Nashville-based entertainment-marketing agency Propeller has promoted two senior executives to better handle the company’s success in the wake of the growing faith-based film industry.

Longtime Propeller Executive Vice President and COO Bob Elder will replace company co-founder and CEO Dan Merrell as president, effective immediately. Merrell will retain his title as CEO and continue to serve on the board. In addition, company veteran Andy Peterson has been named its new senior vice president and creative director.

Author Taylor Field is demonstrating the kind of leadership he writes about in his books. The service-minded pastor-cum-author has been chosen as a 2013 recipient of Wake Forest University’s Pro Humanitate Award. Named for the university’s motto, the Pro Humanitate award is given to individuals in the Wake Forest community for outstanding dedication to community service.

A 1976 alumni of Wake Forest, Field has served as the pastor-director of Graffiti Community Ministries in New York City for the past 25 years, where he has been recognized for his church and community ministry. Through his church, he provides food, clothing, afterschool programs, legal services and addiction-recovery programs to the poor, homeless and addicted. Graffiti Church serves 10,000 people a year.

Popular Lifetime TV home improvement show Designing Spaces was scheduled to feature Family Christian Stores in a special holiday edition Nov. 13. The show is to re-air Friday, Nov. 29.

Veteran rock group Stryper has shown that it is still a force to be reckoned with in the hard rock/heavy metal world with the debut of No More Hell To Pay (Frontiers Records). The band has stormed the charts landing at No. 3 on the Current Hard Music Albums and Top Hard Music Albums charts, No. 6 on the Top Current Rock Album charts, No. 33 on the Billboard Top 200 Current Albums and No. 35 on the Billboard Top 200, selling more than 9,500 copies the first week.

The Dove Award-winning band also reasserted its strength in the Christian marketplace, landing at No. 2 on the Contemporary Christian Albums and No. 3 on the Billboard Top Christian/Gospel Albums. In addition, No More Hell To Pay reached No. 1 on the iTunes Top Rock Album Charts and No. 8 on the iTunes Top Album Charts when it was released Nov. 5.

Art & SoulWorks has announced the upcoming launch of licensed products related to Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s epic History Channel miniseries, The Bible. 

Themed bookmarks and pocket cards will begin shipping shortly, a display will be ready in early December, and posters will be available in January. Retail prices range from $1.95 to $9.95.

The miniseries has been seen by more than 100 million viewers, and Burnett and Downey’s Son of God movie also will be in theaters Feb. 28.

Family Force 5 announced today its 5th Annual Family Force 5’s Christmas Pageant tour in partnership with CURE International. The 11-city tour will feature the newly announced Family Force 5 lineup plus special guests Flame, We As Human and V Rose.

This tour will benefit a special cause as Family Force 5 is hoping to help give the gift of healing to one child each night through CURE. CURE shares the good news of God’s love in 29 countries, where the organization provides surgical healing for kids with curable physical disabilities.

Gift cards have been touted as the one-size-fits-all gift idea for years, and this holiday season, shoppers will spend record amounts on them. According to NRF’s Gift Card Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, holiday shoppers will spend an average of $163.16 on gift cards, 4% above the $156.86 they spent last year and the highest amount in the survey’s 11-year history.

This season, four out of every five shoppers (80.6%) will look to add gift cards to their baskets, according to the survey. Total spending on gift cards is expected to reach $29.8 billion.