The move follows the Direct Marketing Association's 2010 Response Rate Trend Report, which showed that catalogs mailed to in-house lists generated an average 2.66% response rate-while Parable has seen a consistent average response rate of more than 16% over the last four years, company officials said.

The chain is offering special editions of Gaither Homecoming releases, Giving Thanks and Count Your Blessings on DVD and CD, plus the Gaither Vocal Band's Greatly Blessed CD. In addition, Cracker Barrel is introducing a new Christmas compilation CD created specifically for the business, Bill Gaither: Christmas in the Country.

The average decrease for September compared to a year ago for the 15 member houses reporting sales was 9.3%, the association revealed in its monthly report. The average year-to-date sales increase was 6%.

Zondervan-which publishes both the NIV and Today's New International Version (TNIV)--and Biblica, holder of the NIV copyright, made the announcement earlier this week at the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa, which has more than 4,200 participants attending from nearly 200 countries.