A Conversation with Helen Cockburn: Green Pastures and the Ministry of Reading
Recently, I (John Raspin) sat down with Helen Cockburn, who manages the Christian bookshop Green Pastures (Dereham, Norfolk), to talk about the importance of engaging with good literature.
Now, I understand that some folks – for various reasons – genuinely struggle with reading, and if that’s you, then I want to say from the get-go that this conversation is not intended to dishearten anyone. It aims to encourage people to not give up on reading, even if the task requires discipline and perseverance.
Many folks from within the Relational Mission family will have met Helen at the UK More Together Festival, where she runs the book stall, providing us with some of the latest and greatest works of Christian thought, not to mention a stack load of Bibles. As UK churches prepares to gather for More Together Festival 2026, we can once again look forward to Green Pastures' presence. They will, of course, be selling their wares, but Helen also wants to encourage people to see the book stall as a space for conversation and prayer. A bookshop, Helen suggests, is an environment characterised by healthy, theological curiosity that helps form us as disciples.
We start the conversation by reflecting on the causes of what is now often described as our post-literary society, before discussing the discipline of reading, the broader ministry of Green Pastures, and the books she would most warmly commend to those seeking to go deeper in their discipleship to Jesus.
Q: Do you think our culture has devalued the reading of books?
Helen: Well, yes. Lots of people don’t read books anymore. Our culture absolutely celebrates sound bites and mini clips. One unrelated fragment of information to another. And that, we know, is largely due to the internet. Its nature is immediacy. It places tremendous value on constantly pumping out vast amounts of new content, endlessly feeding people with pithy pieces of information. But the danger, I suppose, is that much of it lacks depth. Much of it can be extremely uncharitable, even divisive. Sadly, the internet is rarely a neutral space.
Q: Do you think reading books can help with that problem?
Helen: Oh, yes! Books battle surface-level information with a deep dive into a subject. They are the products of deep thought. This is why we really need to encourage people to come back to books, to rest in what someone is saying, not just for a few minutes, seconds, or even hours, but through the course of a week, a month, a year. So much of reading is about returning, regularly coming back and working through an argument chapter by chapter, following it through to its conclusion.
Q: Why do you think it is important for Christians to remain readers?
Helen: If we’re not careful, we're going to end up with this sort of fluffy, frilly Christianity that doesn't require much of anything from us. When I think of the good books that I've read, I think of being challenged and motivated to take my Christian walk seriously.
There was this woman who used to come into Green Pastures. She was so convinced that all she needed to read was the Bible, nothing else. After a while, she eventually realised that her position was a bit misguided. She eventually learnt that the truth of Scripture can be more effectively understood by engaging with different perspectives. It’s not so much about entertaining the people who disagree with you, although that is important, as about letting people reveal things that you might have missed.
It takes different people, different experiences, different eyes to arrive at the truth of a matter. We have to be taught. We need to be taught. My Christian life has been so impacted by the Christian books that I've read. So totally impacted by that.
Q: What would you say to people who want to become more intentional readers?
Helen: I’ll say something that’s based on my own experience. Years and years ago, I decided that I wanted to fight for the discipline of reading. It just felt really important. So, I made a plan. I was going to go into my living room in the afternoon – not in the late evening when it’s so easy to fall asleep – armed with a notepad and highlighters, pens, and my books, and I was gonna read for half an hour. I thought this was going to be a big test of discipline. That was an absolute lie. I loved it! And now, that's what I do every night. I read for hours. And my husband's joined in. And we just sit, we read. And that's our time together. It's really lovely.
Q: How can reading shape the shared life of the church?
Helen: I was a Christian about 40 years ago, and I can remember when the elder or the minister would hold up a book and exhort people to read together. And people were doing it and being formed together under the kind of leadership that prized good books.
We then slipped into a period when that kind of thing became quite rare. Nowadays, it feels like the world is all watching, listening, and reading different things. A lack of curation won't help our unity. But if we're reading something together, collectively, that does something special. And I think there is a renewed move in the church for people to get on board with this again. I've noticed it.
Last year, we [Green Pastures] gave out about 150 books for free just to get a church reading together. If that kind of thing interests you, we can get books in quantity, and we do a really good deal. Get in touch!
Q: How did you get involved with Green Pastures?
Helen: Oh, well, that is a work of God, from beginning to end. It happened about six or seven years ago.
After a few decades of teaching primary school, I reached the end of the summer holidays and realised I couldn’t keep going in my career. I remember walking down into town [Dereham] and saying to God, ‘I can’t do this anymore. Lord, you’ve got to help me here. Provide. Lord, you're my God, the Provider. Provide something.’
I ended up in Green Pastures, and the moment I walked through the door, the manager (Irena Humphrey) looked at me and said: ‘Helen, how are things?’ Well, I couldn’t hold any of it back. I blurted out everything: how I was struggling with my job and desperately wanted a change of direction. Irena then looked at me and said, ‘Helen, that's interesting, because before you walked in, we were praying for the right person to come and join the team and take a job share. We've got two and a half days to offer. Would you be interested?’
I walked straight into it. The timing was incredible. In a moment, I went from teaching to retail. You know, God does this kind of thing in our weakness, doesn't He? He lifts us up out of one situation and places us where He wants us. I had to walk by faith, knowing that the world of bookselling was new to me, but He's just guided me through it all. It's been an amazing, beautiful journey.
Q: What do you think a Christian bookshop can offer that is harder to find elsewhere?
Helen: We get people of all shapes, sizes, ages, and everything you can imagine. People who are not treated with respect elsewhere know that they can come to Green Pastures and find a place where they will receive a smile, be loved, and cared for.
We certainly prioritise offering pastoral support and care to the community, but we also have people who just come in to talk theology. We really do get into all sorts of incredible conversations.
We also have times of ministry and prayer. A lot of people who come in are just at their wit's end. They walk in feeling pretty hopeless and helpless. These folks don't necessarily need good book recommendations. So we offer to pray, to sit and listen, to spend time with them. We always put being with people and praying for people first. That expression of community comes first. I think it’s what Jesus did.
Q: At More Together Festival (UK), do you want people to think of the bookstore as a ministry space?
Helen: Definitely. When I come away from More Together, I'm on an absolute high. It's the conversations, the connections, the relationships you make with people. I love talking things over and bouncing ideas off other believers, and, of course, I love knowing that someone might go away with a book that will keep teaching them through the coming days and months.
I'm in the shop at 8 in the morning, and I leave at 10 in the evening. I do go to the big evening event, but other than that, I'm in the bookshop. It’s totally exhausting, but I’d love for everyone to come and say ‘hi’.
Q: As Green Pastures prepares for More Together, how do you decide which books to bring?
Helen: I can't say I'm Newfrontiers born and bred, but I'm fully immersed in Relational Mission. I love the people who lead us: the apostles and our local church leaders. I'm very proud of RM’s work, and I’m especially thankful for the superb teaching I’ve received over the years. I’m saying that because it has an impact on the kinds of books that I sell. While it’s not an exclusive thing, I am attracted to the RM flavour of theology.
I'm looking for things that are biblically sound and embrace the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We want to encourage people into the depths of God’s heart, to tackle challenging ideas, to pursue deep devotion, and to embrace robust theology. I want people to read the kind of teaching that will move them toward corporate unity – not just teaching that speaks to ‘me, myself, and I,’ but teaching that draws us into something beyond ourselves. I want good doctrine and books that will take us back to what Scripture says. That’s the kind of thing that I'm looking for, and that’s what we’ll be bringing to More Together.
Q: Are there any books you would especially recommend?
Helen: I'd encourage people to look for things that aren't just new out. Look for things that have withstood the rigours of time, that have been tested and are still there. If there's one book that I would want people to read, it's Holiness by J.C. Ryle! What a toughie! It was published in 1877, but it's accessible because Ryle was writing to parishioners, farmers and labourers. It certainly knocks you about – in a good way. It slaps you around the face a few times. It wakes you up, shakes you up, and makes you think: crikey, this Christian life needs to be lived. We can’t be passive. We actually need to walk with Jesus. I've got a little quote here that I’ll read:
I have no desire to make an idol of holiness. I do not wish to dethrone Christ, and put holiness in His place. But I must candidly say, I wish sanctification was more thought of in this day than it seems to be, and I therefore take occasion to press the subject on all believers into whose hands these pages may fall.
Works like Holiness are so important to me because my whole body veers toward the fleshy, easy, comfortable way of living. I know our culture doesn't like the idea of obedience, but that book made me contemplate and take the process of sanctification seriously. It made me face up to it, and helped me to walk into it, and now I feel much better equipped to steer myself back toward God and all that He has for me.
I’ve also recently read and would highly recommend Stef Liston's Avoiding the Hall of Mirrors. It’s just phenomenal. So good. A masterclass on spiritual warfare. And I'm also reading From the Inside Out, by Mike Betts. Mike is wonderful at reiterating foundational truths to the soul. His book brings the fundamental truths of Christianity to the surface again.
Q: Can people support Green Pastures by buying books online?
Helen: There is this wonderful resource, bookshop.org, that fights on behalf of independent bookshops like us. They operate like Amazon, but they give the profits back to the bookshops. And it's not a small profit: we get 30% for every book sold if you select us as your chosen bookshop.
Helen Cockburn
Helen lives in Dereham with her husband, where they attend Wellspring Family Church. They have two children (now grown up), called Jim and John. Aside from reading, Helen loves cats and enjoys gardening.