The Booth Brothers took home four awards during the 2013 Absolutely Gospel Music (AGM) Awards, held April 11 in Smyrna, Tenn.

The Southern gospel trio was awarded its sixth Male Group of the Year title, seventh Best Live Performer award and Special Event Project of the Year for Jubilee 3 (Daywind Music Group) along with Greater Vision and Legacy Five . The group's vocalist and songwriter, Jim Brady who was also one of the co-hosts of the event, was awarded his second Songwriter of the Year (Artist) title.

Vocal ensemble Sisters was named Female Group of the Year for the third consecutive year. The trio was also awarded Progressive Album of the Year for An A Cappella Collection (Daywind Music Group). In addition, Kim Lord of Sisters was named the Female Vocalist of the Year title.

Male Vocalist of the Year went to Bill Shivers of Brian Free & Assurance. Karen Peck's solo album, How You Walk the Miles (Daywind Music Group), won Album of the Year, while Peck and her group, New River, were awarded their second consecutive Song of the Year award for the song "Mighty Big God."

The Isaacs won Mixed Group of the Year and Country Song of the Year for "Waiting In the Water," while Michael English was awarded Producer of the Year (Artist) and Fan Favorite Artist of the Year.

Click here for a full list of AGM Award winners.

Joyce Meyer's Making Good Habits, Breaking Bad Habits (FaithWords) debuted at No. 14 on the General best-sellers from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), tracking sales for the week ending April 6, according to Pubtrack Christian data. The book was released April 2.

The Top 20 General best-sellers were: 1. Jesus Calling, Sarah Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); 2. Heaven Is for Real, Todd Burpo (Thomas Nelson); 3. The Guardian, "Home to Hickory Hollow" No. 3, Beverly Lewis (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 4. The Power of a Praying Wife, Stormie Omartian (Harvest House Publishers); 5. Jesus Calling, Young, large print deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 6. The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman (Northfield Publishing/Moody Publishers); 7. Jesus Calling, Young, women's edition (Thomas Nelson); 8. The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn (FrontLine/Charisma House Book Group); 9. Jesus Today, Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); 10. Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman (Zondervan); 11. Pursued, Jud Wilhite (FaithWords); 12. Daily Devotions for Women, Jewell Johnson (Barbour Publishing); 13. Jesus Calling, Young, deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 14. Making Good Habits, Breaking Bad Habits; 15. The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren (Zondervan); 16. Daily Wisdom for Women (Barbour Publishing); 17. Unglued, Lysa TerKeurst (Zondervan); 18. Battlefield of the Mind, Joyce Meyer (FaithWords); 19. The Chance, Karen Kingsbury (Howard Books); and 20. The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, Kevin and Alex Malarkey (Tyndale House Publishers).

The Top 10 Fiction best-sellers were: 1. The Guardian; 2. The Harbinger; 3. The Chance; 4. Damascus Countdown, "The Twelfth Imam" No. 3, Joel C. Rosenberg (Tyndale); 5. Truth-Stained Lies, "Moonlighter" No. 1, Terri Blackstock (Zondervan); 6. The Bible: A Story of God and All of Us, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey (FaithWords); 7. The Winnowing Season, "Amish Vines and Orchards" No. 2, Cindy Woodsmall (WaterBrook Press); 8. When Jesus Wept, "The Jerusalem Chronicles" No. 1, Bodie and Brock Thoene (Zondervan); 9. A Place to Belong, "Wild West Wind" No. 3, Lauraine Snelling (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); and 10. The Fiddler, "Home to Hickory Hollow" No. 1, Lewis (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group).

The top five Bibles were: 1. The Story, NIV, deluxe, hardcover, New International Version (Zondervan); 2. NIV Church Bible, navy, hardcover (Zondervan); 3. NLT God Sightings, softcover, New Living Translation (Tyndale); 4. KJV Reference Bible, black, imitation leather, King James Version (Zondervan); and 5. NLT Compact Gift Bible, bonded leather (Tyndale).

Brennan Manning, author, Franciscan priest, speaker and theologian best known for his book The Ragamuffin Gospel (Multnomah Books), died Friday following several years of declining health. He was 78.

Retail sales decreased in March as consumers cooled spending due to the impact of colder weather across the country and a 2% payroll tax hike. It was the first monthly decline in retail sales since October 2012.

Core retail sales—excluding the more volatile categories of autos, building materials and fuel—decreased 0.2% last month, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). March retail sales, which includes automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants, dropped 0.4%, U.S. Department of Commerce figures showed this week.

"Retail is the vehicle that drives our economy, and the consumer dictates the speed," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. "With consumer confidence low, Washington decision-makers need to focus on a long-term, economic roadmap that creates fiscal certainty for American families.

"We need policies that encourage job growth and capital investment by business generally and the retail industry specifically, an industry that supports one in four American jobs," Shay added. "Without either, economic recovery will continue to sputter along, and the consumer will keep their foot off the pedal."

NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said "the fall off in spending" was no surprise.

"A colder-than-usual winter, an anemic employment picture and delays in tax refunds impacted consumer spending across the board in March," Kleinhenz said. "While we remain optimistic that retail sales will grow modestly this year, it seems like the economy is off to a shaky start as we enter the second quarter. Improving housing prices and lower gas prices may help to offset the toll of increased taxes and sequester."

Book and music, sporting goods, and hobby stores' sales decreased 0.8% seasonally adjusted month-to-month, but increased 4.5% unadjusted year-over-year, NRF said.

Maintaining an upward trend in e-book sales, religious presses reported a more than 20% increase for all of 2012 versus January-December 2011, with sales of more than $57 million, according to the latest figures available from the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

Overall, religious book sales for 2012 versus 2011 saw a more than 5% drop to $576.6 million.

For the month of December, religious presses saw hardcover sales decline more than 22% compared to December 2011. Religious paperback sales also decreased 25% in December 2012, while e-books were up 2.6%.

Religious paperback sales experienced a more than 16% decrease for all of 2012 versus January-December 2011, with sales of more than $171 million. In the same date range, religious hardcover sales were down more than 3%, with sales of more than $294 million.

With nearly 1,200 publishers reporting, AAP's Monthly StatShot report included data from Crossway, Gospel Light, Moody Publishers, David C Cook, Thomas Nelson and Tyndale House Publishers, among others represented by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.

Editorial Portavoz has appointed Peter Cerra as senior director of sales and marketing. Cerra will be responsible to plan, develop, oversee and direct all marketing, sales and promotional operations for the Spanish publishing division of Kregel Publications.

With more than 23 years of experience in the publishing industry, Cerra—president of the Spanish Evangelical Products Association (SEPA)—previously served as senior sales director at Editorial Vida (Zondervan), where he managed the Spanish sales and marketing team for both domestic and international markets.

"I am very happy to have Peter joining our team," said Tito Mantilla, publisher of Editorial Portavoz. "His passion for Bible-based, Spanish Christian publishing and his commitment to strong customer relations align perfectly with our mission and vision. With Peter's experience and special skill set, we are ready to make an even greater impact in the Spanish Christian publishing industry."

Jerold W. Kregel, Kregel's executive vice president of publishing and chief financial officer, added: "We are very pleased with the growth and success of Portavoz these past few years and are excited to have Peter join us as we continue to expand and grow our Spanish division."

For the third consecutive year, Winter Jam Tour Spectacular—Christian music's biggest tour—was the No. 1 tour in the world for the first quarter of the year.

The multi-artist event outpaced attendance for all other tours for January-March—including Pink, Maroon 5, Justin Bieber and Bon Jovi, according to Pollstar's 2013 Worldwide Top 100 Tours chart. Playing to a total of nearly 554,000 people, this year's tour was the largest in Winter Jam history.

Concluding its 18th season March 30 in San Antonio with 42 sellouts since launching Jan. 4 in Charleston, W.Va., the 44-city tour was headlined by GRAMMY-winning multi-Platinum recording artist TobyMac.

Presented by World Vision and promoted by Premier Productions, the tour also featured Red, Matthew West, Jamie Grace, Sidewalk Prophets and Royal Tailor, as well as speaker Nick Hall. In addition, the Youth Music Vault Pre-Jam Party included performances from Jason Castro, OBB and Capital Kings. Admission was $10 at the door with no ticket required.

"Without fail, God uses Winter Jam to touch lives for His kingdom in ways that exceed our greatest expectations every year," said NewSong's Eddie Carswell, founder of Winter Jam. "Record sellouts have allowed more people than ever to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ during the tour, while providing opportunities to help the least of these around the world."

Click here for information on Winter Jam 2013 Tour Spectacular.