American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) announced the finalists for the 2014 Carol Awards at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in Atlanta. The Carol Awards honor the best in Christian fiction published the previous calendar year.

Cynthia Ruchti announced the finalists in 11 categories, from Debut Novel to Young Adult, at a press conference. Christian fiction pioneer editor Carol Johnson, for whom the award is named, was on hand to open the press conference.

The 2014 International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) convened for four days in Atlanta, June 22-25. Attendees this year—numbering slightly higher than last year (buyers rose by 2.4%)—praised ICRS for important discussions and networking opportunities.

The industry is seeing significant cultural shifts in consumer shopping habits and fluctuations in church attendance, especially among millennials, ages 18 to 33—a focus of this year’s show for Christian retailers and ministry leaders.

The Parable Group and its partner stores are honored to expand their ministry partnership with Lifewater International, a nonprofit Christian water development organization, as they work together to eliminate water-borne disease and inadequate access to water.

At Parable’s all-store banquet Saturday, June 21 in Atlanta, partner retailers heard from Justin Narducci, chief executive officer at Lifewater, and Drew Littlejohns, manager of strategic partnerships at Lifewater.

B&H Publishing Group has announced the company’s publishing plan for The Rainbow Study Bible, which was acquired in 2013 from Standard Publishing. Prior to the acquisition, B&H was a distribution partner with Standard and helped to sell over 3 million copies of the Bible since its creation in the 1980s.

Holman Bibles Publisher Jeremy Howard is honored to focus on The Rainbow Study Bible.

Retailers had an opportunity to learn how to expand their customer base, increase traffic and sales during the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) on Tuesday with the workshop “Attracting Hispanics to Your Store,” led by Fred Ichniowski, senior sales director, and Roberto Cortez, associate, both with My Healthy Church.

Cortez greeted the attendees in Spanish to help stress the importance of knowing your customer base, being able to communicate with them and the value of forging relationships with the Hispanic community.

Honesty, authenticity and relationship are the keys to bringing young people back to the church, a panel of millennials experts told pastors heard at the Mission & Community: Embracing the Kingdom Today workshop hosted by CBA and RBC Ministries to close out ICRS 2014 Wednesday in Atlanta. 

The four-hour session was designed to encourage church leaders to become more purposeful and engaging in their approach to the next generation.

Between 700 and 800 people attended a Tuesday, June 24, event that featured several authors of the popular Our Daily Bread devotional. Our Daily Bread is a publication of RBC Ministries, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and reaches millions of readers around the world. It is published in 55 languages.

Meet the Authors of Our Daily Bread (ODB), an event that has taken place in several locations around the United States, including the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in Atlanta, drew a portion of its audience from ICRS attendees and a larger portion from the public.