Retailers are finding U.S. holiday sales growth weak this year in the wake of late October’s Hurricane Sandy and the ‘fiscal cliff’ stalemate in Washington, according to preliminary data.

Retail sales grew by 0.7% year-over-year in the Oct. 28-Dec. 24 period, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. In 2011, estimated holiday sales rose 2% and continued up in 2009-2010, rebounding from the recession that saw a holiday sales decrease 5.5% in 2008.

Earlier this year, "Where I Belong" set precedent as the first song to maintain No. 1 on the Billboard National Christian Audience chart for 15 consecutive weeks, passing singles by TobyMac and Phillips, Craig & Dean, who each held the top spot on the chart for 11 straight weeks. The song also peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard CHR chart.

Atlanta-based band Third Dayhas earned another Gold record with its 2006 album, Christmas Offerings (Essential Records/Provident Distribution). The achievement marks the band’s ninth career RIAA Gold Album Award.

B&H Publishing Group, Open Doors USA and International Mission Board will host a one-night event Jan. 8 featuring a rare U.S. appearance by Brother Andrew, founder of Open Doors, an international ministry that supports persecuted Christians. During the program, to be held at Riverdale Baptist Church in Upper Marlboro, Md., he and others will talk about what Christianity is like in restricted countries such as Somalia, North Korea and Iran.

Brother Andrew is the author of the international best-selling autobiography God’s Smuggler. He has been traveling on behalf of suffering Christians since 1955 and has visited an estimated 128 nations.

Tyndale House Publishers is set to release three new titles in January in its Digital-First program, adding to its earlier launch of four e-book-only titles and a series of seven e-book novellas.

The Digital-First program gives Tyndale the freedom to publish more books with emerging authors, supplying readers with additional choices in their favorite genres, including the most popular e-book genre: romance.

Philip Yancey, best-selling author of Where Is God When It Hurts?, will visit with those affected by the Dec. 14 Newtown, Conn., school shooting.

Addressing the question posed in the title of his book, Yancey will participate in a free, open-to-the-public weekend event Dec. 28-30 at Walnut Hill Community Church’s Bethel campus just outside Newtown. He and the church’s senior pastor, Clive Calver, will meet with the community’s families, teachers, first responders, parents and students who have been deeply affected by the tragedy.

“Healing and comfort—that’s what I want most for those dear people,” Yancey said. “Words can only do so much, and certainly cannot take away the pain, yet I hope that this event could be a place of safety and honesty where people can bring their grief and come away with a new appreciation for why the gospel is good news—even now, especially now.”

Christmas songs are seemingly everywhere during the holiday season—and Americans like to hear them. According to a recent study by LifeWay Research, 70% of Americans enjoy hearing Christmas songs in December and 86% of people believe school choirs and bands should be allowed to perform religious Christmas music.

However, in the November 2012 online survey of nearly 1,200 Americans, one in five Americans (21%) said that Christmas music is “overdone” in December, while 7% find it “annoying.”