Christian retail offers for the week of April 20

With the April 23 Dove Awards ceremony cap stoning the Christian music world's annual GMA Week gathering in Nashville, music tops the promotions for Parable and Mardel Christian Education & Supply.

Parable store shoppers are offered 20% off all 2009 Dove nominees, and encouraged to vote for the Artist and New Artist of the Year categories. The Parable emailing also offers Christian rock favorites Jars of Clay's new album, The Long Fall Back to Earth (Provident) for the online price of $11.88, reduced from $13.98.

Mardel goes further with its New Music emailing, selling the Jars album for $8.99. In addition, the Mardel offer includes "New Voices, Great Prices," with albums by Sarah Reeves, Philmont and Danyew available or $5 each.

Dove nominees including Chris Tomlin (Hello Love) are among the Albums of the Month selling for $9.97 at Family Christian Stores.

LifeWay Christian Stores is promoting a One Week Sale, through April 25, on the NIV Life Application Study Bible, with $69.99 and $79.99 priced editions available for $34.99. As part of a Mother's Day focus, the chain is offering the Grandmother's Bible NIV for $10 off the regular $49.99 retail price. Comedian Chonda Pierce's DVD, Staying' Alive Laughing! is reduced from $14.98 to $5.

Comedian Dennis Swanberg releases his book The Man Code (Freeman-Smith LLC), along with co-writer Ron Smith, on May 1. In this Q and A, he explains his passion for men's ministry, how retailers can attract more male shoppers and the challenges of Christian comedy.

Coming in at No. 18 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, the album sold close to 30,000 units just in its first week. And also topped the Christian SoundScan chart at No. 1.

Currently the band is headlining The Rock & Worship Roadshow tour, which includes Christian music artists Jeremy Camp, Hawk Nelson, Tenth Avenue North and Addison Road. The MercyMe shows from the tour are available for viewing on the band’s Web site, MercyMeTV.

The tour dates wrap up April 19. For more information, visit the tour Web site.

As Ted Dekker releases BoneMan's Daughters (Center Street), his biggest push to general market audiences, the author has revealed the intensely personal inspiration for the novel on his blog.

Cue Bette Midler vocals...”Did I ever tell you you're my hero?” For those of you who never did, shame on you. But now there's another chance now on the Web site called “The Noticer Project.” Inspired by the Andy Andrews book The Noticer (Thomas Nelson) releasing April 28, the site gives visitors a chance to pin down the five most influential people in their lives. From that point, they decide how to best “notice” the person – whether taking them to coffee, writing a note or building a monument (I made that last one up).

Other than paying honor to those who deserve it, “The Noticer Project” will also help draw more attention to the title, helping to “really move books” at retail, said Rusty Shelton, managing director of Phenix & Phenix, which, along with Andrews and publisher Thomas Nelson, is helping to promote the site: “We are seeing great buzz so far.”

The book follows a mysterious character named Jones who appears at crisis moments to offer advice to strangers. Andrews writes,”when we notice things about ourselves and other people that allow us all to regroup, take a breath, and begin our lives again, the best is surely yet to come.”

Are there five people who've contributed to your life in a meaningful way? I think the hardest part will be whittling your list down to just five. Also, will the key influencers also be your best friends or is it something to consider that sometimes even your enemies have contributed to your current path? Perhaps even strangers?

Christian Retail Offers for the week of April 6

DVDs and music feature strongly in Easter week offerings, with Family Christian Stores promoting the new part-animation, part-live action adaptation of the children's classic book, The Velveteen Rabbit, for $19.99, reduced from $24.99.

The chain also presents a series of other movies for $10 each, including the pro-life drama, Bella, the historical adventure, The Final Inquiry, and the evangelistic, The Ultimate Gift. In addition, the comedy concert special, Class Clowns, features as part of the '12 Days of Easter' online special offering select items for $5 each. The DVD normally retails for $14.99.

Mardel Christian Education & Supply offers Flywheel, an earlier movie from the makers of the smash hit, Fireproof, for $5. Mardel also promotes its Easter Book & Bible Sale on April 11, which will see 25% reductions on all books, Bibles and software. Select items will be 33% to 75% off, with shoppers able to register to win a $500 gift card.

The same day, the chain will also present an assorted bargain books special, with three-for$10. Among the more than 150 titles included in the special are Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now and Stormie Omartian's The Power of a Praying Wife.

VeggieTales' An Easter Carol DVD is on sale for $9.99, down $3 from the regular price, in Parable stores' 'Easter Gifts for Little Hearts' mailing. Other items include Zonderkidz's The Beginner's Bible for $11.97 (usually $16.99).

CLC Christian Bookcenters promotes its digital music store, offering downloads of more than 300,000 songs by Christian artists.

Aames--who also starred as superhero Bibleman in videos from 1995-2004--filed for bankruptcy last year and sold off his belongings March 26, The Kansas City Star reported. After struggling for years with drug and alcohol addictions, Aames, 48, became a Christian and an ordained minister.

If you're not sure what the emerging church is, you're not alone. Judging from this lively debate, which took place at Christian Book Expo (CBE), authors Tony Jones and Scot McKnight seem to say it's hard to define exactly what it is. Kevin DeYoung, a co-author of Why We're Not Emergent (Moody Publishers), square off against the two during the presentation, which also includes Alex and Brett Harris, authors of Do Hard Things (Multnomah Books).

During a breakfast at International Christian Retail Show 2008, Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence (Baker Books), seemed to sum up at least part of the movement by saying it's a modern Reformation, changing Christianity from an entirely Scripture-based approach to one that accommodates for some emotion and feeling. Jones' comments in the video support that when he says it would make people “uncomfortable” to know his views on the reliability of Scripture.

I think there's a bit of an identity crisis going on or at the very least a strong resistance to labels. McKnight points out there are more conservative theologies included in the movement and doesn't seem to like them all lumped together. After the debate, I asked author Donald Miller, since his name was mentioned as a leader and he pointed out that he attends a non-emergent church. He seems to refuse the label and being drawn into the discussion. Rob Bell (Jesus Wants to Save Christians), another author frequently drawn into the mix, pretty much said the same thing when I asked him last year.

Maybe labels could be done away with (which we all know isn't going to happen) or perhaps a new set are needed for a group that is a little more diverse and less united than many thought.

As a retailer displaying books by all the authors mentioned, perhaps side by side, how do you direct your customers to what they are looking for and handle the complaints from those purchasing a book they discover they strongly disagree with?

Check the video out here.

The Gospel Music Association (GMA) announced the final nominations for the 2009 Dove Awards in the Songwriter of the Year category. Nods went to Steven Curtis Chapman, Natalie Grant, Brandon Heath, Jason Ingram and Tony Wood.

The winner in this category will be named during the 40^th annual Dove Awards on April 23 at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. The awards will be broadcast live on the Gospel Music Channel at 8 p.m. EST.

To find out the nominees in other award categories or to see how you can purchase tickets for the Dove Awards, visit the official Dove Awards Web site.

Have you ever attended the Dove Awards? If so, what was your favorite Dove Awards show moment?

The "main event" of last month's Christian Book Expo, the debate/panel discussion "Does the God of Christianity Exist?" featuring author Christopher Hitchens, Doug Wilson and Lee Strobel, has been posted. You can watch it here.

The discussion was the best attended event at the show, even drawing a few Hitchens supporters from the Dallas area. Although the moderator provided some personal perspective, some of the people I spoke with felt he overstepped his bounds to engage Hitchens, taking time away from the panelists. Still, it's an informative panel. Take a look and let us know what you think in our comments section.

Patrick Morley, author of the best-seller Man in the Mirror (Zondervan) has gone the self-publishing route on his latest release, How to Survive the Economic Meltdown, and is even giving away digital copies on his Web site www.survivethemeltdown.org.

“A lot of parents can't afford to take their kids to McDonald's, much less afford a book,” Morley said. “I know what they're feeling – and I want to help.”

Since launching a few weeks ago, more than 20,000 copies of the book have been downloaded or sold (hard copies are offered for $9 on the Web site).

Morley speaks from his experience as a former real estate developer who fought off bankruptcy during an economic crisis in 1986.

Man in the Mirror, Morley's most popular book, has sold more than three million copies.

Christian Retail Offers for the week of March 30

Parable stores offer a free preview of the latest installment of the successful "Nooma" video series.

Corner, the 23rd of pastor-author Rob Bell's short videos, can be viewed online at the Parable Web site April 3-5.

The screening invitation is included in a "Share Your Faith" mailing that offers the "Nooma" titles for $9.97 each for online purchases, reduced from $12.99. Discounted books include Lee Strobel's The Case for Faith, down from $14.99 to $9.97. Parable also offers 20% off featured nominees for this year's Dove Awards.

Music is a focus for Mardel Christian & Educational Supply, too, with a $5 CD sale through April 11. Albums by Skillet, Mercy Me, Sara Groves, The Afters and Vota are among those available. Special editions are excluded.

Mardel also presents a "Bargain Bibles" special. Among the offers are the TNIV Thinline in blue-cream DuoTone reduced from $25.99 to $7.49, and the ESV Wide Margin hardcover, down from $34.99 to $11.24.

Family Christian Stores' "Easter Gift Ideas for the Whole Family" mailing spotlights framed art, with a coupon for 33% off any purchase of $50 or more. A separate mailing offering 50% off select women's titles also reduces Max Lucado's His Name is Jesus from $24.99 to $14.99.

The Lucado title is also featured by LifeWay Christian Stores, which offers savings of up to 55% on "Eggcellent Easter Essentials." LifeWay presents the Lucado book for $17.99, while the NIV Compact Thinline Bible is available for $10. The usual retail price is $22.99.

No, it's not for a scarier version of Left Behind or an evangelical re-imagining of Carrie, but the two best-selling authors team up for a conversation on writing in the April 4 issue of Writer's Digest, hitting newsstands on Friday. The duo appear on the cover, which announces “Stephen King and Jerry B. Jenkins: An Epic Conversation on Writing.”

On his blog, Jenkins recalls how the unlikely relationship between the two authors was spawned by their concern for a mutual friend, Frank Mueller, who had done audiobooks for each author and had been critically injured in a motorcycle accident. Jenkins describes his surprise at learning that King was familiar with his work.

During the conversation I said, “It may surprise you to know that I’m a reader of yours.” I told Stephen that while I wasn’t into horror fiction, I had read many of his short stories and that The Green Mile was one of my favorite novels.

He said, “It may surprise you to know that I’m a reader of yours.”

Surprised doesn’t begin to describe it. Frank had given him copies of some of the "Left Behind" series.

In a scene in Wednesday's night Lost, main character Jack barges into another character's house to find out what they're going to do to get out of the mess they were in. He discovers Sawyer sitting reading a book and questions him on it. “It doesn't look like you're doing something about it, it looked like you were reading a book.” Sawyer then argued “I heard Winston Churchill read a book every night, even during the blitz. He said it made him think better.”

That prime-time book plug, ironically during an addictive TV show, should remind viewers that books aren't just something to pass the time away but a valuable resource, even when they don't seem to fit in the schedule. They not only provide escape but help exercise the mind to make better informed decisions. As Christians, there's an even more valuable element.

While technology offers more distractions from reading, it also has the potential to make it easier to squeeze it in, like audiobooks, eBooks, etc. Last week in Dallas, author Thelma Wells made the humorous point that there's no excuse for not reading the Bible; “You know they even have it in DVD.” How many formats do you have your Bible in? How many audio or eBooks do you have? Do you find it makes it easier to fit reading into your schedule or is it still a discipline you have to exercise?

With all the new technologies, are you reading more books or less? How often do you read? And how are your customers' reading habits changing?

Following the lead of Keith Green, Carman and church potlucks everywhere, new artist and former American Idol contestant Chris Sligh's upcoming tour concerts will allow listeners a chance to pay what they can for a night of Christian music.

“The Stimulus Package” tour, kicking off in the fall with Aaron Shust, will open doors to listeners for a suggested donation of $10 but encourage them to give what they can. The artists won't have a guarantee but will take the financial risks themselves. Is it a sign of the times that tours like Slighs and NewSong's WinterJam tours  (which also do a $10 at the door) offer flexible and/or optional pricing?

As a retailer, insider or Christian music listener, what do you think? Will most attendees give the suggested $10 or less or more?  Is it a return to the roots of Christian music or a clever marketing strategy?