Christian Retailing

REGIONAL REPORT: New manager's third megachurch position Print Email
Written by Staff   
Tuesday, 12 April 2011 05:10 PM America/New_York

Veteran church bookstore leader Janet McKinley has taken over the retail reins at a third pastor-author’s congregation.

She has been appointed manager of The Bookstore at First Baptist Church, Atlanta, where Charles Stanley has served for more than 40 years. His In Touch program broadcasts internationally and he is the author of more than 30 books.

McKinley began her new job in December, after five years as assistant manager and buyer at the bookstore at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston. The store was named The Church Bookstore's Church Bookstore of the Year in 2007. Prior to that, McKinley was manager of the bookstore at Ed Young's Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas.

The 3,000-square-foot store at First Baptist, Atlanta is located near the Dunwoody church’s worship center and is staffed by paid employees and volunteers. In addition to Stanley's books and sermons—available on CD and DVD—the store sells other books, Bibles, gifts and children's products.

“We really want to grow the church store, and we want to do some outreach programs through the bookstore, to become a destination store for the area because there’s no other Christian bookstore around,” McKinley said.