CBA, the Association for Christian Retail, moved its annual convention to Nashville this year. The location, the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center, along with significant funds given to CBA member retailers to pay for show expenses were factors that drew Christian retailers to the Unite convention.

CBA reported that more than 1,700 people, a 10 percent increase over last year, attended the July 8-11 trade show. Representatives from 35 countries also attended.

Although the gift section of the exhibit floor appeared to be full, some gift companies either did not attend Unite or went from one show to the next as Unite and the Atlanta gift show at AmericasMart overlapped. 

“For the most part, we sold out our booth space,” CBA President Curtis Riskey said.

CBA is also in the very early stages of establishing strategic alliances and is challenging retailers and suppliers to look at the industry in a fresh way.

“Many great things are birthed in times of great fire, turmoil and crisis,” said Eddie Roush, the new chairman of CBA Service Corp., who has invested $1 million in CBA, including retailer show reimbursement. “Many Christian retailers are suffering because they have not yet adopted new ways of marketing their businesses, and at CBA’s Unite 2018, we have provided them new tools, insight and inspiration in order to thrive.”

Roush is also president of The Roush Foundation, which helped to organize and underwrite Unite 2018.

“We feel we need to rebrand Christianity,” he added. “We have taken the holy name of Jesus and diluted it, where people have lost hope in His power to give hope and new ideas to our business owners who are struggling. We have come to interrupt our industry for the good of furthering the cause of Christ.”

Most of the training at the show was offered free of charge for retailers, who took advantage of the opportunity to learn from inside and outside experts on retail topics.

“We had so many people not only sign up for education workshops but also attending,” Riskey said. “A lot of years we would measure somewhere between 20 and 40 on average who would be attending a session. This year there are many that averaged well over 100.”

Riskey was encouraged by the increase.

“We’re talking a lot about change,” he said. “There’s change needed, because obviously you can’t expect to do the same things and expect different results. But when I see those folks taking workshop sessions and things like that, people are starting to realize they do need help and are seeking it. Hopefully they found a lot of really good things here.”

CBA brings Unite back to the same location next year, June 25-28.

Don Piper, a New York Times best-selling author and the subject of the 90 Minutes in Heaven movie, said he came to know Christ as Savior at age 16 through the influence of friends and relatives. Those were the people he says he met at the gates of heaven when he died in a car crash at age 38 and spent 13 months in the hospital.

In his new book, People I Met at the Gates of Heaven, Piper, who is also an ordained minister, told of those who expected and met him at heaven’s gates. His college roommate’s mother met him there, as did one of his classmates who was killed, his great-grandparents, his grandmother and a teacher.

People I Met at the Gates of Heaven also shows how believers can and should influence others on earth for heaven's purposes, just as those who helped lead Piper to Christ influenced him.

As for whose name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, which the Scripture speaks about, “only God knows” Piper said.

“We think we know who’s going and who’s not, and we do not,” he said.

FaithWords releases his new book in November.

Author Craig von Buseck brings his Bible-teaching skills to his new book, Seven Keys to Hearing God’s Voice from Ramcastle Press. Supportive of Christian retail, von Buseck came to Unite 2018 to share the story of his new book that, he said, fills a market niche.

“Seven Keys to Hearing God’s Voice is a book that is different than anything I’ve seen in the market in that it talks about the traditional forms of God’s guidance that you hear in pretty much any kind of a church you’re going to go into, the Scripture and godly counsel and the peace of God in confirmation,” von Buseck said. “Those are things that everybody agrees on. But what differentiates this book is that I specifically speak to, first of all, the Holy Spirit speaking directly to our hearts, and I talk about how that happens.”

He identifies four voices that try to lead the Christian’s life: God, the devil, one’s self and the world, which could be a mentor or parents, for instance.

“We need to learn how to discern between those different voices, but one of those voices is the Lord,” he said, citing Joy Behar of ABC's The View, who stirred up social media with her assertion that when Jesus talks to you, it’s a “mental illness.” She has since apologized for her remark.

In the book, von Buseck shows how God speaks to the Christian and, at times, even those who don’t know the Lord.

“I give these seven different channels through which the Lord will speak, and the point of the book is to say that He doesn’t typically speak through any one of those things,” von Buseck said. “Typically He’ll speak through several, if not all of the seven keys, then He’ll knit it together in a tapestry, and it’s in the picture of that tapestry that we see the picture of God’s guidance.”

This book is different from most books on God’s guidance in that it also teaches on personal prophecy, words of knowledge and words of wisdom.

“God gave us a brain. He gave us an intellect,” von Buseck said of the need to know how God speaks to us. “We’re not just spiritual beings.”

The author may also post teaching videos related to the book on his website, vonbuseck.com, in the future.

Christian retailers filled the tables and some stood to hear three gift merchandising experts teach the Ignite Your Gift Sales session. Sherry Morris of Carpentree, Michelle Amster of Integra Interactive and retailer Donna McCollough shared tips at the session held at the Church Bookstore Connection Center at CBA’s Unite 2018.

Sherry Morris, marketing manager at Carpentree, was pleased to speak to the retailers to inspire them to go back to their stores and try something new.

“It was a joy to be here and talk to the retailers and try to just give them a vision for what merchandising can be, because we all need that little bit of creative spark to take us from one level to the next level,” she said. “A lot of people already had the basics, already know it, but when you stop and you think about merchandising and what you’re trying to accomplish to help your store take that bottom line up, then it’s really good to think, What can I do to reach the next level?”

The session was a continuation of last year’s training at Unite in Cincinnati.

“We’re trying to take what we taught last year about the five basic techniques of merchandising and encourage people to scaffold that to the next level,” Morris said. “What is good merchandising? What is better merchandising? And what is the best merchandising? And we gave them a rubric to try to help them to think about that. We wanted to just give them another tool to encourage them.”

McCollough, co-owner of Dove Christian Supply in Dothan, Alabama, talked of sharing the gospel any way the retailer can, including through “lifestyle product.”

Beyond more prominent product displays toward the front of the store, McCollough encourages retailers to have secondary displays to draw customers in “further and further” into the store.

McCollough talked about using simple things such as an old window with chicken wire to display jewelry. Morris added that going to flea markets, estate sales and perhaps a friend’s barn to pick up inexpensive or free items to use in gift display and attract attention.

It’s also important to make a statement and to have adequate gift product on display, McCollough said. She pointed out that it has to be full enough so that customers “know you care about the product.”

Tuesday morning’s Future of the Industry (FOI) breakfast continued on from the Sunday’s Worship Him themes. But FOI also highlighted CBA’s new emphasis on big, shared data for the Christian retail industry.

Following a musical set by Curt Anderson at the keyboard, CBA President Curtis Riskey introduced the topic of the FOI discussion.

“There isn’t an industry with a more powerful and important message,” the former Christian retailer declared. Focused on the future, Riskey prayed to the “God of new beginnings.”

The new chairman of CBA Service Corp. and chairman of the Roush Foundation, Eddie Roush invited his business partner, Kurt Ruf, and Clyde Rivers, a U.S. citizen who is an honorary ambassador at large for the nation of Burundi, into a living room setting, asking attendees to listen to their “private conversation.”

Roush talked of the Christian products industry as lacking “tools, vision and even the resources” to expand, noting how big the world market is. He asked Rivers if it would even be possible to pair a retail store in the U.S. with a city or region elsewhere to meet the needs of the internationals there. Rivers answered in the affirmative, saying it is possible to “re-store a nation.”

Roush cautioned against a close alignment with American politics and governments, which, he said, “turns off people, including Millennials.”

Rivers shared what life is like in Burundi and how open the people are to Christianity. Christian music is played in the airport he travels to and can be heard in restaurants as well.

Roush said the industry needs to “clean up our act” to be ready for this “global play.”

To do that, Ruf noted the importance of tailoring customer communication, to “differentiate and personalize.” Ruf observed that “the old spray-and-pray days are over” and that the industry must use data as a tool to target customers in a mobile society. Ruf spoke of isolating consumer prospects that align with key values such as “small town sensibility” and the need to continuously clean the data to be sure it is accurate.

Rivers believes that governments are willing to share data “if we can help them meet their needs.” He’s believes reaching the global market is possible.

“Jesus wants to set the narrative for every community in the world,” Rivers said.

Roush said the way forward is about “spreading the Jesus narrative,” not an American-style gospel. He also thinks Americans will benefit from global partnerships that pair particular stores with regions of the world to meet their needs for resources, even older products, and to hear from them as well.

“Who are the voices in those countries who have something to say back here?” Roush said.

Marilyn Hood, who with her husband, Frank, recently closed their Sweet Spirit store, have been coming to CBA for over 30 years. The FOI discussion gave Hood “a real sense of hope” for the future of Christian retail.

“I’m excited about the future of the industry even though we’re transitioning out of it,” Hood said. “If we were starting today, I would be so excited about having a little city in some other country where we would maybe give a little portion of our income, that we would be maybe taking a mission trip with our customers or even through our church or whatever to go visit that little country and get that sisterhood bonding.”

Becky Gorczyca, executive director of the Association of Logos Bookstores, believes that Logos Bookstores are “customer centric” rather than “product centric,” another topic in the FOI discussion.

“Our joy is matching up the need of the customer with the product and helping those people walk closer to the Lord because of the relationship with us, whether it be conversation or product, and also with the product that has prayerfully been developed by authors and publishers,” Gorczyca said. “I think there’s a very big network that the Lord has put together to take His people where they are and expose them to things that are going to help them to grow. He uses authors, He uses publishers, He uses bookstores, He uses staff people, He uses marketing, He uses catalogs, all these kinds of things the Lord uses to reach His people to bring them closer to Him and to grow them. I am very privileged, as all the local stores are, to be part of that plan. And may we be here for many years, and we plan to be, in order to be part of His plan.”

The Logos association had its annual conference just before Unite.

“We at the Logos Bookstores are optimistic and encouraged about the future,” she said. “The theme for our conference this year was based on Micah 6:8, What would the Lord require of us but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. That is the path that we are going to take, and we think the future is bright if we follow the Lord and walk humbly where He wants us to go. We’re going to continue to reach out to our customers on an individual and relational basis. We’re going to continue to meet customers where they are and often that means that it’s not in our physical stores, but it’s outside of the four walls of our stores. We have been doing that consistently for years, and we’ve decided to ramp that up. We are happy about the future and are looking forward to it.”

Christian retailers went to church Monday night at CBA’s Worship Him service during Unite 2018. CBA’s annual convention is being held July 8-11 at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville.

Jekalyn Carr (Lunjeal Music/New Day Christian Distributors) kicked off the musical portion of the evening as she reminded participants through the power of song that God is bigger than anything they might face.

With his crowd-pleasing band, Jason Crabb (pictured) continued the theme of expecting big things of God, praying, “Bless us, Lord. Bless us, Lord. Send your presence.” Crabb mentioned his recent CD release, Unexpected (Daywind/New Day Christian), but sang one classic not on the current CD that really roused the crowd, “Working on a Building.” He also gave away a Rahab’s Rope product, which benefits the poor in India.

Sandi Patty brought her resounding voice to the service although she is no longer touring regularly. While she sang a number of favorites, she also played and sang a quieter song, declaring that “Jesus is a faithful friend in the in between,” referring to the “in between seasons” of life. HarperCollins Christian Publishing releases her new book, The Voice, on Nov. 6.

In a welcome by CBA President Curtis Riskey before the music started, he promised that Unite 2018 was “not business as usual.” The service did seem different than usual with the challenge by one key speaker, Eddie Roush, chairman of the Roush Foundation, which gave a million dollars toward CBA member retailers’ show expenses.

Roush, who is also chairman of the CBA Service Corporation, stood with a Bible held high declaring many of the names of God from the Scriptures. When Roush was young, his pastor-father sang “There’s Something About That Name.” He talked of facing troubled times and said God’s Word warned of that ahead of time.

Roush went on to talk about the power of words, to say that Christianity needs to be rebranded and that the Christian products industry needs a dramatic change in its business practices and strategies.

He spoke at length about the fact that there is no such thing as a “Christian business,” but that only people can be Christian: “Can an organization or corporation be born again? The answer is no.”

He talked of the rebranding of Christianity that’s needed because evangelicals have become “especially paranoid.” Christians “seem to be governed by fear.” He added: “We fear change, any change. … Perfect love drives us away from fear.”

A former lawyer, Roush seemed to speak against the Christian baker who recently won his Supreme Court case for not baking a cake for a homosexual couple and against the alliance of believers with right-wing politics. He called out double standards and hypocrisy among Christians and called for compassion rather than cruelty.

“We abuse the name of Jesus for our personal gain,” Roush also said, calling on the industry to become “consumer centric.”

“I never ask God for money,” Roush said. “I ask Him for ideas because God always finances His ideas.”

“I’ve come to interrupt the industry,” Roush declared, reminding attendees of the lyrics to a Stephen Curtis Chapman song, “Saddle up your horses. We’ve got a trail to blaze.”

Keynote speaker Clyde Rivers, a U.S. citizen who is the honorary ambassador at large for the African country of Burundi and founder of iChange Nations, closed the night by saying “there’s nothing bigger than God in this world.” But, he added, “His currency is people. There’s no economic famine. There’s a gift famine.”

Rivers talked of Noah and Enoch receiving radical words from God that changed their generations.

“God wants you to do something different,” Rivers told the audience, calling on retailers to “retake the top, which, he said, is what repentance means. Some attendees responded to his altar call, going forward to be honest with God, repent and leave behind the old in a “spiritual trash can.”

Rivers called CBA “the organization that can reframe the world.”

Center Street author Charlotte Pence visits Unite 2018.

Charlotte Pence, the middle child of Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, talked with Christian Retailing about Where You Go: Life Lessons From My Father. The Center Street book is set for October release.

Pence, who is starting her college career at Harvard Divinity School this fall, wrote Where You Go for her family but then decided to share it with the public.

“I’ve kind of been writing it, I feel like my whole life,” she said. “I’ve been writing down lessons that my dad and my mom have taught me and so being able to put that into print and share that with other people has been really fun and special.”

Pence’s father was elected to Congress when she was only 6. After he served as a congressman for 12 years and then as Indiana governor for four, he assumed the vice presidency.

Being in the public eye has “been pretty constant in our lives ever since I was very young,” Charlotte said. “It’s just kind of part of life, and I tell people it’s just what my parents do for a living. It’s not the most important thing in our life, but it’s definitely a constant presence. But I think that they’ve really protected our family through it all, and we’ve stayed really close.”

Although she is a “political child,” Charlotte believes readers will be able to relate to the stories and lessons she shares in Where You Go. She also hopes readers will “think about the ways in which they’re teaching others in their life and think about the ways in which they’ve learned from those around them.”

At Harvard, she plans to earn her master’s in theological studies; then Christian retailers can expect to hear more from her.

“I’ll be studying religious themes in literature, and I still want to go down the writing track,” she said. “I’m hoping that God’s going to challenge my thinking and my writing and really enrich my storytelling.”