Ministry focus at Retailing ReBoot West, next month

Christian store owners, managers and workers will learn how to maximize the personal impact of their services, at next month’s Retailing ReBoot West.

Customer connections and customer experience are among the topics to be addressed in educational sessions at Christian Retailing’s Oct. 17-18 event at Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos, Calif.

Store and supplier representatives will be taking part in a series of presentations and panel discussions also looking at key Bible and book categories and how to respond to the challenge presented by digital publishing. There will also be a focus on how stores can organize effective live events. George Thomsen, CBA chairman and bookstore consultant, is due to be among the participants.

In addition to looking at hot topics, Retailing ReBoot West will also include times of fellowship and inspiration and an exhibit floor featuring leading suppliers.

The event is being staged following the success of Retailing ReBoot in Orlando, Fla., in April. That show gave Rose Seeley, manager of Cottonwood Bookstore at Cottonwood Church, “more practical information and ideas than I have ever got from any one show I have been to.”

Seeley said: “I love ReBoot because of its size and atmosphere. It’s intimate and therefore conducive to connecting and collaborating with others. "I’m so excited that Cottonwood Church is hosting the first Retail ReBoot West because that opportunity will be made more available to churches and other stores in the West. 

“It’s part of Cottonwood’s DNA to help and empower people in ministry in order to see them succeed and flourish, so the partnership is an ideal one. Retailing ReBoot West is an opportunity not to be missed.”

For more information or to register, go to www.retailingreboot.com or email Derek Bjork at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call him at 407-333-0600, ext. 2283.

Gift leader Aurelio Barreto preaches what he practices in his innovative C28 stores

Forget selection or even product knowledge—when it comes to Christian stores’ real competitive edge, the answer is outreach, says Aurelio Barreto.

“What good is it going to a Christian store if you are not going to get prayed for?” asks the founder of the C28 chain whose edgy style and mall presence has earned secular media attention. “Prayer is powerful,” he said. “That is the competitive edge, prayer and evangelism. You evangelize somebody and you have a customer for life.”

More than 17,000 decisions for Christ have been recorded by C28 staff in the last decade, with new believers being given a free Bible and discipleship materials and being referred to a local church.

The stores’ strong ministry is born out of Barreto’s personal experience. Brought to the U.S. from Cuba by his parents, Barreto became a multimillionaire through a pet products company. But he was still dissatisfied, even contemplating suicide before being led to Christ by the principal of his children’s school.

Matching his newfound faith with his business smarts led to C28. Barreto’s efforts were recognized at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in Atlanta in July, when Barreto received one of the first Champions of the Faith awards presented to industry leaders by hosts CBA and the Premier Foundation.

In a living example of his conviction, the 52-year-old used his acceptance opportunity to briefly share his personal testimony, then ask all those attending the ceremony to bow their heads in prayer while he invited those who wanted to receive Christ to raise their hands.

Later at ICRS Barreto shared his passion for prayer and evangelism with other retailers in a special workshop, “Fulfilling the Great Commission on the Sales Floor.”

“Tell me one person who cannot benefit from prayer,” Barreto said. “We offer to pray with everyone. People are blown away that we take the time.”

Outreach has been the focus of C28—whose name comes from Col. 2:8—since Barreto opened the first store in Southern California in 2000. It has been followed by more than a dozen—all in malls—though several have closed because of the economy. C28 currently operates in nine locations, two of which are franchises.

As well as serving as missionary outposts, the stores are test beds for Barreto’s Not of This World fashions and other apparel brands that sell widely in Christian and general market stores. 

“It makes you a better supplier,” he said of his stores. Testing new designs in-house first “allows me to go to a retailer with a selection that is fresh and proven.” The retail operations mean that Barreto is closely familiar with the challenges faced by Christian stores.

When C28 began, 25% of sales were for music. The category now accounts for just 4% of revenues. “The kids will come into our stores and will listen to the CD (that is playing) and download it right there,” he said.

Because of their predominantly Southern California location—two stores are in Virginia—where “people are not spending as they were,” C28 stores have been especially hit by the down economy, Barreto said. But he remains committed to his vision. “The economy is too tough to consider expanding right now. We are battening down the hatches and trying to weather the storm.”

He is optimistic, though. “I have been made to go through a few trials, and I have had to really let go because I had no choice, but once I truly let go, I realized that God was faithful and He was the one who supplied all my needs.”

As digital publishing also starts to affect print book sales, Barreto believes that diversifying into gifts is vital for stores. “There will always be a need for books and music—I still carry both,” said the gift industry representative on CBA’s board. But “gifts are the future.”

When not working on new designs for his apparel lines or traveling to share his testimony at business schools and churches, Barreto visits C28 stores weekly to see how they are doing. His greatest satisfaction comes “when people give their life to the Lord,” he said. “When one of the store kids calls me and leaves a message on my voice mail saying, ‘Aurelio, praise God, I just led a 16-year-old to the Lord,’ it’s cool.”

POD inventory offers 200-plus foreign-language editions in previously unserved 'heart languages'

STL Distribution North America (STLD) has added a virtual Bible library to its inventory to help stores find and tap into new markets in their local communities.

The Elizabethton, Tenn.-based wholesaler is making available more than 200 foreign-language Bibles and New Testaments for overnight shipping through its new print-on-demand program (POD).

Being offered through a partnership with the Virtual Storehouse ministry, the Scriptures are being made available in languages like Uzbek, Caquinte and Siriono. With 31 ethnicities having a population of 1 million-plus in the U.S. and more than 30 million people speaking a primary language other than English or Spanish, the need for Bibles is being matched with new technology, company officials said.

Slow turns of stock prevented stores from carrying books in obscure languages in the past, but digital publishing means such Bibles can be printed in minutes when needed. Special orders placed with STLD can be printed and shipped the same day, consolidated with the store’s other items ordered from the distributor.

“This is a natural fit for us, and we are thrilled to help distribute God’s Word in the heart languages of another couple hundred tongues and dialects,” said Rick Regenfuss, STLD’s vice president of merchandising.

Don Olson, president of Virtual Storehouse, said that even though translations have been completed in many foreign languages, some of these Bibles have poor distribution. “Previously it has not been economically feasible to ship internationally from the region of origin,” he said. 

But STLD’s POD program—an alliance with technology provider Snowfall Press and printer Dickinson Press launched in May—“has dramatically improved this situation,” he added.

Digital options fuel interest in pictured-based editions and let Christian artists bypass 'publishing gatekeepers'

Fueled by the latest big-budget Hollywood release based on a comic book hero, interest is growing in Christian graphic novels.

As Captain America debuted at No. 1 in the box office in July, creators of faith-based comic books were reporting heightened openness to titles with spiritual themes and topics.

Among those seeing business growth is Kingstone Media Group (KMG), whose titles are now being distributed to secular stores by Diamond Comic Distributors, the biggest provider to comic book retailers.

Kingstone Comics titles are also increasingly popular with church and other Christian stores, said the company’s publisher and CEO, Art Ayris. Kingstone has even opened its own 600-square-foot bookstore at its Leesburg, Fla., church campus-based headquarters.

With new imprints coming in early 2012—Chronicles Media for historical and educational titles, Valor for military themes and Classix for adaptations of classic literature—Kingstone has exhibited at several recent major publishing events, including a heightened presence at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in July.

“We want to become the Marvel (Comics) of the faith market, and so we really just wanted to make a statement that we are here,” Ayris said of the ICRS booth. “We have grown to the point where we are really serious about the market. Adding to Kingstone’s current 25 titles will be a series that will build towards a complete graphic Bible.”

Meanwhile, the company has also seen success with its Bay Forest Books imprint of novels. Recent release The Disappearing Man by Doug Peterson—based on the true story of a slave who mailed himself to freedom in a large box—has been optioned for a movie. Another new title promoted at ICRS was 1 Step Away, a modern-day retelling of the story of Job by Eric Wilson, author of the best-sellingFireproof novelization (Thomas Nelson).

KMG also had a presence at Book Expo America in May and Comic-Con International in July in San Diego, which drew more than 100,000 comic book and movie fans. Kingstone President and COO Steve Blount was among the panelists for a discussion on “Christian Comics: The Calling of the Artist” at Comic-Con.

Also taking part in the presentation was Sergio Cariello, the former DC Comics and Marvel Comics artist who illustrated The Action Bible, an updating of David C. Cook’s successful The Picture Bible, released last year.

The discussion was part of a series of events organized at Comic-Con by the Christian Comic Arts Society (CCAS), in partnership with Chalice Press. The publisher’s Marvelous Myths: Marvel Superheroes and Everyday Faith by Russell W. Dalton, was handed out to attendees by CCAS representatives.

Another Comic-Con exhibitor was Robert James Luedke, with a limited edition of his The Collected Eye Witness Slipcase Set, bringing together his Christian-themed graphic novels that have won five independent book awards.

Luedke attributed the growing openness to faith-based comic books in part to digital publishing developments. 

“I’d been approached by several well-known comic pros over the years who expressed their admiration for what I was doing and who confessed they’d always wanted to tell a faith-based story, but there just wasn’t a vehicle or publisher to whom they could bring the idea,” he said. “That’s where the digital age comes in. 

“Even more creators can bypass the publishing gatekeepers—many of which who are not friendly to anything with an 
evangelical slant to it—and self-publish their projects with distribution directly to the end users through digital platforms,” Luedke added. 

“This allows them to publish their works digitally or as a Web comic and build a fan base, where eventually they can then publish graphic novels or collections of their works in the traditional sense.”