When Christians hear “Grand Rapids,” they think Zondervan or Radio Bible Class or Children’s Bible Hour. But where was the first Zondervan book typeset? And where did M. R. DeHaan bring his early manuscripts to be checked before airing them? Who first produced a Bible course for The Wordless Book in Arabic? The Reason Why in Korean? God’s Way of Salvation in Spanish? A bilingual hymnbook in Songo and Portuguese? The answer is Gospel Folio Press.
When visiting assemblies of believers throughout North America, in fact around the world, it’s almost inevitable to meet those familiar with Gospel Folio Press and the Pell family of Grand Rapids, MI. Usually anyone who has spent time there smiles and quips, “Gospel Folio Press is like heaven…there’s no night there!” In a way, they’re right.
Now in it’s 75th year of service, GFP has a rich heritage of men and women who dedicated their lives to the ministry, not counting “overtime,” which usually stretched into the morning hours, or the sacrifices that were made so naturally that they hardly seemed to notice. It was a lifetime of investing in eternity.
The teenage son of a wallpaper hanger, William J. Pell hand-lettered gospel tracts on the back of scraps of wallpaper, then distributed them in the surrounding communities. By the time he and his brother Peter were in their late teens and early twenties, they were already busy conducting cottage meetings, Bible studies, and preaching on street corners.
The Pell brothers worked together their whole lives. Peter expounded the Word to believers and Will followed in the gospel or a word of stirring exhortation. He is remembered by many for his devotional messages. The brothers were especially well-known for their series with a model of the tabernacle.
In 1922, Bill Vanprooyen, a local businessman, helped Will acquire a $25 hand press and he set it up in the parlor of his mother’s home. Soon after, Mr. Vanprooyen got a distressed phone call from Will, saying, “Where are the letters?” Laughing, Mr. Vanprooyen explained that a printing press is much more than a glorified typewriter. He came over to show Will how to use it, arriving with a case of metal type. With these they set John 3:16, printing it on a small card–GFP’s first publication (see p. 12).
Shortly after the new press was purchased, Leonard Sheldrake asked Will to print his monthly gospel paper, Words of Peace. Mr. Sheldrake wrote: “If you feel you could handle the printing of Words of Peace and the will of God were so, we could yoke together in this service for His Name. The time is short. Soon our Lord will come. How much I have lost by lack of devotion to Him. Oh, that He might work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
With a regular publication, it was time to name the company. Will knew he would always use his press to print the gospel, and since he figured he would never print more than literature with one fold (a “folio” is a piece of paper folded once), he chose “Gospel Folio Press.”
After three-quarters of a century, Words of Peace continues to be printed at GFP by Prospect Publications, with John Bjorlie as editor.
The Pell homestead is situated only a few miles from downtown Grand Rapids, but it is nestled in between two hills–a secluded haven from the bustle of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Pell, Sr., bought it from the Postema family on May 1, 1900. It was here that their ten children–four boys and six girls–were raised.
A second house had been previously built on the same property, only a few feet away, by one of Mr. Pell’s brothers. After about a year of using his mother’s parlor as a workshop, Will moved the press into the hand-dug basement next door. The house was occupied by relatives or friends of the Pell family until eventually the printing work took over. With two additions, it continues to operate there today.
The ministry soon became a vital part of the whole Pell family’s life, with everyone involved–from writing and editing material, to running and maintaining the machines, to providing meals and an open home to visitors and staff any time of the day or night.
Around 1925, GFP began printing Sunday School papers. Childhood Days was started in 1931, with Mervyn Paul as editor. At the Sunday School Teachers’ Conference held in May of 1931 at Toronto, the Lesson Manuals were born; J. R. Littleproud was editor until his death in 1941.
Besides Will, Grace, Lois and Peter Pell, the list is long of people who contributed to the Sunday School material. F. W. Schwartz, Nelson Brooks, James Gunn, John Robertson, Helen Shaw, John Small, Margie Johnson, John Walden, Ruth Mattice, Mabel Carter, and Ruth Sheldrake are some of those who worked for many years writing stories, doing illustrations, and outlining Bible lessons.
In 1972, when Lois Pell took over much of the responsibility for the Sunday School literature, she had a visit from John Boyd of Palos Hills, IL, who suggested she ask Neil Dougal and Boyd Nicholson, Sr., to help with the writing of the adult Bible lessons. They shared that ministry for twenty years.
For half a century, teaching material was mailed to Sunday Schools around the US and Canada every two weeks. “Paper Day” seemed to nip at the heels of the one before–no sooner were all the packages dropped off at the post office, than another deadline was looming, demanding that new materials be written, proofread, printed, packaged, labeled, and mailed.
In 1991, after more than twenty years of involvement with the press, J. B. Nicholson, Jr. accepted the responsibility as editor-in-chief for Gospel Folio Press and moved from Ontario to Grand Rapids to donate much of his time there. During the next five years, an undated modular Bible curriculum, Line Upon Line, was prepared. It offers teachers’ manuals, student workbooks, and take-home papers for the entire narrative portion of the Bible at four levels of learning–primary, intermediate, junior high, and advanced. The philosophy is that everyone in the Sunday School, from primary to adult, can be studying the same Bible lessons at their individual level.
A monthly ministry magazine, Look on the Fields, edited by Leonard Sheldrake and published by GFP, was begun in 1927. When Peter Pell became its editor a few years later, the name was changed to Uplook. The name was changed to Assembly Annals in 1933 by its next editor, Dr. H. A. Cameron. In 1968, the name reverted back to Uplook. In 1991, when J. B. Nicholson became editor, the format was enlarged from a small 5×8 size to its present look. At that time, there were about 800 names on the mailing list. Almost 10,000 copies of this issue will be sent throughout the US and Canada and to more than one hundred foreign countries. The magazine is also available on the internet.
In 1939, Will became exercised about a daily devotional calendar. In spite of discouraging remarks from some who said it wasn’t feasible in North America, the calendar (initially named The Remembrancer but soon changed to Choice Gleanings) was launched in 1940. It was decided to print 800 the first year. Will figured he had that many friends. “At least I can give that many away,” he said. The only daily devotional calendar on the market for many years, it quickly became the most popular item that the Press produced. Soon they were printing 44,000 calendars annually.
In later years, Will felt this to be his main ministry. Whenever he was away preaching, he loved to hunt through the library of his hosts, searching for fresh material.
Ann Pell, one of the sisters, ran the press until the mid-60’s when, battling cancer, she wasn’t able to work any longer. Tim Johnson came on as pressman at that time and worked along with Dave Pell, a nephew of the Pell sisters. Dave and Tim are still serving the Lord in the print shop today.
When the Lord took Ann home, her sister Ruth took responsibility for running the print shop. Today, at 82, she doesn’t run the machines or manage the mailing room anymore, but she still proofreads almost every piece of literature that goes out our doors. Tillie (who handled the accounting end of the press for many years) and Lois are retired from the day-to-day operation, but still provide sage advice and are both actively involved in the ministry of Rest Haven Homes.
Since Will Pell was more of a preacher and writer than a businessman, through the years he frequently turned to F. W. Schwartz of Detroit for business advice, as well as Mr. Vanprooyen (who was involved from the very beginning). Often Will and Mr. Schwartz would sit at the kitchen table with a box of graham crackers and a bottle of milk, talking the night away.
On March 30, 1972, Will was called to be with the Lord and almost exactly nine years later, his brother Peter also passed away. The responsibility of the work was left in the hands of their four sisters: Grace, Tillie, Ruth, and Lois. They carried on for a decade with the help of many, but in addition to their responsibilities for Rest Haven Homes and Grace’s failing health, it became almost impossible to carry on.
In 1991, a Board of Directors was formed for the running of Gospel Folio Press and it was reorganized as a non-profit corporation at that time. Now Gospel Folio Press is the book publishing division of Uplook Ministries, which also provides the Lord’s people with tracts, booklets, books, the distribution of dependable Christian literature from other publishers, a tape library, the Uplook magazine, the Modular Bible Lessons, as well as arranging book tables and our Rise Up & Build Bible conferences.
The past seven years have seen many structural changes in the building, technological changes in the equipment, and design and editorial changes in the products. A two-color press and a stitcher-collator-folder-trimmer were the first pieces of equipment purchased in ’91. Macintosh computers have replaced the Linotype and the manual cut-and-paste process. A color scanner has allowed us to include more graphics in our work. And just this year the purchase of an output-to-film device streamlined the process even more, bypassing the darkroom stage.
A toll-free 800 order number, computerized billing, a fax machine, e-mail, and a website were all unknown at GFP seven years ago. The Lord has been so good to us!
While books are flooding the Christian market, there is real concern by many as to the quality of the teaching found on the shelves of most Christian bookstores. A needed service to the Lord’s people is the distribution of selected books and products that Christians can trust. Along with the ten or so books per year published by GFP, a wider line from other trustworthy publishers is available through our mail order division. We are distributors for John Ritchie, Precious Seed, and Christian Year in North America. As well, we carefully choose other books to offer to you. This has been a service much appreciated by readers of quality Christian literature.
What of the future? Only the Lord really knows what lies ahead, but our desire is to increasingly provide sound biblical and Christ-honoring resources to the people of God. We are not primarily in the printing business; we are in the business of communicating the truth, by whatever means it can most effectively communicated.
We are deeply appreciative to the Lord’s people who have sacrificially and substantially invested in this ministry over the years–through prayer support, volunteer labor, providing quality material for publishing, and through financial resources that have helped us grow. We believe the Lord has raised up this ministry for such a time as this. There is so much left to be done. We need the prayers of the Lord’s people to know how to use the very limited resources we have at our disposal. And if it is His purpose, we need the Lord to open up the way to expand the ministry here, with larger facilities and improved equipment so that we can provide more good books, helpful teaching resources, a more comprehensive website, and other ministry to assist believers in their lives and labors for the Lord.