Gospel Light’s board of directors has named Dave Thornton as its new chief executive officer.

Thornton joined the Ventura, California-based company in 2013 as director of church sales and most recently served as director of sales and marketing. He joined Gospel Light after serving 17 years at Group Publishing in a variety of roles, from director of product development to director of church leadership and finally director of global innovations. Previously he worked in marketing for two years at David C Cook.

Thornton has a B.A. in speech communications from Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and an M.Div. in Christian education from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. He has volunteered in local church ministry for more than four decades and finds joy in leading kids to a deeper understanding of God’s plan for their lives as revealed in the Bible.

The board and CEO are strategically refocusing the company on the mission given to Gospel Light’s founder, Henrietta C. Mears—to know Christ and make Him known. New print and digital resources will be developed to equip church leaders to reach children, teens and their families for Christ through effective Bible teaching and learning resources.

“I dream of a day when Gospel Light will be seen as the trusted global leader in providing Christ-connecting, Bible-based, disciple-making resources to help the church reach children and their families for Christ through products and resources that are available anytime and anywhere around the world,” Thornton said.

Gospel Light has been going through leadership and structural changes of late. Bill Greig, former president, left the company after taking a sabbatical to consider his future direction. He and his wife, Rhonni, recently relaunched church-resources company churchgrowth.org. Additionally, Gospel Light sold its Regal Books trade division to Baker Publishing Group, finalizing the transaction in June, in order to focus on resourcing the church with curriculum rather than trade titles.

Click here to see Thornton’s introductory video, or for more information, go to GospelLightPartners.com.

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