If you haven't seen the Newsboys since they added singer Michael Tait, here's an early video from the band's album, due in May. Great song and with all that's happened in the world lately, a very timely message. What do you think?

newsboys "Born Again" *Official Music Video* from newsboys on Vimeo.

In an exclusive interview, Beth Moore explains the process behind her newest book, So Long Insecurity (Tyndale House Publishers), which releases February 2010.

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Special savings for last-minute Christmas shoppers lead the offers, with LifeWay Christian Stores providing a coupon for 33% off any one item. The "Last Minute Sale" deal is available in-store between 9 a.m. and noon on Dec. 18 and 19 only.

CLC Bookcenters offers two money saving specials on Dec. 18. Shoppers can get 20% of their entire non-sale purchases between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the Morning Glory Sale and 8 p.m.-midnight in the Midnight Gladness Sale. Church supply and curriculum products are excluded.

LifeWay's offers is extended with a week-long special on music, ending Dec. 19. Among the CDs reduced in price are Phillips, Craig and Dean's Fearless and Leeland's Love is on the Move, both down from $15.98 to $7.99. LifeWay is also giving away a $5 Bonus Bucks card with every $25-plus gift card purchase.

Parable stores' in-store coupon is tied to its effort to share the Christmas story with others. The Parable emailing offers a discount of 25% on one non-sale New Living Translation (NLT) Bible, valid in-store through Jan. 30, 2010. The "Give Christmas Away" email encourage shoppers to forward to their friends links to free downloads of the Christmas story and the gospel of John, in the NLT.

Family Christian Stores focuses on buys for children and teens, offering savings on JAMband, Dance Praise and Guitar Praise games. The chain is also taking 25% and more off selected Bibles for children and teens, with The faithGirlz Bible (NIV) down from $34.99 to $26.24. There is also 50% off all sweatshirts, tees and caps. The email includes a coupon for an additional 25% off customers' entire purchases.

Mardel Christian & Education presents a 50% saving on the duotone ESV Study Bible, reduced to $37.50, with children's Bibles available for $9.99. Sarah Palin's Going Rogue is offered at half price, $14.49.

Missionary bookselling leader David Almack offers some great food for thought in what he calls a manifesto for Christian retail "thrival."

The U.S. Director of CLC International, who oversees eight Christian bookstores in the country run by CLC missionaries, presents ten suggestions to help retailers "not only survive but to thrive in he new world that we live in," in his latest blog at http://faithlit.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/a-manifesto-for-christian-retail-thrival/

Among the highlights:

Focus on market niches. Though there is plenty of competition in the Bible marketplace, there is less competition for Bible accessories and Bible covers. Some other areas for niche thinking include kids, tweens and teens products, church supplies, gifts.

Embrace new media marketing. Migrating our marketing efforts to e-blasts, Facebook fan pages and blog posts is an essential. People want to receive their information in the ways that they are most familiar with and that is rapidly becoming online for most of us.

Be community focused. Our stores did not really begin to grow in any significant way until we began to understand our community and its specific needs.

Here are some questions to ask: What really matters to my customers? How can I make heart connections with the people I serve? What is going on in my community that I need to get involved in as an advocate? How can I make "local" a strength for my ministry, not a weakness?

Do events that matter. They are the proven method for driving traffic and bringing people back to your stores again and again (But) customers today are very busy people who do not have time to attend just "any kind" of event anymore. These events must be meaningful and targeted.

Consider some of the following: Kids' reading times for weary moms; Bible reference workshops for people not sure how to study the Bible; Sunday school and VBS workshops with new ideas for teachers to consider.

Read the rest of David's ideas and then let us know what you think—and offer your own suggestions—at our community forum.

One of the more interesting aspects of covering the gospel music business is discovering the occasional household names who release projects in the Christian market. I'm not talking about the time the supplier accidentally shipped a box of Madonna's Ray of Light to my local bookstore but actually projects more intentioned for Christian listeners.

In an exclusive audio interview, John and Stasi Eldredge speak to Assistant Editor DeWayne Hamby about their new book, Love & War, releasing Dec. 15, as well as Wild At Heart, Captivating and the ministry of Christian retail.

(photo by Joel Strayer)

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The news that the U.K.'s leading Christian retail chain is up for sale has prompted one pastor there to suggest it's time for a new look at the strategic role such stores can play.

The threat that hangs over the future of the 40-odd Wesley Owen stores currently run by IBS-STL UK—which is seeking a buyer for them, along with its publishing and distribution divisions—is "an opportunity for fresh mission thinking and creative partnership between churches and the high (main) street," suggests Simon Jones.

" After all, our neighbors are regularly on the high street and rarely in our buildings," he observes at his blog. "The high street offers something they want.

"Analysts argue that shopping is a leisure activity and a source of 'spiritual' fulfillment in the absence of traditional organized religion. Missional thinkers have been rightly identifying consumerism as a rival god over recent years which makes the high street the place where we should be—as Paul was in amongst the idols of Athens—living and modeling a different form of spirituality to our neighbors.

"And where better to do this than in a retail space that offers coffee, conversation, Internet access, books for browsing and buying, people to pray, space for groups to gather on a regular basis. The Christian bookshop could become a vital missional space with a bit of imagination on the part of church leaders and Christian retailers.

"So are we up for this or will we all be lamenting the passing of the Christian presence on the high street the next time we gather at a conference to talk about how to do mission?"

Christian retail offers for the week of Nov. 16

The chain's email centers on the announcement of the next film from the makers of Fireproof, not due in theaters until 2011. Using the news as an opportunity to promote special offers on Sherwood Pictures' back catalog, the email includes a link to a YouTube spot by Alex and Stephen Kendrick, introducing Courageous, to be filmed next year and centered on fatherhood.

Building on interest in the forthcoming movie—about a group of law enforcement officers—LifeWay is offering Fireproof for $19.99, down from $24.98, and the two previous titles (Facing the Giants and Flywheel) for $10 each, reduced from $14.98.

Casting Crowns' highly anticipated Until the Whole World Hears is featured on sale at Mardel Christian & Education Supply for $11.99 (usual price $13.99). The CD is priced at $11.97 at Parable stores, which also offers a 20%-off coupon for online purchases of the recording, through Saturday only.

Parable also spotlights the new God Sightings One Year Bible at $9.97, reduced from $12.99, and includes a special offer on its exclusive Christmas music collection, Simple Joys. The CD is reduced from $9.97 to $4.97, and available free with an in-store purchase of $50.

CLC Christian Bookstores' Deal of the Week is The Chronological Study Bible, usual price $44.99, reduced to $22.49. The chain's "Making Christmas Memories" mailing also offers 50% off the NKJV Study Bible, down to $19.99, and Max Lucado's Fearless down to $18.99 from $24.99.

One of the biggest breakouts of 2009 is coming to Christian stores in time for the Christmas shopping season.

The debut release from Susan Boyle, who became a household name after her debut on Britain's Got Talent, will arrive Christian stores on Nov. 23. I Dreamed a Dream, which will include the hymns “Amazing Grace” and “How Great Thou Art” and the Christmas classic “Silent Night,” will be distributed by Integrity Music to Christian retail.

Mardel Christian & Educational Supply is offering $5 books, DVDs and music, with featured titles such as Beverly Lewis' The Parting, David Jeremiah's The 12 Ways of Christmas and Max Lucado's You! God's Brand New Idea: Made to Be Amazing.

Movies include Facing the Giants and VeggieTales' Moe and The Big Exit, while the cut-price music includes Casting Crowns' self-titled debut album, Josh Wilson's Life Is Not A Snapshot and Barlow Girl's How Can We Be Silent: Special Edition.

The price is double at LifeWay Christian Stores for special-edition NIV Compact Thinline Bibles, reduced to $10 from $22.99. Meanwhile, the chain is offering Casting Crowns' November release, Until the Whole World Hears, for pre-purchase at $9.99—with two $5 savings cards thrown in.

At Parable stores, shoppers can get $10 off a registration for a Women of Faith conference, with a 20%-off offer on related books. With an eye toward the end of the month, Parable is also giving 20% off Halloween: What You Need to Know by Ron Rhodes and The Facts on Halloween by John Ankerberg, John Weldon & Dillon Burroughs.

To mark the release of Bruce Wilkinson's Sept. 15 release, You Were Born For This, Multnomah Books has repackaged the author's other popular titles in the same simple textual design of the new book.

Larry Downs, vice president and publisher at Thomas Nelson's Spanish division, Grupo Nelson, has dared to venture where many fear to tread—the sometimes disputed territory between Christian bookstores and church-based stores.

He has encouraged retailers annoyed by the "unfair" competition from church stores to turn the situation around and use it for good.

Downs writes about addressing the issue at a recent conference in Argentina, where several bookstore representatives were unhappy with a church bookstore that was there because they were "convinced that the (church) was taking away customers from their stores and had hugely unfaur advantages such as rent, salaries and utilities that were all covered by the church."

Asked for his verdict, Downs advised them to "stop blaming others." In his Oct. 5 posting at http://www.larrydowns.typepad.com/english, he recounts observing that "first we blamed the Internet... then the general market for carrying 'our' books... then the mass market... what's wrong with this picture-who will we blame tomorrow?"

Downs advised the stores to "look at yourself first," and examine their business from a consumer's point of view. "Do you even want to go into your own store? Why would anyone want to buy their books anywhere else than from you?"

Rather than just be mad, Downs recommended the retailers "look to form alliances," by perhaps offering to become a branch boosktore in a local church or exchanging exclusive recommendations with an existing church store. "Instead of trying to find an external reason for why your customers are growing thinner, think of ways that you can be creative to proactively go to where the people are."