Christian retailers need to get over their “grasshopper complex” and see the importance of their role in providing Christian products, said CBA President Bill Anderson, who also made an appeal for greater retailer-supplier unity in the industry.

The story of Joshua and Caleb and the other spies who went into Canaan was a reminder that “we need to remember God's perspective,” Anderson said yesterday at the CBA members' breakfast reception.

“As the prophet prayed that God would pull back the curtains to help his servants see the chariots of fire that were around them, we need to remember that God is working with us,” he said.

With CBA supplier members invited to the early morning event for the first time, Anderson asked them to help Christian retailers. The industry is too small to be fragmented, he said. “We have such a small tea cup that it's easy to get a tempest,” he said, but “we need each other.”

The Christian retail channel “cares about what it says, not just sales,” Anderson said, and Christian suppliers who are seeing open doors in the general market need people to stand with them against those who might “try to wear them down” regarding content. Suppliers need to be able to tell those who might want to see Christian content watered down that there were those who “won't tolerate this type of slippage.”

Despite the growth of Christian product sales elsewhere, Anderson said, the Christian retail channel has growth potential. “We need to find those opportunities and exploit them,” he said. Christian retailers need to improve their skills, to become “compelling retailers.”

“We owe that responsibility as retailers, but suppliers also need to hear that we know we can't do it alone, and we need your help, and we need to work together,” Anderson said.

Second-generation retailer Todd Whitaker, manager of New Life Christian Stores in Lynchburg, Va., told attendees: “Don't complain about the vendors and the competition. Do the best with what you know. God will help you.”

He suggested stores try new ideas, such as creating a new section for tween materials to draw younger customers, collecting e-mail addresses for marketing purposes and offering Wi-Fi connection spots to “give a reason for people to come into your store.”

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