Harvest House Publishers has unveiled a new company motto, Grow True, to go along with an updated corporate logo. Meanwhile, David C Cook has rebranded its Kingsway label as Integrity Music.

Harvest House President Bob Hawkins Jr. said the new motto and logo underscore the company's "focus on producing resources that encourage spiritual growth rooted in the life-nourishing truths of God's Word.

"Grow True conveys a positive message about the unchanging direction of our company and its products," he said. "It speaks simply of helping readers grow true into who God created them to be, no matter what their circumstances in life."

The motto affirms and builds upon Harvest House's mission statement: "To glorify God by providing high-quality products that affirm biblical values, help people grow spiritually strong and proclaim Jesus Christ as the answer to every human need."

Last month, Cook officially stopped using the Kingsway name, and all music is now released under Integrity Music. Cook acquired Kingsway in 1993, and in June 2011, reached a deal with Mobile, Ala.-based Integrity Media to acquire Integrity Music. Since the acquisition, both labels have operated as one unified team.

"We have spent these months sharing experience and expertise with a common goal to serve the local church through songs of substance," a Kingsway statement said. "We now feel that it is time to unite and work in the future as one global music label. The rebranding is the result of a period of careful global research, which revealed that Integrity Music had stronger recognition within the international worship community. The decision to move away from the much-loved Kingsway name was not taken lightly, but necessary in bringing clarity and focus to those we serve."

Kingsway artists include Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Brenton Brown and The City Harmonic.

The newly refreshed Integrity Music logo includes Kingsway's tag line, "The Sound of Worship," and retains its blue color.

Christian stores and suppliers are offering deals for Cyber Monday to capitalize on what are expected to be record sales for the official start of the online Christmas shopping season.

Spending for Cyber Monday (Nov. 26) is expected to exceed the $1.25 billion reached in 2011 for an increase of 20%—with sales approaching $1.5 billion or even higher, according to data from ComScore. Spending on Cyber Monday has more than doubled in the past five years.

With a limit of three per item per order, LifeWay Christian Stores is running a Cyber Monday sale, including offering $5 for Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman (Zondervan); Crazy Love by Francis Chan (David C Cook); and Heaven Changes Everything by Todd and Sonja Burpo (Thomas Nelson). The chain's other online specials include $10 for NIV Adventure Bible (Zonderkidz); The Action Bible (David C Cook) and The Gaither Homecoming Bible (Thomas Nelson).

Blessings Christian Marketplace, a chain of four stores based in Chilliwack, British Columbia, is running a Cyber Monday sale, including offering free shipping and 10% discount on all purchases.

Among suppliers, Christian Audio is offering direct-to-consumer Cyber Monday deals, including a free A Happy Trails Christmas audiobook by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (Revell/Baker Publishing Group) with the purchase of any audiobook.

Marcher Lord Press is offering a pre-order Cyber Monday deal—$5 discount on the $34.99 retail price—on its first hardcover book for A Throne of Bones by Vox Day. Chalice Press is touting its biggest Cyber Monday Sale ever, offering free shipping and 30% discount on purchases up to $5,000.

Cyber Monday arrives on the heels of data showing a record number of shoppers hit the stores on the Thanksgiving weekend. ComScore's data showed that online sales for Black Friday, Nov. 23—the day after Thanksgiving and the official start of the Christmas shopping season—surpassed $1 billion for the first time. Sales rose 26% to $1.04 billion from $816 million seen on Black Friday in 2011.

The National Retail Federation estimates that overall sales in November and December will rise 4.1% this year to $586.1 billion, below last year's 5.6% growth. The online part of that is expected to rise 15% to $68.4 billion, according to Forrester Research.

"This Black Friday was by far the biggest ever," said Britt Beemer, founder and chairman of America's Research Group who is known for his Christian retail channel studies. "We've never seen 60% of consumers shop in a 12-14-hour window like we've seen this year."

William P. Young's Cross Roads (FaithWords) debuted at No. 20 on the General best-sellers from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), tracking sales for the week ending Nov. 17, according to Pubtrack Christian data. Young's follow-up to his Christian publishing sensation, The Shack (Windblown Media/Hachette Book Group) was released Nov. 13.

The Top 20 General best-sellers were: 1. Jesus Calling, Sarah Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); 2. I Declare, Joel Osteen (FaithWords); 3. Jesus Calling, Young, large print deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 4. Selections From One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp (Zondervan); 5. The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn (FrontLine/Charisma House Book Group); 6. Jesus Today, Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); 7. Praying God's Word, Beth Moore (B&H Books); 8. Love Does, Bob Goff (Thomas Nelson); 9. Heaven Is for Real, Todd Burpo (Thomas Nelson); 10. The Bridge, Karen Kingsbury (Howard Books); 11. Jesus Calling, Young, deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 12. Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas (Thomas Nelson); 13. Same Kind of Different as Me, Ron Hall, Denver Moore (Thomas Nelson); 14. Just Walk Across the Room, Bill Hybels (Zondervan); 15. Grace, Max Lucado (Thomas Nelson); 16. Abundant Life Day Book, Nancy Guthrie (Tyndale House Publisher); 17. Multiply, Francis Chan, Mark Beuving (David C Cook); 18. One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp (Zondervan); 19. The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman (Northfield Publishing); and 20. Cross Roads.

The Top 10 Fiction best-sellers were: 1. The Harbinger; 2. The Bridge; 3. Cross Roads; 4. A Wreath of Snow, Liz Curtis Higgs (WaterBrook Press); 5. Full Disclosure, Dee Henderson (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 6. The Bridesmaid, "Home to Hickory Hollow" No. 2, Beverly Lewis (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 7. The Christmas Pony, Melody Carlson (Revell/Baker Publishing Group); 8. Coming Home, Karen Kingsbury (Zondervan); 9. The Sanctuary, Ted Dekker (Center Street); and 10. The Shack.

The top five Bibles were: 1. The Story, NIV, deluxe, hardcover, New International Version (Zondervan); 2. NLT Chronological Life Application Study Bible, hardcover, New Living Translation (Tyndale); 3. NIV Adventure Bible, hardcover, New International Version (Zonderkidz); 4. NLT One Year Bible, softcover (Tyndale); and 5. NIV Adventure Bible, Italian Duo-Tone, chocolate/hot pink (Zonderkidz).

Christian stores and suppliers are offering deals for Black Friday, Nov. 23, the day after Thanksgiving and the official start of the Christmas shopping season.

Family Christian Stores is advertising a 12-page Black Friday circular on its website, spotlighting a Black Friday 50% discount—the chain's "lowest price ever"—on all wall art. 

Family is also offering $5 Doorbusters on several products, including Matt Redman's 2011 CD 10,000 Reasons (sixstepsrecords/EMI CMG) and the 2013 Women's Daily Planner: Amazing Grace (Christian Art Gifts).

LifeWay Christian Stores is running a two-day After Thanksgiving sale on Friday, Nov. 23 and Saturday, Nov. 24, including offering Positively Christmas CDs featuring various artist (WarnerCurb/Word Distribution), for $5.  

"Black Friday is certainly important to us because it seems so important to many of our customers," Scott Chancey, director of marketing for LifeWay Christian Stores, told Christian Retailing. "We want to do the best we can to make choosing Christian products high on their list."

Berean Christian Stores is touting a Pre-Thanksgiving Sale on its Facebook page, spotlighting a 50% discount on select DVDs.

"Black Friday is a significant day of opportunity for ministry since we have the opportunity to reach consumers who might not normally shop Christian retail," said Bill Nielsen, chief operating officer of Berean Christian Stores. "We take advantage go the higher-than-normal traffic and invite our customers to join with us in giving hope to those in need. This year we are donating money and Bibles to Samaritan's Purse to help those afflicted by the recent hurricane in the northeast."

Johnsen & Taylor in Wheaton, Ill.—Tyndale House Publishers' joint venture with Christian Art Gifts and South Africa-based Christian Publishing Company—is offering $5 Doorbusters Nov. 23, including Fireproof (Eric Wilson's novelization of the hit movie, Thomas Nelson) and Laura Story's Blessings (Fair Trade Services/Provident Distribution).

Among suppliers, Know Him apparel company is offering Black Friday Deals, with T-shirts starting at $8.99. Christian Audio is also planning a big sale announcement Black Friday and will have exclusive deals for its social media fans and followers Cyber Monday, Nov. 26.

According to the National Retail Federation's preliminary Black Friday shopping survey, up to 147 million people plan to shop post-Thanksgiving weekend, a slight decrease from the 152 million who planned to do so last year.

Christian-owned-and-operated Hobby Lobby Stores and sister company, Mardel Christian & Education, didn't receive the outcome founder and CEO David Green wanted in yesterday's federal court case.

U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton ruled Nov. 19 that the Oklahoma City-based companies must provide the "morning after" and "week after" pills under new federal healthcare rules that begin Jan. 1. If they don't, the companies will face fines of up to $1.3 million per day.

"We disagree with this decision and we will immediately appeal it," said Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. "Every American, including family business owners like the Greens, should be free to live and do business according to their religious beliefs. The Green family needs relief now, and we will seek it immediately from the federal appeals court in Denver."

TobyMac won the Contemporary Inspirational Favorite Artist category of the 40th annual American Music Awards (AMA), held Sunday, Nov. 18, in Los Angeles.

TobyMac, who won the award for the first time after his fourth career nomination, was chosen by fans over Jeremy Camp and the Newsboys.

This was the second consecutive year that TobyMac had been nominated for the prize's sole category dedicated to Christian music, with last year's award won by Casting Crowns.

"This is my first AMA," said TobyMac, after learning he won the award before his set at the Winter Jam West Coast Tour in Fresno, Calif. "I still can't believe it. It is so meaningful to me because the people I'm thinking about when I'm writing these songs are the ones who vote."

Nominees in 20 categories from pop or rock to rap and hip-hop were determined from chart data, and fans chose the winners in online voting for the sixth year at the Coca-Cola AMA website, AMAs365.com.

Click here for a complete list of AMA winners.

In a victory for faith-based companies, a federal court Friday, Nov. 16, stopped enforcement of the Obama administration's abortion pill mandate against Tyndale House Publishers, which filed a health care lawsuit against the government Oct. 2.

In its opinion accompanying a preliminary injunction order in Tyndale House Publishers v. Sebelius, the court wrote that "the beliefs of Tyndale and its owners are indistinguishable. ... Christian principles, prayer and activities are pervasive at Tyndale, and the company's ownership structure is designed to ensure that it never strays from its faith-oriented mission."

"The court has no reason to doubt, moreover, that Tyndale's religious objection to providing insurance coverage for certain contraceptives reflects the beliefs of Tyndale's owners," the court continued. "Nor is there any dispute that Tyndale's primary owner, [Tyndale House] Foundation, can 'exercise religion' in its own right, given that it is a nonprofit religious organization; indeed, the case law is replete with examples of such organizations asserting cognizable free exercise and RFRA [Religious Freedom Restoration Act] challenges."

Tyndale House, based in Carol Stream, Ill., is the world's largest privately held Christian publisher of books, Bibles and digital media, directing 96.5% of its profits to religious nonprofit causes worldwide. The publisher specifically objects to covering abortion pills. The court's order is the third nationwide against the health care mandate, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

"Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman, who argued before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Nov. 9. "The court has done the right thing in halting the mandate while our lawsuit moves forward. For the government to say that a Bible publisher is not religious is startling. It demonstrates how clearly the Obama administration is willing to disregard the Constitution's protection of religious freedom to achieve certain political purposes."

The administration argued that Tyndale House "isn't religious enough" for an exemption from the mandate, a component of Obamacare that forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception under threat of heavy penalties.

The publisher is subject to the mandate because Obama administration rules say for-profit corporations are categorically non-religious, even though Tyndale House is strictly a publisher of Bibles and other Christian materials and is primarily owned by the nonprofit Tyndale House Foundation. The foundation provides grants to help meet the physical and spiritual needs of people around the world.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld "Obamacare" as constitutional. Formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Obamacare includes a "preventive services" mandate issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which forces businesses to provide the morning-after and "week-after" pills—without co-pay—in their health insurance plans.

In September, Hobby Lobby and its sister company, Mardel Christian & Education, filed a similar suit, claiming the government mandate is forcing the company's owners "to violate their deeply held religious beliefs under threat of heavy fines, penalties and lawsuits." Failure to provide the drugs in the company's health insurance plan could lead to fines of up to $1.3 million a day. That case is still pending.