No ‘Christian Retailing Update’ on Monday

There will be no Christian Retailing Update report Monday, Dec. 27.

New technology and old-fashioned charm are the two big needs—if the Christian retail industry is to see business blossom in the coming year.

That is the consensus from a wide range of suppliers, retailers and service providers who reflected on the state of the industry for Christian Retailing and highlighted the importance of digital delivery and customer service excellence for the future.

Thomas Nelson has launched two new programs to help independent Christian retailers.

Hot Off the Press offers pop-up alerts on product-related breaking news to stores that download the system created by the publisher’s Christian retail sales division. The application will also send out notices of upcoming author appearances and features a link that allows retailers to place orders if they decide to increase inventory levels in the light of what they learn.

While the 400th anniversary of the King James Version will get most of the attention next year, 2011 marks the anniversary of another significant Bible innovation.

It will be 25 years since Tyndale House Publishers introduced the first edition specifically designed to help people get more out of God's Word by reading through the entire, re-ordered Scriptures in one year.

Several authors are included in Newsweek magazine’s list of “Top 10 New Faces of the Christian right.”

Asking “Who speaks for the Christian right?” the articles identify those figures it says lead the second generation of the movement, taking over the spotlight from the likes of the late Jerry Falwell and James Dobson.

Among those named is Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, the organization Dobson founded. Author of Finding Home: An Imperfect Path to Faith and Family and Stronger (both David C. Cook), Daly is said to be “a surprisingly different leader from his firebrand predecessor.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, is said to “represent the old mindset in the new leadership,” if anyone does. He is the co-author with bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr. of Personal Faith, Public Policy (FrontLine/Strang Book Group).

Also on the list is Jim Wallis, author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (HarperOne). “If such a thing as the Evangelical left exists, Jim Wallis is flying its flag,” Newsweek says.

Others named include Matthew Sleeth (The Gospel According to the Earth: Why the Good Book Is a Green Book, HarperOne) and Joel Hunter (Right Wing, Wrong Bird, Distributed Church Press, and A New Kind of Conservative, Regal Books).

A missionary group's growing business in publishing books has prompted a change of leadership for its division that sells them. 

James Pitman is the new director of retail operations for CLC USA, overseeing its nine-store CLC Christian Bookcenter operations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

He replaces U.S. Director David Almack, who has given up the retail leadership to concentrate on CLC's expanding publishing efforts.

Most recently leading CLC USA's international missions department, Pitman has been with the organization for 14 years.  He spent six years working in CLC stores, five of them at the group's Miami outlet, which closed in 2003.

In addition to four regular CLC Bookcenter locations, CLC USA also runs five church-based stores since entering the church market a few years ago. Pitman said that though it was a daunting time in the industry to take on the stores' leadership role, he would continue to emphasize their ministry focus.          

Founded in England in 1941 as Christian Literature Crusade, CLC International began working in the U.S. in the 1950s, introducing U.K.-based authors like Andrew Murray and Roy Hession. Worldwide, the organization runs around 200 bookstores in 60 countries.

ALL THINGS NARNIA: Looking at the latest movie, in our Industry Radar roundup of other media's reporting on the Christian products world. Click here for more information.