Cincinnati-based publisher plans to refocus on church resources as brand’s acquisition is called ‘a win for both companies’

Standard Publishing Group, a division of CFM Religion Publishing Group, has sold the Rainbow Study Bible brand to B&H Publishing Group. In a refocus on its core strengths, the Cincinnati-based curriculum publisher is also significantly refreshing its HeartShapers Sunday school curriculum.

“This is a win for both companies,” said CFM Publishing CEO and President Peter M. Esposito. “At Standard, we are aligning our focus to our core strengths, to be the leading provider of church resources, including adult and children’s curriculum and special programming like Vacation Bible School. B&H has expertise in Bible publishing, and this adds a best-seller to their existing portfolio.”

A best-selling Bible since 1995, the Rainbow Study Bible has sold more than a million copies. It features a color-coding system that allows readers to quickly and easily identify 12 major Scripture themes throughout the text: God, discipleship, love, faith, sin, evil, salvation, family, outreach, commandments, history and prophecy. The system also underlines all words directly spoken by God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Describing the B&H team as “thrilled” with the acquisition that was seen to strengthen its Holman Bible Publishers brand, B&H President Selma Wilson said: “We are intentionally grounded in God’s Word at B&H, so to officially add this powerful resource to our publishing program is exciting. We have a great history with the Spanish edition and have seen how this product speaks into peoples’ lives. B&H is grateful to our friends at Standard for their stewardship of this resource over the years, and we look forward to growing and managing the Rainbow Study Bible for many years to come.”

At press time, B&H said the company planned to sell Standard’s remaining English editions of the Rainbow Study Bible inventory to retail partners within 30 days. 

In summer 2014, B&H will introduce updated editions in English and Spanish translations. B&H has published the Reina-Valera Revision (RVR) edition in Spanish since 1996.

In another sign of the company’s refocus, Standard is embarking on a significant refresh to its HeartShapers toddler-to-preteen curriculum, the first major revision in nearly seven years. The program has six age-appropriate levels with teacher guides and student materials. New fall curriculum releases July 1.

“We’ve conducted some research and through significant work with children’s pastors, we’ve made the teacher guides much more user-friendly,” said Stephanie Woeste, vice president of marketing. “We’ve completely updated the artwork in the books, primarily focused on the student books, and it’s very exciting because we’ve used nationally recognized artists from books like National Geo Kids, Weekly Reader and things that folks recognize, so it has a contemporary look and feel.” 

One of the significant components of the refreshed program is the special-needs-friendly curriculum.

“Every quarter we publish a free, 15-page newsletter that has a couple components to it,” Woeste said. “First of all, there’s an inspirational component for leaders, but it’s also a way to easily adapt the lessons within the HeartShapers age levels to help include children of special needs in our classrooms. So, it really focuses on what are the sensory difficulties that children with special needs may have and how to overcome those with the activities and the lessons.” 

Additionally, teachers were asking for an editable teacher guide so they could make each lesson their own, allowing churches to customize the lessons. 

“We’ll be offering downloadable teacher guides in Word format that they can then make their touches to and distribute to their volunteers,” Woeste said.

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