If you're not careful, what started as a retail outlet can become much more—the church lost and found, the information desk for visitors, the place for members to sell whatever they want and the registration table for ministry events.

In other words, your church bookstore can become a dumping ground for the ministries and members of the church. After being inundated with all manner of requests, we discovered that the best way to handle them was to set guidelines and boundaries.

For example, several church members decided that the bookstore would be a great location to drop off materials for another member to pick up at a later date or after Sunday services. This would create a nightmare scenario for us when desk and counter space got covered with items.

The answer—create a policy that you do not accept anything from anyone unless it is for bookstore staff. All store employees should enforce this policy at the door, so customers won't have to discuss it with management every time a request is made.

If your store is like ours, you often get requests to borrow materials or to give them as donations for door prizes or special events. Remember, it is OK to say no at the time a request is made if you do not have anything to give away.

To avoid saying no all the time, consider keeping some items that are slightly damaged or some overstock merchandise for the purpose of helping ministries in need.

Requests to sell products from church members and non-members alike can become a nuisance for any church bookstore—especially when they come on a weekly, or daily, basis.

In the past, we have been overwhelmed with requests from everyone from the Bible encyclopedia salesman to a pastor's wife who made Bible covers to a member of the choir who would soon see the release of his first CD.

So, whenever someone makes a request, tell them you would be happy to review their book, listen to their CD or review their product if they leave it with you, and that a follow-up call will be made within two weeks.

Be flexible, though. Even with a policy in place to address every conceivable request made in the store, there will still be instances where you will have to make judgment calls on the spur of the moment.

-Terri Williams has managed Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship's bookstore in Dallas for more than 20 years.

-Click here to read the complete article: http://www.thechurchbookstore.com/a.php?ArticleID=17015.

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