In a blog posting with that title, he says how disappointed he has been to find so many peers who say they don't have the time to read the books they sell—or simply don't enjoy reading.

But, he says, in the current economic environment, "we must all become avid readers or we will die... No Christian retailer worth their salt can afford to ignore this aspect of their business. We all need to commit to put down our iPods and cell phones, turn off our televisions and take a Facebook fast.

"Making time every day and certainly every week to  immerse ourselves in books and authors that God has given us the privilege to represent has to be one of our biggest business priorities."

The U.S. Director of CLC International, overseeing a publishing house and eight stores, adds: "This may be a little harsh, but for those that say that they really do not enjoy reading, I would suggest that maybe they are in the wrong business or they need to reconsider their priorities.

"If a person is running a Christian retail store and really does not enjoy reading and still wants to stay in the business, they must at least have someone on their team who loves to read and can help instill this passion in the rest of the team... Reading is not optional for us as Christians and retailers, it is essential. Praise God that he has gifted so many people to put words together in such a way that they can actually change lives "

Almack is a member of Christian Retailing's editorial advisory board. Read his complete blog at http://faithlit.wordpress.com/

Here is the line-up for the eight-track Haiti benefit CD created for Christian Store Day, Oct. 23. Proceeds from the $5 collection will go to support efforts by Compassion International, Samaritan's Purse and World Vision.

Newsboys - "Build Us Back "
Tobymac - "All In"
Sanctus Real - "Face of Love"
Jeremy Camp - "Take a Little Time"
Francesca Battistelli - "Free To Be Me"
Sidewalk Prophets - "You Love Me Anyway"
BarlowGirl - "Stay With Me"
Group 1 Crew - "No Plan B (Remix)"

Streater opens with the candid story of her family's race to capture the American dream, their financial crisis and redemption. Speaking with integrity and with the wisdom of experience, she advises readers, shattering money myths and replacing them with sound biblical teaching in personal finance.

Your Money God's Way is a practical guide on how to reflect Christ to others through debt reduction, budgeting, tithing, giving and a financially responsible lifestyle. Heartfelt stories, scripture and practical application encourage personal growth.
--Andrealynn Boyd

Your Money God's Way
Amie Streater
Thomas Nelson
softcover, 224 pages, $14.99
978-1-595-55232-7
September 2010

Vic Kennett, president and CEO of leading Christian-themed apparel maker Kerusso, discusses the philosophy behind such "visual pun" designs as "Ourapostle" and "Abreadcrumb & Fish." Kerusso uses its shirts "to teach in parable and analogy," Kennett said.

{mp3}VicKennettKerussoedited{/mp3}

Christian retail offers for the week of Aug. 23

Award-winning Jeremy Camp's We Cry Out: The Worship Project leads the music-centered offers from three chains.

LifeWay Christian Stores and Mardel Christian & Education each price the new release at $9.99, while the CD (regular price $13.99) is available for $10.97 at Berean Christian Stores.

Berean twins its offer, however, with a pre-buy for Third Day's Move, coming Oct. 19, that prices that release at $10.97-and includes a free copy of the band's previous release, Revelation, a $29.98 value. The Berean emailing also includes a coupon for $10 off any in-store purchase of $40 or more, through Aug. 26.

LifeWay's new music promotion includes Natalie Grant's Love Revolution, down from $18.98 to $11.99 and Britt Nicole's five-track Acoustic for $5. The emailing also features a $7.99 DVD sale, with titles including Bella, Christy: A New Beginning, Where the Red Fern Grows and Mandie and the Secret Tunnel.

Other music offers from Mardel include Randy Travis' I'll Fly Away for $11.99, The Hoppers' Something's Happening for $13.99 and Love Revolution for $9.99. The chain offers Max Lucado's latest book for $17.99, reducing Outlive Your Life from $24.99.

The book is also marked down to lead LifeWay's reading offers, priced at $17.49. Similarly discounted is The Mentor Leader by Tony Dungy, while The Power of a Whisper by Bill Hybels is reduced from $22.99 to $17.24 and Stormie Omartian's The Power of a Praying Life goes down from $13.99 to $10.49.

Family Christian Stores offers 50% off select videos. Titles available include Facing the Giants, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story and The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry. Bargain DVDs offered for $6.97 each include The Genius Club, Mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls and God's Outlaw.

Christmas! A Newsboys Holiday is set to release Oct. 12 from Inpop Records. The five-track set will feature classics "Winter Wonderland," "Jingle Bell Rock," "All I Want for Christmas is You," "O Holy Night" and "The Christmas Song." It will be available in physical ($5) and digital ($4.99) formats.

Tait covered the last song on the collection as a hidden track on 2003's Lose Your Life, one of two albums he released with Tait, the band he formed after DC Talk went on hiatus.

The new CD was produced by Dustin Burnett, Michael Tait and Juan Otero of The Write Bros, half of the production team of Newsboys' recent Born Again.

To help promote Christmas! A Newsboys Holiday, the band will join Newsong on the "Very Merry Christmas Tour 2010." The 20-plus city tour kicks off in Whiteville, N.C., Nov. 27, concluding in Albany, Ga., Dec. 20.

In The Black Madonna, Davis Bunn takes readers on a wild adventure with antiquarian Storm Syrrell and treasure hunter Harry Bennett, introduced in previous novel Gold of Kings.

Storm, working on behalf of an anonymous client and strapped for cash, searches for the historic and allegedly powerful icon the Black Madonna. Bennett's separate search for art counterfeiters turns out to be linked to Storm's, as the pair-with help from friends-face bombings, kidnappings, gunfights and mountain treks, from Europe's palaces to the desert hideouts of powerful Arab tribes. Along the way they each find love and discover that it, ultimately, is behind the whole drama.

Christian themes are evident, though not overt, in this entertaining tale. Bunn, who divides his time between Oxford, England, and Florida, creates an adventure that offers a rollicking good time and insight into the antiquarian underworld of treasure and mystery.

The Black Madonna
Davis Bunn
Howard Books
softcover, pages, $14.99
978-1-416-55633-6
September 2010

Christian retail offers for the week of Aug. 16

Back-to-school shoppers are a focal point again, with Mardel Christian & Education and CLC Bookcenters offering specials for students' equipment and resources.

Mardel promises "limitless style" in its e-mail promotion that includes rhinestone tees for $19.99 each, two regular "guys and girls" tees--usually priced at $21.99 each--for $30 and two pairs of jeans fro $60.

The promotion also highlights "school of rock" music titles including Hawk Nelson's Live Life Loud and Skillet's Awake for $9.99 each. "Class clown" comedy DVDs by Anita Renfroe (Big Ol' Sweet Iced Tea) and Chonda Pierce (Did I Say That Out Loud?) are $14.99 each.

CLC's back to school resource specials include Experiencing the Heart of Jesus: Student Edition Bible study by Max Lucado, reduced from $17.99 to $14.99, and the Teen Devotional Bible, NIV, priced $4 off at $23.99. Deal of the Week is VeggieTales' Sweetpea Beauty: A Girl After God's Own Heart, cut from $14.99 to $12.49.

The mailing also includes a coupon for 20% off any in-store purchase of a regularly priced item, through Sept. 6.

Love comes cheaply at Family Christian Stores, where the movies based on the popular Janette Oke books are among titles offered for $10 each. They include Love Comes Softly, Love's Abiding Joy and Love Takes Wing.

The chain also has a pre-buy offer on Amish Grace, the forthcoming movie based on the book of the same name that tells the true story of how an Amish community responded with faith and forgiveness aftyer five of their children were murdered. Those purchasing the title in advance for $19.97--down from the regular price of $22.98--also get two family Rewards cards worth a total of $10.

Mary Beth Chapman's Choosing to See leads a selection of "new books that inspire." It is priced at $17.59, down from the regular price of $21.99.

LifeWay Christian Stores' music newsletter presents the Gaither Vocal Band's Greatly Blessed and The Hoppers' Best Of collection for $11.99 each, down $2. Newsboys' Born Again is offered for $7.99, down from $13.99. Audrey Assad's The House You're Building is the same reduced price.

Another LifeWay e-mailing promotes its Bibles sale, ending Saturday. Among the specials are the NIV Adventure Bible, down from $27.99 to $13.99, and the digital Bible, Glo, available for $44.89 instead of $89.99.

In Spiritual Rhythm: Being With Jesus Every Season of Your Soul, best-selling author and pastor Mark Buchanan speaks to readers like an old friend, showing what to expect in each season of life, and comparing the seasons of the soul to winter, spring, summer and fall. However, unlike the seasons of the year, the length of time in each spiritual season is uncertain, only to be determined by God.

Part one of the book travels through the four seasons, from the mourning of winter to reminiscences of the perfect summer of youth. Buchanan ponders the spiritual activities of each season--starting a new Bible study in spring or harvesting souls in the fall, for example--with exercises to encourage personal contemplation and practical application. Part two dwells on the movements made in each season, with hands-on guides and reflection on topics including relationships, prayer, God's Word and adoration.

Filled with examples from young and old, men and women, families, couples and individuals, Spiritual Rhythm is a map to the inner workings of the human spirit. The depth of Buchanan's writing, along with activities for each season and extensive Scripture references, make this book suitable for personal or group study.

--Andrealynn Boyd

Spiritual Rhythm
Mark Buchanan
Zondervan
hardcover, 336 pages, $17.99
978-0-310-29365-1
August 2010

Allison Pittman is certain to spark interest in the Mormon church with the first in "The Sister Wife Series."

In June 1850, Camilla Deardon hears the Mormons singing from their camp near her father's farm, yet ignores her parents' warnings to stay away after meeting handsome Nathan Fox. Camilla leaves and begins life with Nathan near Zion, the Mormons' Salt Lake City, Utah. She, Nathan and their two daughters are devastated at the death of a newborn son, but Camilla's grief returns her to her childhood faith. Her struggles with Mormon doctrine are magnified when Nathan, following what he believes to be the way to heaven, takes a second wife. As she studies the Bible, Camilla discovers that salvation comes through Jesus, yet she is torn by her love for Nathan and her girls. Can she stand against the might of the Mormon church?

Pittman, a fine writer, adroitly guides readers through Mormon doctrine to the truth of Jesus.
--Ann E. Byle

Click here to see the book trailer.

For Time & Eternity
Allison Pittman
Tyndale House Publishers
softcover, 384 pages, $13.99
978-1-414-33596-4
September

Although it is not due in theaters until some time next year, the next movie from the Fireproof and Facing the Giants team will be highlighted on primetime television, Aug. 10. Cameras followed Jim Bob Duggar and members of his ever-growing family, featured in the TLC reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, when they visited the set of Courageous, recently.

The Duggars were on the set the day the crew filmed a 5K race scene for the movie, with some of them drafted as running extras. The TLC episode features the Duggars' visit to the set in Albany, Ga.

Christian retail offers for the week of Aug. 9

An emphasis on Bibles sees two half-off promotions and an exclusive offer.

Family Christian Stores' 50% reduction on Bibles running through Aug. 21 includes the NIV/The Message Parallel Study Bible for $22.50, the NIV/KJV/NASB/AMP Comparative Study Bible for $25 and Revolve, the "Biblezine" for teen girls, for $8.50.

Also featured in the promotion are audio editions Inspired By...The Bible Experience: The Complete Bible for $62.50 and The Word of Promise: NKJV New Testament Audio Bible for $24.99.

At Mardel Christian & Education, the focus is on children's and student Bibles. The NIV Adventure Bible is priced at $13.99 (down from $27.99)), the compact NIV Student Bible is reduced from $39.99 to $29.99 and True Images: The Bible for Teen Girls, NIV is $10 off the regular price, at $29.99.

Berean Christian Stores introduces an exclusive offer for God's Covenant Bible Study. The standard set--including a teacher's manual and self-standing chart--is $58, while a Power Point package is available for $48 and a Value Pack costs $89.

The products are also available in Spanish, with student workbooks in English and Spanish $15.95 each.

Mardel's emailing also highlights a "Back2School" offer of rhinestone t-shirts for $19.99 ($5 off), regular tees at two for $30 and two pairs of jeans for $60.

(answers by Reuben Morgan unless otherwise noted)

A Beautiful Exchange (Sparrow Records/EMI CMG Distribution) is your 19th recording and you've sold 11 million albums worldwide. To what do you attribute your success?

"For us, the songs and the albums were never about success. They are a part of our local church, Hillsong Church, finding its own way to express what God is doing amongst us and within us. The albums are secondary to our congregation worshipping, and even today, our worship music continues to be about leading people toward Jesus--locally and then globally.

"We have an amazing group of people who write songs from the life of our church, we have dedicated musicians and singers who turn up each week to bring praise and worship for the services. The albums are a reflection of what is happening within the day-in, day-out life of church. If they are successful, then maybe it's because we are helping people to find the words and songs that somehow echo their own desires to bring honor to our God.

Speaking of the Bradys, one who came to despise the "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" line has written her own memoir. In Here's The Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice (It Books/HarperCollins Publishers), Maureen McCormick tells of her less-than-ideal childhood and teen years, but also of her church involvement.

When she experienced "a sign God was real," she sensed God's physically pushing her down and then seeing arms come down from the sky (p. 148). After friends helped her to her feet, she writes that they took her "around the corner to a Christian bookstore, where I recounted the experience to some people," adding, "It was quite a scene. Some of them handed me little pieces of paper on which they'd written verses of Scripture."

A woman at the store asked her how she felt. Her reply: "Changed." But, she wrote, "I didn't think it could be that easy--and it wasn't."

With the new school year starting soon, teens and education supplies are a common focus, from special prices to free backpacks.

LifeWay Christian Stores' "Back to Bargains" mailing has Bible verse water bottles reduced from $9.99 to $5, while Newsboys' Born Again is priced at $7.99 instead of $13.99. In-store shoppers are also invited to buy one t-shirt and get a second for 50% off.

The chain's music newsletter majors on teen drama DVD, To Save a Life. The PG13-rated film is reduced from $24.99 to $19.99, with a free backpack offered with the purchase of a CD from a list that includes MercyMe's Mr. Lovewell and Vicky Beeching's Eternity Invades, both down to $11.99 from $15.98.

Berean Christian Stores also spotlights To Save a Life, making the movie available for $21.59. The chain's email also promotes patriotic tees, two for $10 and includes an inm0-store only coupon for 40% of any one regularly priced item.

To Save a Life appears, too, in Mardel Christian & Education's "Education Sale" offer that presents a range of $5 products including calendars, tote bag, puzzles and t-shirts.

Parable stores highlight the new VeggieTales release, Sweetpea Beauty: A Girl After God's Own Heart, reduced from $14.99 to $9.97. Tony Dungy's new The Mentor Leader is priced at $19.97 (regular price $24.99).