How We Got Here

The history of Bristol House begins with the history of Good News. Disturbed by the theological leanings of official Methodist (not yet, United Methodist) Sunday school material, pastor Charles Keysor launched Good News magazine in 1967. The magazine helped start a movement of pastors and lay people committed to spiritual renewal in the denomination.

Good News first entry in the curriculum market was We Believe, confirmation material from an evangelical United Methodist perspective. We Believe, having undergone a number of revisions through the years is in its 32nd printing. More than a quarter of a million United Methodist young people have been prepared to join the church by studying We Believe with their pastors.

Good News leadership felt it was important to provide other resources for evangelicals in the church. Bristol Books was founded in 1987 by James S. Robb who was then editor of Good News magazine. Some of the early offerings included Basic United Methodist Beliefs (still in print), The Problem of Pluralism by Dr. Jerry Walls, On Thin Ice by Roy Howard Beck and Launch out Into the Deep by Mark Rutland.

For many years United Methodist evangelicals had expressed frustration over the state of official UM Sunday school material. They felt that there was not enough teaching about core doctrines such as the Virgin Birth, the Atonement, the need for personal salvation and sanctification. Much material, they felt, simply taught children to be kind to others and frequently offered adults a watered-down version of the faith, dismissing the miraculous and loath to mention the Holy Spirit. Good News had engaged in countless dialogues with curriculum officials in Nashville after carefully evaluating the official materials, but time after time their concerns were dismissed.

So our Good News/Bristol constituency began asking for an alternative to the official material and to the independent publishers such as David C. Cook and Gospel Light.

Good News/Bristol began negotiations with curriculum publishers to produce a special edition of curriculum. In 1989 an agreement was reached with Scripture Press, of Wheaton, Ill. Bristol editors would take the publishers core material and edit it to make it usable for United Methodists. Our free-lance editors became very aware of the nuances of theology, as they read every word of every level from toddler through adult of the quarterly curriculum. In the meantime, I [Sara] began work on a masters degree in Christian Education at Asbury Theological Seminary to better manage the process.

Bristol Bible Curriculum was launched in the spring of 1990, first offering material for the Fall Quarter. After Scripture Press was purchased by another company who wanted to take the material in a different direction, Bristol began pursuing other options. We reached an agreement with the Nazarene Publishing House in 1997 and the edited NPH material began selling in the summer of 1998. Bristol House editors (along with editors from other Wesleyan-Holiness denominations) serve on committees that develop the material as well as review and edit the basic product.

In the middle of all this, production and distribution of Bristol materials was putting a financial strain on Good News. In the spring of 1991, Bristol was purchased by a group of investors headed by Dr. John and Helen Rhea Stumbo of Fort Valley, Georgia, and renamed Bristol House, Ltd. Helen Rhea Stumbo, a former Good News Board chair, is a sixth-generation United Methodist. Both John and Helen Rhea have served as delegates to multiple General Conferences, as directors for the General Board of Global Ministries and as very active members at the conference and local church levels.

Bristol House moved from the Lexington, Kentucky area in 1993 to Anderson, Indiana. In May of 1994, I became chief operating officer. A life-long United Methodist, I am committed, along with the board of directors, to providing quality Wesleyan-Arminian material for evangelicals in the United Methodist Church.