Best-selling author and pastor Max Lucado is teaming up with Thomas Nelson, CBA and the Salvation Army to reach a million "hurting hearts" through his "Give Hope Where It Counts" campaign.

Through the campaign, Christian retailers can offer customers a special Salvation Army edition of You'll Get Through This to give to individuals in crisis. The $5 mass-market edition, exclusive to the Christian retail channel, will include an introductory letter plus a 16-page insert featuring stories of people who have made it through difficult times with the help of the Salvation Army.

Lucado also will be the keynote speaker at the Worship Him service Sunday, June 23 at the International Christian Retail Show in St. Louis, and his newest book, You'll Get Through This, will be released by Thomas Nelson on Sept. 10.

"It seems these days hope is in short supply," Lucado said. "But with every helping hand and warm meal, the Salvation Army provides a tangible expression of God's love."

David Moberg, Thomas Nelson's senior vice president and group publisher, agreed.

"Max has written a special message of hope and healing," he said. "We knew we wanted to create a ministry movement to help 1 million broken hearts find hope. The Salvation Army and CBA are powerful partners to reach that goal."

CBA President Curtis Riskey added: "Christian retailers are on the frontlines, seeing how their customers want to minister to others in need. "We value the work that the Salvation Army does as a Christian first-responder and we want to support their hands-on, ground-level work with those in need."

Commissioner Barry C. Swanson, a Salvation Army officer, noted that the campaign "can raise awareness and, more importantly, raise hope in the salvation and comfort that only God gives."

Lucado will present the message of his book Sept. 11 as the featured speaker of a Salvation Army commemoration of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Sandy and other tragedies. Billed as You'll Get Through This: A Night of Hope and Remembrance, the event will be held at the Centennial Memorial Temple in New York City.

Expected to draw more than 1,500 attendees, the event will be simulcast live online via in:cast to churches and small groups throughout the country and through the Salvation Army network to its many corps.

Visit www.incastevents.com for more information on the simulcast. Visit www.christianretailshow.com for more information on ICRS.

Retail sales grew in May as an improving job and housing market led to consumer confidence reaching five-year highs.

A preliminary tally of 13 retailers found that revenue at stores opened at least a year—an indicator of a store's health—increased 3.4% in May compared with the same month a year ago, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), Associated Press (AP) reported. The figure rose 3% in April.

"It's good, not great," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's chief economist. "Some underlying improvement in the U.S. economy along with an improving 'wealth effect' from rising stock and home prices is helping to lift the sales pace."

Niemira expects the gradual increase to continue, predicting revenue to rise 3% to 3.5% in June.

Big chains such as Wal-Mart, Target and Macy's don't report monthly revenue. The retailers that do report monthly data represent about 6% of the $2.4 trillion in U.S. retail sales, AP reported.

Accenture Managing Director Chris Donnelley said the May numbers, combined with previous months' figures were encouraging.

"Overall, it's a positive sales trend," he said, noting that the numbers were consistent across all sectors, including discount stores, specialty apparel and teen stores. "Everybody seems to produce good numbers, but nobody had a breakthrough for May."

The U.S. Labor Department said that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell 11,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 346,000, a level consistent with steady job growth, AP reported. Housing prices rose 11% in March, the sharpest 12-month increase in seven years.

Christian retail stores are offering giveaways on products tied to Father's Day—Sunday, June 16.

LifeWay Christian Stores' Father's Day Giveaway features a grand prize, featuring books and CDs to be given to a random winner. The prize includes Charles F. Stanley's Man of God (David C Cook); Curtis Eichelberger's Men of Sunday (Thomas Nelson); The Afters' Life Is Beautiful (INO Records/Provident Distribution); and Building 429's We Won't Be Shaken (Essential Records/Provident).

"For your chance to win this bundle, leave your name in the comments section of today's post," LifeWay employee Rachel McRae said in a blog post. "Just for fun, tell us the name of your dad or another man who has greatly influenced your life."

Berean Christian Stores posted its Win a Gift for Dad giveaway on its Facebook page"

"To enter, simply comment, like or share the photo."

Prizes include Joel C. Rosenberg's Damascus Countdown (Tyndale House Publishers); 31 Days With God for Fathers (Barbour Publishing); JJ Weeks Band's All Over the World (Inpop Records/Capitol Christian Distribution).

Meanwhile, Mardel Christian & Education recently completed its Happy, Happy, Happy Father's Day Giveaway tied to A&E TV's popular reality show Duck Dynasty.

The grand prize included Phil Robertson's Happy, Happy, Happy and Willie and Korie Robertson's The Duck Commander Family (both Howard Books), as well as Duck Commander products distributed by New Day Christian Distributors and Duck Dynasty DVDs from Thomas Nelson

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New Leaf Publishing Group has launched a new and improved website, where customers can find the company's catalogs and other resources.

The website, nlpg.com, will allow customers to shop by imprint (Attic Books, Master Books and New Leaf Press); by topic (apologetics, biography, Christian living, church resources, classics, references, creation science education and other subjects); by type (DVD, audio packages, study guides, lesson planners and digital downloads); and by audience (ages 5-7, 8-10, 11-13, 14-16 and 17-18).

"Over the next few months, we'll be continuing to refine it and add new features, including e-books and better ways to find related materials for our products," New Leaf officials said. "We do regret that we were unable to migrate customers from our old website. So if you had an account set up there, you'll need to create a new one here. We've streamlined the process, so it shouldn't take too long, and we apologize for any inconvenience."

A free resource page includes catalogs, study guides, downloadables such as worksheets and coloring pages.

Visit www.nlpg.com for more information on ICRS.

The International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) will spotlight a St. Louis-based ministry that helps families as this year's ICRS Ministry in Action project. CBA's marquee summer event will be held June 23-26 at the America's Center Convention Complex in St. Louis.

Retailers, suppliers and other industry participants will assemble 100 welcome baskets to help Humanitri, which will also benefit from an offering at ICRS, CBA officials said. The result of a merger of three Lutheran ministries, Humanitri assists families impacted by homelessness, incarceration, single motherhood and poverty.

"A broad base of programs, services, ministries and partnerships gives us the ability, with God's help, to assist them in moving toward self-sufficiency, regardless of a family's situation," said Humanitri CEO Robert Otrembiak. "Our greatest successes come when those who we have helped help others."

Since 2006, Humanitri has served more than 7,500 clients, helping them secure housing, employment and essential items.

Humanitri's ministry goes hand in hand with the ICRS theme: "Your Show. One Mission—to go into all the world."

"ICRS is not just about surviving in tough times—it's about thriving," CBA officials said. "Because a time of unprecedented challenges is also a time of unprecedented opportunities. ... In a challenging economy, we can't be doing things the way we've always done them. It's time for 'new wineskins'—new ways of thinking. That's why we've recrafted every aspect of the show."

Visit www.christianretailshow.com for more information on ICRS.

Mark Burnett, producer of the hugely successful 10-part miniseries of major Bible stories, is working on another faith-based project.

"Roma [Downey] and I will do a follow-up, 100%. Something big," he said yesterday, June 9, at the Produced By Conference in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

Creator of Survivor, Burnett and his actress wife, Roma Downey, of Touched by an Angel fame, produced The Bible, which aired for five Sundays this spring on the History Channel—culminating on Easter, March 31.

Released on DVD and Blu-ray April 2 by Twentieth Century Fox (Provident Distribution), The Bible sold 525,000 units in its first week of release, becoming the top-selling TV program on DVD in the last five years and the best-selling miniseries ever on Blu-ray, digital HD and DVD. The highest-rated cable show of the year, the miniseries has become the fastest pre-selling, faith-based title in 60 years, according to CBA.

"I believe in the next 15 years, more people on the planet will have seen our Bible series than not seen it," Burnett said, The Hollywood Reporter reported. "We've also just finished recutting the Jesus part of The Bible into a feature."

The feature version of the series, which will focus on Jesus, will be two hours and 13 minutes long, edited down from three hours. Burnett noted that he could see himself and Downey distributing Bible-related programming for the next 10 years, The Hollywood Reporter stated.

Kate Lloyd's Pennsylvania Patchwork (David C Cook) debuted at No. 10 on the Fiction best-sellers from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), tracking sales for the week ending June 1, according to Pubtrack Christian data. The novel was released June 1.

The Top 20 ECPA General best-sellers were: 1. Jesus Calling, Sarah Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); 2. Wild at Heart, John Eldredge (Thomas Nelson); 3. Jesus Calling, Young, deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 4. Happy, Happy, Happy, Phil Robertson (Howard Books); 5. Jesus Calling, Young, large print deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 6. The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson (Zondervan); 7. Heaven Is for Real, Todd Burpo (Thomas Nelson); 8. The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman (Northfield Publishing/Moody Publishers); 9. Love Does, Bob Goff (Thomas Nelson); 10. The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn (FrontLine/Charisma House Book Group); 11. Jesus Calling, Young, women's edition (Thomas Nelson); 12. Trusting God, Jerry Bridges (NavPress); 13. Unglued, Lysa TerKeurst (Zondervan); 14. Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman (Zondervan); 15. UnThinkable, Scott Rigsby, Jenna Glatzer (Tyndale House Publishers); 16. 7 Men, Eric Metaxas (Thomas Nelson); 17. The Duck Commander Family, Willie and Korie Robertson (Howard Books); 18. The Purpose-Driven Life: Selected Thoughts and Scriptures for the Graduate, Rick Warren, updated (Zondervan); 19. Jesus Today, Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); and 20. 365 Pocket Prayers for Graduates, Ron Beers (Tyndale).

The Top 10 Fiction best-sellers were: 1. The Harbinger; 2. The Chance, Karen Kingsbury (Howard Books); 3. Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers (Multnomah Books); 4. The Guardian, "Home to Hickory Hollow" No. 3, Beverly Lewis (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 5. Truth-Stained Lies, "Moonlighter" No. 1, Terri Blackstock (Zondervan); 6. Dead Lawyers Tell No Tales, Randy Singer (Tyndale); 7. Sweet Dreams, Carla Stewart (FaithWords); 8. Damascus Countdown, "The Twelfth Imam" No. 3, Joel C. Rosenberg (Tyndale); 9. The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis (HarperOne); and 10. Pennsylvania Patchwork.

The top five Bibles were: 1. The Story, NIV, deluxe, hardcover, New International Version (Zondervan); 2. NLT In His Image Devotional Bible, hardcover, New Living Translation (Tyndale); 3. NIV Thinline Bible, black, bonded leather (Zondervan); 4. NIV Thinline Bible, navy, bonded leather (Zondervan); and 5. NIV Teen Study Bible, softcover (Zondervan).