For King & Country received the Artist of the Year award from Australia’s national Christian music airplay chart, The Rock Across Australia (TRAA). This honor comes on the heels of the group’s winning New Artist of the Year at the 44th Annual GMA Dove Awards last October.

Kathleen Samuelson has joined the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild as the director of teaching and mentoring.

“Kathleen’s background in Christian publishing, in addition to great writing and leadership skills, will be valuable assets to our growing organization,” said Guild President Dave Sheets.

‘Receptive and supportive’ Christian retailers extend best-selling author’s writing and teaching ministry

Elizabeth George remembers the early years of her walk with Christ, a journey that began when she was 28. She’d been married eight years and a mom of five when she and her husband, Jim, accepted Christ.

One morning each week she would visit the Christian bookstore in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles. She’d wander the store looking at the new books, peering into the volumes that filled the shelves, opening and reading children’s books. 

“Those books really fed me,” said George in a recent interview with Christian Retailing. “As a new believer who had never bought a Bible, what would I have done without them? Then when I needed a study Bible, what would I have done if they hadn’t showed me just the right Bible to buy? It was truly like going to the well.”

Now Christian retailers are selling George’s books by the thousands, helping vault sales to nearly 8 million copies of her roughly 80 books. That number jumps to  8.2 million when combined with sales of books co-written with husband Jim George.

“If we didn’t have help from Christian retailing, we’d be in trouble,” said Elizabeth George. “My husband and I are teachers and writers, but we don’t know the first thing about the retail process. We have a Facebook page and blog and tweet, but that’s not the same as Christian retailers reaching out to people who are looking for our books.”

George’s first book, Loving God With All Your Mind, came out in 1995 and is still among her top 10 best-sellers. A Woman After God’s Own Heart, her third book published in the 1990s, is still her best-selling title. Her books have sold well over 1 million copies since 2011 alone, with her husband selling nearly 250,000 copies during that same period.

Elizabeth George’s books include A Wife After God’s Own Heart, Raising a Daughter After God’s Own Heart and Beautiful in God’s Eyes. She and Jim have written A Couple After God’s Own Heart, with his own books including A Man After God’s Own Heart, A Leader After God’s Own Heart, and A Husband After God’s Own Heart.

“Key CBA retailers and independent bookstores have been extremely receptive and supportive of Elizabeth and Jim for many years,” said Brad Moses, vice president of sales for Harvest House Publishers, the Georges’ publisher since the beginning. “The key has been the quality and integrity of the books. Elizabeth is trusted for expert and godly advice in all her work. The same holds true for Jim.”

Harvest House is releasing Elizabeth’s two new books in February: Beautiful in God’s Eyes for Young Women: Looking Good From the Inside Out, based on Proverbs 31, and a refreshed edition of A Woman’s Walk With God: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit. The original book has sold more than a quarter-million copies; the new edition includes a study guide and updated material.

Elizabeth George’s journey to best-selling status began by simply following God. Soon after Jim and Elizabeth’s conversion, Jim was in seminary and soon Elizabeth became a pastor’s wife. Then their church, Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif. (pastored by John MacArthur), started a women’s ministry. Elizabeth began teaching and creating study curriculum for women’s Bible studies, usually in 12-week segments. The church began recording her teachings on cassette tapes and bound the study materials in book form, making both available in the church bookstore.

Enter Harvest House Senior Editor Steve Miller. He and his wife had attended Grace Community before they moved to Oregon where Miller joined the editorial staff at Harvest House. During a return visit to the church at Thanksgiving in 1992, Miller purchased several cassettes of Elizabeth’s Bible studies. During Christmas that year, Miller met with the Georges to see if Elizabeth might consider writing books. Jim was serving on The Master’s Seminary staff.

“It was in that tiny, cramped office [at the seminary]—with prayer asking for God’s leading—that the first steps were taken toward Elizabeth’s writing ministry,” Miller said.

Elizabeth recalls that first meeting. 

“I was thinking, ‘No way, no how,’ but I’d read enough of Proverbs, so I just said, ‘No.’ But they suggested that we pray about it. Jim is a man of wisdom. He said, ‘I think this is a door only God can open, and I think you should step through it. This is a new way to minister to women,’ ” Elizabeth said.

Through her Bible studies and books, she has now touched millions and has branched out into books for teens and tweens. Among the most popular is A Young Woman After God’s Own Heart, released in 2003 for teen girls. She followed it with A Girl After God’s Own Heart for tweens and myriad other books for younger readers.

Miller, who has remained George’s editor through the years, credits her fervent love for God and His Word that impacts everything she writes. 

“Readers appreciate Elizabeth’s dedication to handling God’s Word carefully and her friendly writing style—she genuinely cares about her audience. She’s also earnest about keeping the message simple and clear,” Miller said. 

The Georges have remained dedicated to reaching out to churches and working with retailers to support local events, though Elizabeth will reduce her engagements in 2014. She and her husband enjoy their eight grandchildren, splitting their time between Washington state and Hawaii. 

They are currently working on a companion project: A Young Woman’s Guide to Discovering Her Bible and A Young Man’s Guide to Discovering His Bible, both to be released later this year. Elizabeth is also refreshing Life Management for Busy Women with new information and a study guide.

Christian retailers continue to play a key role in Elizabeth’s ministry.

“Through the years Elizabeth and Harvest House have received many letters from women whose lives were changed as a result of reading her books,” said Miller. “Every retailer who carries her books is a key link in making that possible, and we thank them for their role in extending her ministry. Given the many past books that readers will share with others and the future books yet to come, we expect God is going to continue doing great things.”

Big-box stores didn’t scare Central Florida’s Bob Campbell out of the market

While reading the Orlando Sentinel at the end of 2013, I came across an obituary of someone I didn’t know but whose life’s headline grabbed my attention. No doubt it would’ve drawn the eye of anyone committed to making it in retail.

The headline for Bob Campbell’s obituary read: “Flooring retailer held his own vs. big-box stores.” First of all, I was intrigued that such a statement would be what rises to the top when the paper’s staff writer considered the whole of Campbell’s life—not to say that competing as a small chain in a big-box world is not an accomplishment, as it surely is. It just made me wonder if Bob was all business.

I don’t know if Campbell was a man of faith or not, but his wife and longtime business partner, Nancy, at least hinted of the presence of a higher power in their business decisions.

“We put everything that we had and invested into the business,” she said. “We didn’t take out any loans. We started with a wing and a prayer, but we knew we could do it.”

The Campbells’ Creative Floors suffered some downsizing during the recession, but the owners made it their aim to compete with such giants as Home Depot and Lowe’s and to serve their customers well. Bob used to tell shoppers, “You know, we aren’t the cheapest game in town,” but he would be proud that the writer of his obituary honored him with the following statement:

“From the toe-engulfing plush carpets of the 1990s to the heel-clicking laminates of more recent times, Campbell’s small empire of flooring stores helped transform thousands of Orlando-area homes.”

And that’s certainly nothing to sneeze at. Kudos, Bob! Your life is an inspiration to smaller retailers in a big-box world.

Tyndale House Publishers supports best-selling author’s addressing of errors after radio host’s accusations

Nearly a month after he was first accused of plagiarism, Mark Driscoll apologized in a mid-December statement from his publisher, Tyndale House.

“Mistakes were made that I am grieved by and apologize for,” said the pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. “As a Bible teacher, I know that Jesus loves us and uses everything for good. I know He cares very much that we do things in a way that reflects His glory. As a result, I have been praying that He would help me learn through all of this to become more like Him and more effective for Him.”

Ron Beers, senior vice president and group publisher for Tyndale, said the company supports Driscoll.

“Because of the biblical manner in which Pastor Driscoll has handled this situation,” Beers said in the same statement, “Tyndale strongly stands behind him and looks forward to publishing many additional books with him. Tyndale believes that Mark Driscoll has provided a significant call to Christians to unite together in translating the message of Jesus faithfully to a post-Christian culture, to proclaim clearly, loudly and unashamedly the Good News of Jesus.”

On Nov. 21, syndicated Christian radio host Janet Mefferd interviewed Driscoll on “The Janet Mefferd Show” to promote his new book, A Call to Resurgence. Tyndale arranged the phone interview, during which Mefferd accused Driscoll of quoting Peter Jones without proper citation in the book.

But the accusations did not end there. Mefferd posted on her social media pages photocopied evidence that Driscoll borrowed material from D.A. Carson’s New Bible Commentary—word for word, without proper citation—in his book Trial 8: Witnesses From 1 & 2 Peter.

“Since that time, both Mark Driscoll and Tyndale House have been asked to make statements addressing this issue,” the book publisher said. “While Tyndale has made two brief statements, it has spent much of the past three weeks looking carefully into these claims, as has Pastor Driscoll. 

“Tyndale House and Mark Driscoll take any claims of plagiarism seriously. Tyndale does not condone it in any of its works, and if discovered, the company takes action to correct it immediately. Driscoll has consistently spoken out against plagiarism in his writing and publishing. If any mistakes are ever made in that regard, he is equally committed to correcting such errors as soon as they are discovered. Pastor Driscoll has fully cooperated with Tyndale and both have worked together to carefully investigate the issue with respect to A Call to Resurgence.”

The statement continued, “After taking the necessary and important time needed to investigate all aspects of this issue, Tyndale House Publishers has concluded the following:

“1. Pertaining to his Tyndale book, A Call to Resurgence, Tyndale believes that Mark Driscoll did indeed adequately cite the work of Peter Jones. While there are many nuanced definitions of plagiarism, most definitions agree that plagiarism is a writer’s deliberate use of someone’s words or ideas, and claiming them as their own with no intent to provide credit to the original source. Both Mark Driscoll and Tyndale completely agree that the above definition describes an ethical breach and therefore work hard to provide proper citation and to give credit where credit is due in all their works. Tyndale rejects the claims that Mark Driscoll tried to take Peter Jones’s ideas and claim them as his own. Moreover, at Pastor Driscoll’s invitation, Peter Jones has written on the Resurgence website, and spoken at a Resurgence event, as well as a Mars Hill workshop. Quite the opposite of trying to take Peter Jones’s ideas, Mark Driscoll has provided several opportunities for Peter Jones to publicly express his ideas to a large audience. 

“2. In a separate issue unrelated to any Tyndale title, the radio host also made an allegation with regard to a study guide that was published in-house at Mars Hill. In this instance, Pastor Driscoll agrees that errors were made. He says:

“ ‘In recent weeks, it was brought to my attention that our 2009 Trial study guide on 1 & 2 Peter contained passages from an existing work for which no proper citation to the original work was provided. The error was unintentional, but serious nonetheless. I take responsibility for all of this. In order to make things right, we’ve contacted the publisher of the works used in the study guide, offered an apology, and agreed to work with them to resolve any issues they had. Also, I personally contacted one of the editors of the work that was not rightly attributed. Thankfully, he and I have a longstanding relationship, which includes him teaching at Mars Hill and publishing a book with us through Resurgence. He’s a godly man who has been very gracious through all of this. I am deeply thankful for his acceptance of my apology, as I deeply grieve this mistake with a brother in Christ whom I appreciate very much.

“ ‘Our Full Council of Elders and Board of Advisors and Accountability have all been thoroughly informed, as I am gladly under authority both internally at Mars Hill to a team of Elders, and to a formal leadership team from outside of Mars Hill.’ ”

Beers credited Driscoll for making changes in the guide and for speaking with the editor of a commentary that was used without adequate citation.

‘Duck Dynasty’ patriarch’s remarks on homosexuality stir controversy, rouse supporters

Howard Books and New Day Christian Distributors reported strong sales at Christian retail at Christmastime, spurred on at least in part by Phil Robertson’s controversial January interview in GQ magazine. 

The patriarch of the Duck Commander clan famous for A&E’s hit series Duck Dynasty, Robertson spoke against homosexual behavior as well as other sexual immorality, greed, idolatry and more. The interview landed him in hot water with the network, which suspended him from the show “indefinitely,” though A&E later reversed its decision.

Howard Books, publisher of Robertson’s Happy, Happy, Happy and a number of other books from the family, has seen an upward trend in sales.

“At BookScan, sales were up 80% week over week,” said Jonathan Merkh, vice president and publisher at Howard Books, told Christian Retailing. “They were also up at LifeWay.”

New Day Christian Distributors also reported healthy sales.

“There has been strong support for Duck Commander product by Christian retailers,” said Ed Leonard, vice president. “New Day saw a major uptick in sales from stores after the story broke, reflecting what one of our customers said was ‘overwhelming support of Phil’s right to speak his beliefs by both Christians and non-Christian conservatives.’ While most stores had already stocked up for Christmas demand, many stores, both in the U.S. and Canada, placed additional orders to show their support for the Robertson family and their Duck Commander line of product.” 

One store that carries New Day products got a complaint, but it “was later found to be from an activist who asked why they were still carrying the product,” Leonard said. “The store kept the products on the shelf while it investigated the complaint. It became clear as the story developed that Phil Robertson loves all people and in that love is not afraid to share God’s Word. Christian stores, while not necessarily agreeing with the way Phil delivered the message, nevertheless stood with him in his right to say it.”

The Robertsons offered a statement on their website, which read in part: “While some of Phil’s unfiltered comments to the reporter were coarse, his beliefs are grounded in the teachings of the Bible. Phil is a godly man who follows what the Bible says are the greatest commandments: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Phil would never incite or encourage hate. We are disappointed that Phil has been placed on hiatus for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right.” 

Although Phil Robertson was “on hiatus” from the show, A&E aired 25 episodes of Duck Dynasty in a Christmas Day marathon. The fifth season of the show was to begin airing Jan. 15.

Prophetic novel’s ‘crucial message’ sells more than 1.2 million copies for Charisma House Book Group

The Harbinger, a FrontLine/Charisma House novel warning America of God’s judgment, has reached the 100-week milestone on the New York Times printed and extended Paperback Trade Fiction best-seller list.

Published Jan. 3, 2012, the novel by Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn debuted on the New York Times list its first week of release and has been reprinted 22 times, selling more than 1.2 million copies. It maintained its momentum through media appearances, enthusiastic readership and a viral video taken at the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast that garnered more than a half-million views online.

Subtitled “The Ancient Mystery That Holds the Secret of America’s Future,” The Harbinger traces a series of detailed parallels between what has happened in the U.S. since the 2001 terrorist attacks—including the economic collapse—and the history of Israel after the nation turned away from God. Told in story form, the book unfolds how nine signs concealed in recent events reveal God’s progressive judgment.

“We attribute the success of The Harbinger to something much bigger than ourselves,” said Tessie DeVore, executive vice president at Charisma House Book Group. “God has entrusted us with this crucial message, and we are humbled by its vast acceptance and impact.

“Not only is The Harbinger a publishing phenomenon, it has become a catalyst and rallying cry to pray for America and its leaders,” DeVore added.

Cahn’s first book has become part of national discourse in the U.S.

“I just got a photograph someone emailed me that was taken last month,” said Cahn, speaking at a Charisma Media staff meeting Jan. 10. “Probably the second-most powerful man in America is John Boehner, Speaker of the House [of Representatives], and it’s a picture of him holding up a copy of The Harbinger.”

Cahn ascribed the message and the success of the book entirely to God, and believes The Harbinger is both a warning of judgment and a call to revival.

“I have been continually blown away by what has happened,” he said, pointing to harbingers that have continued to come to fruition since the book’s publication, including the withering of the “tree of hope” planted at New York City’s Ground Zero.

Ancillary products expanding on the book’s premise include The Harbinger Companion Study Guide and The Harbinger Decoded DVD, the official documentary that provides an audiovisual experience for viewers who want to learn more about the author as well as the book’s teachings and origin.