and a business.
___The Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board cut funding for the publishing house in 2000 as it switched its emphasis worldwide from institutional ministries to church-starting movements, explained Jorge Díaz, general director of Casa Bautista de Publicaciones, called "Casa" for short.
___Direct IMB funding dropped from $300,000 in 1999 to zero in 2000, Díaz said. Casa's overall budget stands at $3.5 million.
___Casa and IMB still maintain a "fraternal" relationship, and four IMB missionaries hold positions on Casa's 12-member board of trustees, Díaz said. Casa also seeks fraternal relationships with other Baptist bodies, including the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Such relationships mean there is "no obligation" between parties, he added.
___The IMB still does, however, own Casa's building and has one missionary couple on staff, Díaz said. A second missionary couple will arrive later this summer.
___The cutback by IMB forced changes at the publishing house, which was launched by Southern Baptist missionary Edgar Davis in 1905. Casa used to produce 50 to 70 new "titles" each year. It now releases about 40.
___The number of employees has dropped from 132 to 52. Not all the staff reduction, however, was due to the IMB's change, Díaz said. Some of it was related to technological changes and to a decision to contract work with outside vendors.
___In the wake of the changes, Casa's business is growing. While the publishing industry as a whole grew about 6 percent, Casa's sales increased about 3 percent last year, Díaz said.
___The Texas-based publisher used to serve primarily Latin America. Today, 50 percent of Casa's business is in the United States. In Texas alone, Casa has seven distributors and serves 198 book stores, 884 churches, 87 seminaries and schools, and 494 pastors and other leaders, said Miryam Díaz, Casa's marketing director.
___"Texas is one of the states we plan to work and spend more resources in this year," she said. California and Florida figure prominently in their plans as well.
___Twenty-three LifeWay bookstores in Texas carry Casa products, which usually bear the name of the publishing house's other identity, Editorial Mundo Hispano (Hispanic World Publishers). Those bookstores are part of LifeWay Christian Resources, the official publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention based in Nashville, Tenn.
___The relationship between Casa and LifeWay has been changing . At one time, Casa sold only outside the United States, and the Baptist Sunday School Board (LifeWay's predecessor) sold Spanish-language products only inside the United States, said Jim Cook, who is in charge of sales and licenses for LifeWay International in Nashville.
___About 15 years ago, the two entities agreed for the Sunday School Board to represent Casa's products in the U.S. and vice versa outside the country, Cook said.
___In the late 1980s, that arrangement ended, and there was a "mutual understanding (Casa) would sell their products anywhere" and the Sunday School Board would do the same.
___Then, four years ago, LifeWay International was created to sell discipleship materials outside the United States, Cook said. Those offerings included dated and undated Bible study and discipleship products.
___That meant for the first time, Casa began facing direct competition from a Southern Baptist publisher in international markets.
___"The dated Sunday School curriculum is where we are directly competing with them," LifeWay's Cook said.
___Casa's Jorge Díaz sees the competition as broader than that, however, noting it extends to Bibles, books and discipleship materials.
___The IMB and LifeWay have collaborated in recent years to appoint missionaries who represent LifeWay products in Spanish-speaking countrie.
___"This alliance between IMB and LifeWay has a negative impact on (the Baptist Spanish Publishing House) because they make decisions and don't take consideration for what (we're) doing for a long time in Latin America," Díaz said. "These are strong words, but this is how I feel, because I feel IMB and LifeWay are partners against us. ... I feel like they're trying to get rid of" the El Paso publishing house.
___However, the presence of IMB missionaries on the publishing house's board is positive, Miryam Díaz said. "They know the field. ... It brings to Casa information that it would be almost impossible to receive."
___Meanwhile, Jorge Díaz said he believes it is possible for the publishing house and LifeWay to work together "if they can open the door for dialogue and we can do some things together. And we are ready to do so."
___Miryam Díaz said LifeWay is "very open, but we have not reached an agreement as to how we are going to work together."
___LifeWay's Cook said: "I think they still want to succeed, and so do we. ... It's a good relationship. ... I don't view it as working against them at all."
___In the midst of its efforts to reshape itself, the Baptist Spanish Publishing House is still an "institution with a missions mind," Díaz said. Casa is "doing missions" via the printed page, seeking to reach the unreached and help in discipleship.
___Its products are now sold in 60 countries, many where Spanish is not the primary language but where Spanish-speaking congregations exist.
___In only its second year after the IMB cut funding, Casa's finances were in the black in 2001. That, said Miryam Díaz, is a "very quick recovery."

Get printer-friendly version of this story


Send this story to a friend



News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook