Christian retail stores helped make Courageous the best-selling DVD of all in the country in its first week of release.

The faith-based cop drama from church-based Sherwood Pictures, makers of the hit marriage drama Fireproof, topped the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart, for the week ending Jan. 22, ahead of the George Clooney political drama, The Ides of March.

Christian retailers were urged to step up to the leadership role they have in their communities by being more particular about the books they promote, as they gathered yesterday for the Munce Group CPE (Christian Product Expo) in Lancaster, Pa.

“Sometimes the books that fly off the shelves are not the things that are the greatest spiritual value,” said author and speaker Doug Sherman at the pre-show Bible Conference attended by around 70.

The Story Bible remains a No. 1 seller for Zondervan on the weekly Top 20 General best-sellers list from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) tracking sales for the week ending Jan. 21, according to Pubtrack Christian data.

The Parable Group and SnapRetail have joined forces to offer digital marketing solutions to all independent CBA retailers.

Parable will make SnapRetail’s services available to Christian stores, including email, social media and buying solutions, and access to professionally designed Christian-focused email templates. Also available will be a Christian product images database and product information from Christian gift vendors, including P. Graham Dunn and DaySpring.

Religious book sales have continued their rise, according to the latest monthly figures from the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Sales were reported to the AAP by 77 publishers, including 22 religion publishers.

Religious book sales were up 6.9% in November net sales over the same month last year, to $56.2 million, and up nearly 9% year-to-date over 2010 ($592.7 million).

Mardel Christian & Education has expanded the use of Integra Interactive’s myMEDIA BurnBar to 11 store locations and to Mardel.com. The chain’s use of the media-on-demand kiosks will be rolled out to the remaining 25 stores by the end of the first quarter of 2012.

Mardel President Jason Green said his company had been “very pleased with the performance of and sales from the myMEDIA BurnBar.”

Grupo Nelson, the Spanish-language division of Thomas Nelson, has launched a campaign against illiteracy in Spanish-speaking cultures.

In celebration of World Book Day, April 23, the Dona un Libro (Donate a Book) campaign encourages readers to donate new or used books in hopes of “inspiring the world, one new reader at a time.”