Christian Retailing

REGIONAL REPORT: Detroit-area stores gather Print Email
Written by Staff   
Friday, 03 April 2009 09:55 AM America/New_York
altFor so many years I felt alone in ministry, but that changed about five years ago when I got involved with The Gathering of Church Bookstores.

Since that very first meeting at Strang Communications' offices in Lake Mary, Fla., I've had the opportunity to network and share ideas with a great group of church bookstore managers and volunteers. We recently held our first Detroit area Gathering and had a great time.

Luane Bastianelli and the team at Kensington Community Church in Troy, Mich., hosted our day and arranged "goodie bags" from several of their vendors. We spent the first part of our day getting to know one another and talking about some of our common issues-like P.O.S. systems and how to maximize sales. We also were given a tour of the Kensington Bookstore and campus.

We were fortunate to have two industry representatives who shared ideas with us: Karen Bilbrey from STL Distribution North America spoke about inventory and returns, and Michelle Amster from Integra GP taught about display and merchandising principles.

It was a great time to get away from our stores, take the blinders off and connect with one another. We all agreed that we'd love to share ideas, renew our spirits and sharpen our skills-and we'll be meeting again. If you have a store in the Detroit area and want to know more about our next gathering, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    -Susan Chipman

    Church Bookstore Network regional director for Region 5 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio) and director of retail services at Granger Community Church, Granger, Ind.