On Monday evening, more than 50 attendees representing industry leadership and retailers packed the presentation room in the ICRS Town Center to pray for the state of the Christian products industry, even having to bring in additional chairs.

Brian Banashak, owner of Evergreen Press, who organized the event, said he was encouraged by CBA's theme of providing "real help for your business."

"That's why we're gathering here," he said. "We need to reach out to the Lord for help with our industry."

The hour of prayer began with worship led by Leonard Scott, founder of Tyscott Records, followed by introductions by prayer leader John W. Stanko, author and speaker.

CBA President Bill Anderson said God can "use this difficult time in the industry" to bring Christians back to their first love, also adding that retailers and suppliers will be "held accountable for what we propagate."

"We need to be discerning with what we buy and sell," he said. "We've let market presence dictate to us."

Prayer was then held for Anderson specifically, with several individuals gathering around him. Then, various industry leaders and retailers led the crowd in eight prayers. The podium was then opened for individual prayers.

Christian-themed apparel company Kerusso held a press conference during the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) on Monday at 3:16 p.m. to announce the re-launch of its worldwide initiative in partnership with Compassion International. The campaign is called Live for Him: Waiting Children.

The program is being renewed with this launch. "Live for Him has been resting for a couple of years," Vic Kennett, president and CEO of Kerusso, said. "But I'm excited to tell you that Live for Him is back in action. These precious little ones deserve our help."

More than $300,000 has been donated through the program, the goal of which is $500,000.

A portion of the sale of Kerusso's "Live for Him" apparel will be donated to Compassion. Donation amounts from the sale of each product are $1, adult or youth T-shirts and caps; 50 cents, ring; and 25 cents, wristband. All proceeds will help the more than 150,000 unsponsored children.

Retail owners also can participate in Kerusso's Live for Him Mission Trip Giveaway, which began June 1, 2009, and runs through April 30, 2010. The winning store will receive a trip for two to a Compassion project site in Central America. Details are available at www.kerusso.com.

Stores should enlist Christian fiction fans to help grow the category, by offering them discounts or coupons to review or recommend good books, and tap into social media networks to maximize sales in what was identified as one of Christian retailing's richest veins.

Launched 30 years ago with the publication of Janette Oke's Love Comes Softly-still a best-seller-Christian fiction is now entering its "golden age," with a wide range of genres and great potential for more sales in Christian stores, said Rebeca Seitz, fiction author and owner of Glass Road Public Relations.

She teamed with consumer research specialist Kelly Gallagher, vice president of publisher services for R.R. Bowker, to present findings from recent surveys for Know Thy Customer: Going Deeper in Our Understanding, a special presentation in the Town Center seminar focused on fiction.

"Active Christians"-those with strong beliefs and involvement in a local church-made 53% of all fiction purchases at Christian retail stores, but only 17% of the novels they bought from all sources were Christian, attendees heard. The rest were general adult fiction titles-pointing to a great opportunity for Christian stores to recommend more Christian fiction to their core buyers, Seitz said.

Stores needed to do more than stock best-selling fiction, though, because their core fiction readers would likely go elsewhere to buy other books once they had read all that was available, she added. Seitz also suggested stores shelve by genre rather than author name, which made it more difficult for shoppers to find similar writers, she said.

Linda Epley, co-owner of The Lighthouse Christian Bookstore in Dickson, Tenn., appreciated the session. Having recently increased her store's fiction section, "I wanted to know more," she said, and plans to establish a Facebook account for her store as a result of what she had heard, to help promote the category.

Approximately 150 retailers learned Monday morning about turning mothers-who comprise a $1.7 trillion market-into evangelists and were presented with ways to strengthen their children's department based on CBA research.

"Moms with young children are great evangelists for your products," said children's market consultant and author Mary Manz Simon, who again hosted the popular Children's Product Trends event.

Curtis Riskey, CBA's strategic solutions executive, shared consumer data from CBA's report Know Thy Customer: Achieving High Performance Retailing During the Downturn.

"Children are a key customer group for Christian stores," said Riskey, who ran a Christian bookstore for eight years. "About half of active Christians reporting to the CBA consumer intelligence surveys have children at home, and nearly 40% are younger than 12 years.

"About a third of all children's books are purchased by households with children younger than 5, even though they comprise only about 14% of total households. More than 40% of children's product buyers are from adults-only households."

Joshua Williams-who also serves as manager of The Salt Shaker Christian Bookstore in Enumclaw, Wash., an hour south of Seattle-said he "always looks forward" to attending the children's workshop, which has been presented by Simon for the last 15 years. "Mary always has her finger on the pulse of children's trends," he said.

David Almgren-owner of Kidz on Earth, an online store based in Portland, Ore.-said the event was "very informative, especially the spending habits of moms." "It's helpful to hear about new products," he said. "Overall, it provides good information in understanding the consumer."

Terry-Lynn Cann, manager of Kingdom Connections in Hamilton, Bermuda, said the workshop was "spot on." "It's phenomenal that we are focusing on children's products," she said. "The whole event is a learning tool to help retailers to get kids to learn about Jesus."

The morning session ended with 16 suppliers, who donated products to be given away to the retailers in attendance, sharing about their latest children's releases. The vendors' donated items ran the gamut from DVDs to T-shirts, a bargain for the $25 entrance fee.

Around 20 small Christian publishers gathered Monday evening for the Publishers' Institute: Essential Skills for Entrepreneurs, a seminar sponsored by the Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA).

Held at the Hyatt Regency, the seminar included three presentations by leaders who relayed business insights on time management, digital publishing and viral marketing.

Anne R. Fenske, owner of Grace Acres Press, gave a presentation titled "Juggling the Publishing Plates: Time Management for Entrepreneurial Publishers," which included advice on legal matters and helpful software for small companies. Don Leeper, founder of BookMobile, presented information on digital publishing and eBooks.

Sarah Bolme, CSPA director, closed the evening with a workshop on "Internet Publicity for the New Millennium," including information on building Web traffic, social networking and online book video previews.

Retailers were presented with publishing options to share with their customers during the WinePress Publishing Gala held Monday morning at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS).

The company, which terms itself a "hybrid" of royalty and custom publishing, opened the session with a short video tour of its Washington state operations before introducing several of its recent authors to speak about their books. Authors included Sarah McCleary (Choosing to Forgive, Learning to Love), Gary Mitchell (Amos the Churchmouse), Carma Naylor (A Mormon's Unexpected Journey) and David Ray (Secrets Behind Closed Doors).

Carla Williams, publicity and editorial director, cited a July 2009 World magazine article that identified self-publishing as the "bright spot" in a "gloomy bookselling environment."

Barbour Publishing author Frances J. Roberts died June 23 in Ojai, Calif.

Roberts founded The King's Press in 1964, where she wrote and published the classic devotional Come Away My Beloved and eight other books, selling more than 1.5 million copies in the last 30 years.

After graduating from Moody Bible Institute in 1938, Roberts served as Florida's state director for Child Evangelism Fellowship, writing the popular "Wordless Book Song" during her tenure. An accomplished musician with 88 published hymns, Roberts also taught at a Spanish mission school and worked as a professional accompanist, performing at various churches.

Roberts is survived by three sons and a daughter, four grandchildren, three step grandchildren, two great grandsons and one great granddaughter.