Koorong
Encyclopedia
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
bookstore chain operating across Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It is one of the two largest retailers of Christian books and media in Australia, along with Word
Word (bookstore)
The Word bookstore is a chain of nineteen Christian bookstores in Australia, plus telephone, internet and mail order. Word is the second-largest Australian Christian book seller after Koorong....
book store chain.
History
Koorong is a family-owned company that began over 30 years ago in MarsfieldMarsfield, New South Wales
Marsfield is a suburb on the Northern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Marsfield is located 16 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Ryde.-History:...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, in the garage of the Koorong Street home of Bruce and Olive Bootes, a Reformed baptist
Reformed Baptist
Reformed Baptists are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology. They can trace their history through the early modern Particular Baptists of England. The first Reformed Baptist church was formed in the 1630s...
pastor and his wife. In 1978, their son, Paul began the management of his family’s bookshop business. Koorong opened their first Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
store in Ryedale Road, West Ryde
West Ryde, New South Wales
West Ryde is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. West Ryde is located 16 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Ryde and is part of the Northern Suburbs area....
in 1978, moving to larger premises in West Parade, West Ryde in 1995. In August 2005, Koorong took over the three Church Army
Church Army
Church Army is an evangelistic Church of England organisation operating in many parts of the Anglican Communion.-History:Church Army was founded in England in 1882 by the Revd Wilson Carlile , who banded together in an orderly army of soldiers, officers, and a few working men and women, whom he and...
bookstores at Newcastle, Tamworth and Gosford.
Koorong now operates 18 stores across Australia, including Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
and Launceston
Launceston, Tasmania
Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...
, with approximately 400 staff, Australia-wide and a brochure mailing list of about 120,000. Koorong was described in 1994 as theologically conservative in terms of the books it sold, which was consistent with its Reformed baptist
Reformed Baptist
Reformed Baptists are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology. They can trace their history through the early modern Particular Baptists of England. The first Reformed Baptist church was formed in the 1630s...
roots. Since that time, its product range has grown and widened to the point that it sells books ranging from Banner of Truth titles by Iain Murray
Iain Murray
Iain Hamish Murray was educated in the Isle of Man and at the University of Durham. He entered the Christian ministry in 1955. He served as assistant to Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel and subsequently at Grove Chapel, London and St. Giles Presbyterian Church, Sydney, Australia,...
and a variety of Matthias Media
Matthias Media
Matthias Media is an award winning Australian evangelical Christian publisher. The business grew out of the ministry of Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne at St Matthias, Centennial Park, Sydney under the name St Matthias Press and Tapes. Many resources now published by Matthias Media were developed as...
titles to titles by well-known Pentecostal
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
pastor Brian Houston
Brian Houston (pastor)
Brian Houston is a pastor in the Australian Christian Churches. He is currently the Senior Pastor at Hillsong Church which has locations in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, London, Cape Town, Kiev, Germany, Paris, Moscow, Stockholm and New York City. He was also the National President of Australian...
, faith-healing televangelist Benny Hinn
Benny Hinn
Toufik Benedictus "Benny" Hinn הין; born December 3, 1952) is a televangelist, best known for his regular "Miracle Crusades" – revival meeting/faith healing summits that are usually held in large stadiums in major cities, which are later broadcast worldwide on his television program, This Is Your...
and Prosperity Doctrine
Prosperity theology
Prosperity theology or gospel is a Christian religious belief whose proponents claim the Bible teaches that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians. Most teachers of prosperity theology maintain that a combination of faith, positive speech, and donations to Christian ministries will...
advocate Kenneth Hagin, as well as a number of dietary books. It has been asserted that most of the titles found at Koorong (and Word
Word (bookstore)
The Word bookstore is a chain of nineteen Christian bookstores in Australia, plus telephone, internet and mail order. Word is the second-largest Australian Christian book seller after Koorong....
) nowadays are by American authors.
In December 2009 Koorong purchased UK based book publisher Authentic Media and 8 of the Wesley Owen retail outlets from IBS-STL
Send the Light
Send the Light was a British Christian book distributor which had absorbed other Christian publishers and bookshops, and eventually merged with the International Bible Society to become one of the largest non-profit book distributors in the world under the title of IBS-STL Global, now known as...
.