Nelson Books, a nonfiction imprint of Thomas Nelson, has announced the hiring of its new vice president of marketing, Jeff James. Effective June 29, James will fill the role previously held by Chad Cannon. 

Prior to joining Nelson Books, James was the CEO and founder of Mythology LLC, a marketing consulting practice that designed marketing strategies and management systems for Fortune 500, mid-market, startup and nonprofit organizations. His team pioneered effective digital marketing and social content development processes that helped deliver improvements in brand, revenue and relationships for such diverse clients as Aetna Insurance, CSC, CA Technologies, Boy Scouts of America and International Justice Mission.

Baker Publishing Group has signed an agreement with the Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society to publish a new translation of the Bible, the Tree of Life Version (TLV), scheduled to release in 2016.

The TLV is translated by a committee of 32 Messianic Jewish and Christian scholars and uses a seven-step vetting process. An official translation of The King’s University, the TLV captures the original Hebrew and Greek text and includes Hebrew transliterations throughout the text. It highlights the roots of the Christian faith and restores the Jewish order of the Old Testament books. The result is the first full-text and reference edition of this distinctive translation.

Verlyn D. Verbrugge, longtime Zondervan editor, author, teaching pastor and New Testament scholar, died Sunday, June 21 following a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 72.

His death is felt as a deep loss to family, friends, publishing colleagues, the academic community and numerous pastors and leaders around the world whose lives he shaped.

The fate of Family Christian Stores, the largest chain in the Christian retail industry, continues unresolved after a judge rejected the Family Christian (FC) Acquisition bid. Currently there is no sale to any bidder. The decision comes after a long and heated battle in federal bankruptcy court following the controversial initial auction.

After reporting a steady decline in sales since 2008, the chain found itself over $90 million in debt. This led to a formal declaration of bankruptcy Feb. 11, followed by an auction for the company that was completed in court in a marathon session in the early hours of May 27. Hilco Merchant Resources LLC and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners offered a $49.8 million deal, but FC Acquisition LLC was declared the highest bidder with a bid of $43 million.

Disciplr, a new digital platform for teachers in the local church, is about to be made available to churches at Disciplr.com. Disciplr has begun granting early access to the platform for churches on its waiting list, and will be open to everyone later this summer.

The platform was designed to meet a growing need felt by teachers in the church, providing a place to find and choose curriculum, subscribe and use it in a digitally interactive format. Disciplr also features bulit-in teacher management tools to aid in assigning lessons—a response to the frustrations of dealing with multiple email attachments.

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) has named industry veteran Stan Jantz as interim executive director, effective July 1. Jantz is founder of content consulting company The Muvum Group, co-founder of Conversant Media and recently served as interim CEO of Gospel Light.

Jantz succeeds President and CEO Mark Kuyper, who was recently hired as executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, headquartered in New York City.

Last week's mass murder of nine church-goers at the historically African-American Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, has put both race relations and faith under a spotlight. But it also has ignited and unified much of the body of Christ in mourning and solidarity, as evidenced by a statement issued by CBA President Curtis Riskey.