Christian bookstores in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria and several other countries in the Pacific are aggressively promoting the company's "Share the Good News of Christmas" program, Crossway officials said.

The Crossway outreach materials--including a Christmas message from best-selling author Max Lucado, packaged in a white door-hanger bag with the New Testament--are available to stores in 50-set boxes for $35 each, to use to build relationships with local churches wanting materials for Christmas evangelism.

The CLC (Christian Life Community) Oasis Christian Store in the Lower North Island region of New Zealand has sold 8,000 gift bags so far, with most churches purchasing 50 to 200 bags each, Crossway officials said.

"This is great considering we only had one sample to show people," said Stewart Rowe, director of CLC New Zealand. "Only six churches saw the sample pack. All the rest ordered based on seeing a scanned image of each item in the bag along with a written description."

Rowe added that some churches will be distributing the bags at "light parties" on Saturday, Oct. 31, inviting people to come to their Christmas events and services.

Rowe's church home group is distributing the bags. "We have made the decision to personally visit people--not to leave the pack on doorknobs," he said. "We trailed the promotion pack on people who do not go to church, and the overwhelming opinion was that the non-Christian would come to a Christmas service if personally approached."