For those who suggest that Christians are slow to embrace technology such as the iPad, I’d like to point out that Moses recorded his mountaintop encounter with God on a couple of tablets. ...

Weak joking aside, it’s interesting to me how two of the best-known names in the new world of communication conjure up biblical imagery. There’s Word, with echoes of unchanging truth, and Apple, whose chunk-bitten-out logo prompts thoughts of, “Did God really say?”

And therein lies the tension for Christian communicators—how do we utilize the tremendous developments in media in ways that promote faith rather than doubt?

Nowhere is the challenge more clear than in the world of news, where in the old days it was customary to do quaint things like, well, check facts before going to print. Nowadays accuracy often  gets trampled in the 24/7 news cycle rush for a scoop. Tweet first, ask questions later.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for being the one to break the story. It’s part of a journalist’s DNA. But I am reminded by Luke that being first isn’t the sole measure of impact. After all, he tells us in the introduction to his Gospel that many before him had attempted to record what had happened. 

They may have beaten him to press, but it is his account that endures.

We’re trying to balance the opportunities and challenges of technology in our work at Christian Retailing as we serve retailers and suppliers. Timeliness and truthfulness. Accessibility and accuracy. Information and insight. Relevance and reliability.

Let me give you a quick overview of some of what we are doing in our position as the hub for what’s happening in Christian publishing and retailing:

Twitter and Christian Retailing Update news postings allow us to keep you informed about breaking news. They provide the latest bullet points, but our monthly print magazine helps you join the dots and see the bigger picture. In its pages, we endeavor to tell you not just what has happened, but also to put things in a wider context and assist you in seeing why they matter.

The digital edition of Christian Retailing provides even more opportunities for us to go deeper. We include extended transcripts and audio recordings of interviews, plus video trailers for books, movies and music that help you get more of a feel for people and new products. 

In the interests of economy and the environment, we have cut back on the number of physical copies that go out, in recent times, so while others on your staff may be waiting for the latest print issue to get handed round, they can access the digital edition.

You will find both our Update reports and digital editions at our Web site, www.christianretailing.com, which also offers a wide range of other helps and resources. Among them:

Blogs that include news from the book, music and gift world and a weekly roundup of the major current specials and offers in the Christian retail channel.

An up-to-date listing of some of the
latest blogs from leading figures in the industry, from authors and artists to publishers and agents.

Industry Radar, a weekly roundup of reports about the Christian products world by other media, from network TV to local newspapers.

Online exclusives, including book
reviews.

Author Corner, our video library of exclusive interviews with leading Christian writers, intended to help stores connect more with the person behind the pen.

Detailed new release listings for all the major categories, updated regularly.

Monthly editors’ podcast, where the team gets together to chat about the latest news, releases and events and gives you a glimpse of what’s coming. 

Media appearance details of who’s appearing when on what shows, so that stores can be prepared for customers coming in asking for a title that may have been featured on TV or radio.

Our Web site also offers search options for finding past articles, a forum for comments and conversation with others and a fun weekly Industry IQ question to see how much you know about the industry. Then there’s our Facebook page, which provides another opportunity to keep up with news and connect with others.

In all of this, we are committed to getting it as right as possible (and putting it right when we don’t). Accuracy is important in any form of journalism, of course, but as an industry journal, we know that you rely on us to get the little details right, too. So we spend a lot of time checking ISBN numbers and publication dates and those sorts of things.

One of the pluses of new media is how it allows you to interact more with traditional “gatekeepers.” So please, let us know how we are doing and what you want to be reading about in the future. 

Give me 10 minutes in which to revive your passion for Christian bookselling.

Sounds a bit like one of those awful late-night infomercials, maybe? Well, I don't want you to send any money, just grab a pen and a piece of paper and sit quietly for a few minutes. I believe this simple exercise could help fan the flames of your Christian literature ministry.

Now, jot down the titles of the 10 books you have read that have made the most impact in your Christian life. Don't get too hung up on it being the definitive list. This isn't a precise science, and the chances are the list may vary a bit if you try to come up with one again next week. That's OK—the answers will be right then, too.

But don't be tempted to include the titles of books that you think will impress your friends. Or those that you are planning to read (one day). Or those that you started but never finished.

The point is to stop and reflect for a moment. Consider that these books have shaped you into the person you are today; who or where might you be without having read them?

Here's my Top 10 and why:

In His Steps by Charles Sheldon. Long before "what would Jesus do" got reduced to a bumper sticker, I was challenged by the idea that what we sometimes like to make so complicated in living the Christian life can be boiled down to one question.  And I was thrilled that one of the characters exploring what that meant was a newspaper editor. 

Prodigal Press by Marvin Olasky. This fascinating study of the rich Christian roots of American journalism gave historical weight to Sheldon's novel. It spurred my hunger to see more evangelicals commit to redeeming the "bad reporting" that Numbers 13 and 14 makes clear can lead people out of the purposes of God.

God in the Slums by Hugh Redwood. This 1930s account of the work of the Salvation Army in squalid inner city London inspired me not just because of its accounts of Christian love in action, but also because of its author—a tough-minded national newspaperman whose own life was transformed by his writing. 

Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliott, a fascinating, unsettling account of the fervent heart for God that fueled Jim Elliot and his four colleagues in their sacrificial commitment to sharing the gospel, ultimately giving their lives. It made me question how far my faith would take me: yet to find the answer.

Is That Really You, Lord?  by Loren Cunningham. As a young Christian, this book by the founder of Youth With A Mission opened my eyes—and ears—to the concept that God speaks intimately to His children and invites them to join Him on a radical adventure of faith. I'd later spend 10 years serving with the organization.

Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. I tried very hard not to like this book and dismiss it as a lad-fad, but I couldn't shake its core challenge to consider what it really means to be a man. I didn't go running off into the woods, but it did awaken a (healthy) ongoing dissatisfaction with safe "suburban" spirituality.

Love & Respect by Emerson Eggerichs. For me, he nails one of the core pitfalls of marriage—the "crazy cycle" dance that goes on when each partner misses the other's cues and needs. Worth reading alone for the light-bulb insight into why so many of us guys go quiet when our wives are waiting for us to say something.

A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. Having worked in and around Christian ministries and organizations for more than 30 years, I have seen enough "great" men and women of God become ogres and tyrants away from the platform or spotlight—but this rebukes any cynicism and reminds me that my response matters, too.

 Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. His gift for communicating a reasoned and reasonable faith was never more clearly exercised than in this book, which helped establish me in the early days of my discipleship. Belief may be supernatural, I was reassured, but it is also rational.

The Grace Awakening by Charles Swindoll came into my life at a time when legalistic weeds were starting to tangle my feet. I still have to watch my step, but the author's folksy insights taught me to watch out for the creepers of adding—whether personally or for others—to what Jesus did at the cross.

I can't imagine where or who I might be without these books. And I am grateful for those who wrote, published and sold them. I'm reminded that being part of an enterprise that has this sort of impact is noble and worthy of the challenges and demands involved.

How about you? What's on your list? May it restore in you a sense of the privilege you enjoy in being part of helping others build their own life-changing lists.

Truth to tell, I'm not very good at the having-faith thing. I'm more Gideon (looks around, bewildered, and asks, "Who, me?") than Caleb (grabs Geritol and jumps up, "Gimme that mountain!").

But I am learning to correct my glass-half-empty vision. For starters, there is a glass. It isn't broken. And it has stuff in it. With room for more. That's all reason for optimism.

Same thing with the Christian retail world. As we prepare for our Retailing ReBoot event this month—intended to help set stores for the possibilities ahead—I am pretty pumped.

OK, we've had the Internet. Wal-Mart and its followers. The recession. Oh, and digital books. But for any whose shoulders  might slump Gideon-like at the thought of all this, let me offer some Caleb-ish signs of life.

Good books. Yes, we all know about the fluff and chaff that's out there, but take a look at the substantive books that are big sellers. Crazy Love and Radical aren't quick-fix, easy life-is-a-beach reads. They are calls to action.

Then, what about Bonhoeffer? A brick of a thing, 600-plus pages about some relatively obscure German pastor from half a century ago. Wouldn't you love to have been in the meetings about that one at Thomas Nelson? Yet it's been an enormous success, not just hitting the best-seller and you-must-read  lists, but also sparking media attention and conversation about what it means to have radical faith.

There's still hunger for life-changing content.

New stores. We have seen more longtime retailers saying their farewells recently, but in some instances this has been more about a lack of succession than just business problems. And, we are also seeing a few veteran stores expanding, while more newcomers to the industry arrive—who know what they are getting into and yet are heeding the call. With no "remember when" days to look back on, they might be more open than some to new ideas and ways.

Supplier support. While I don't believe Christian suppliers ever abandoned Christian retailers in the gold-rush days of general market interest in Christian products, it sure felt like that to some. But as the high tide of get-it-at-Wal-Mart has subsided, I'm sensing some measure of a return to their first love, as it were, for Christian publishers.

They recognize, perhaps afresh, that the Christian retail channel remains their core, foundation and greatest champion. I see Tyndale House Publishers' co-opening a Christian bookstore in its own backyard to fill a long-standing gap, and Thomas Nelson's Hot Off the Press product alert and TNIndies social media initiatives at least reflective of, if not directly attributable to, this broader shift.

Then there is heightened activity at the distributor level, with Spring Arbor's recent self-avowed recommitment to the Christian retail channel and STL Distribution North America's entering the print-on-demand market to help stores.

Closer to home, this year we have seen the highest-ever number of entries for our annual Retailers Choice Awards, which gives Christian stores the chance to name what they believe to be the most important new releases of the last year. I believe this also points to suppliers' recognition that their relationship with the Christian retail market is unique. With other channels, they may do business; with Christian retailers, they do ministry.

World events. So, what has change in the Middle East got to do with Christian retailing? More than just selling some additional end-times guides. We're seeing global shifts unlike any since the fall of the Berlin Wall. People are being stirred beyond their own domestic concerns to look at what is happening abroad and consider some of the implications—and the beliefs and philosophies that are driving and shaping change. 

Funny that such a conversation should start in a year when the Bible already has a heightened place in the public consciousness, thanks to the 400th-anniversary celebrations of the King James Version and the release of the updated New International Version.

With all this in mind, I'm encouraged to switch Gideon's gloom for Caleb's confidence. How about you? Yes, you. Let's go claim that mountain—the one with your name on it.

We'll be sharing some practical ways to do that at our event for church and independent stores, Retailing ReBoot 2011, in Orlando, April 26-28. Come and rub shoulders with other Caleb-spirited retailers—whether church-based or independent—and go back to your store encouraged and equipped. You'll find more details at our Web site, www.christianretailing.com.

Come and raise a (figurative) glass to Christian retailing. It'll be half full.

So, here’s something to do while you wait (drum fingers, drum fingers) for an announcement about the industry-wide platform intended to give Christian stores a way of securing a slice of the digital book pie: Go buy an e-reader.

This will likely not be a popular idea out in some parts of our retailing community, where there are folks for whom names like Kindle and Nook are muttered with the same degree of distaste once reserved for Wal-Mart.

But, with a nod to Swiss theologian Karl Barth, who advocated Christians do life with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other, let me suggest that Christian retailers need to do business with their P.O.S. printout in one hand and an e-reader in the other.

In much the same way that Wal-Mart has become accepted as just another (even if regrettable) fact of life—and some Christian stores have actually come to welcome the mega-merchant, wild as that may seem—the digital book is here to stay. So we might as well all start getting used to it.

Times are tough for many stores, but it seems to me that there isn’t one out there that can afford not to invest $100 or so in some type of e-reader. You may not like them for any number of reasons, but you can’t simply ignore them. Well, not if you want to stay in business long-term. 

Feel free to prefer the tactile experience of a “real” book and maintain that reading on a screen isn’t the same immersive experience as your turn-the-page paper copy. Worry, even, about the long-term implications for reasoning and reflection of digital publishing (which sometimes seems to think the actual words are less important than all the cool stuff you can click to).

Just be sure to use one of those devices so that you understand their appeal (at least to others)—and their limitations—and can better position yourself to adjust business in the light of their existence.

And while you are doing that, take some time to think about what the growth of the e-book market may mean, not just in overall print sales (and how you are going to make up that revenue elsewhere), but also for different categories.

"Christian retailers need to do business with their P.O.S. printout in one hand and an e-reader in the other.”

Take fiction. Lovers of novels are often ravenous readers, especially if they are enthusiasts for a particular author or genre. Just look at how well Thomas Nelson’s $5 fiction promotion has gone, for instance. For fiction buyers, the  opportunity to spend less on non-print editions may be seriously appealing, so how can you strengthen your store in their minds? Do you host or support reading groups?

Then there is backlist. This has long been touted as a strength of Christian retail, and publishers have defended general market sales by pointing out that purchases there can push shoppers to Christian stores in search of older titles. But now some publishers are giving away free e-backlist (I think I just invented a word) titles or  offering them really cheap.

Admittedly, the number of titles available like this is proportionally small, but what might the trend mean for consumers’ perceptions of backlist’s value? The category isn’t going away—STL Distribution North America believes in it strongly enough to have invested more than $1 million in equipping its center with a new print-on-demand facility that will soon be offering overnight shipment—but it is going to change.

Reference is a whole other area. Search features in digital titles are an attractive option, but some serious Bible teachers and students still like to pore over the actual paper. Of course, they can buy them online, so how can you connect more closely with local pastors and others in church leadership?

And finally, spare a thought for publishers who are wrestling with their own e-book questions. It’s not all high-fives and hallelujahs for them either.

Certainly, they are glad to have another avenue through which to sell their books, but it’s not all a slam-dunk. They get less for the copies they sell, and while some production costs are down, obviously, many houses are having to invest large amount of time and money into developing and managing new systems.

Then there is the subtle but significant impact on marketing from e-book sales as they lose secondary advertising. Consider: Fellow public-transportation passengers or Starbucks sitters now see the plain back of your Kindle or Nook, not the cover of the latest Karen Kingsbury you are reading.

But change is here, so the question is how to deal with it. When Wal-Mart led the general market inroads into Christian books, music and videos a few years ago, some in our community just bemoaned the threat. 

Others went to check out what was there to see how they needed to adjust their shelves and look for ways they could compete. Counter-intuitively, CBA even invited a former Wal-Mart senior executive to offer advice at a winter show. Now, I sometimes hear of Christian stores talking of having Wal-Mart as a near-neighbor as one of their strengths because it means there is a lot of traffic.

In the same way, the digital conversation needs to become not how we can ignore e-books and keep our customers from finding out about them, but how to find the good and the potential. And that has to start with knowing a bit more about what we’re facing.

Francis Chan has made a major contribution to the Christian products world with his first two books, but his greatest offering could be the book he does not write.

His reluctance to get sucked into the Christian publishing machine and crank out another title just because his name will guarantee strong sales has captured mainstream media attention and should cause those of us who are part of the industry to pause and reflect.

The man whose debut, Crazy Love, was recently named Family Christian Stores’ Book of the Year and which together with its follow-up, The Forgotten God, has been the closest thing to a really big best-seller we have seen for the past couple of years, spoke to CNN recently about his surprising decision to resign his pastorate and disappear for a while.

A quick note to anyone still awaiting the arrival of the man (or woman) with all the answers to the challenges we face as an industry. He (or she) is not coming.

From new formats to multiple channels, our industry has many more faces than a few years ago. So it shouldn’t be surprising that it needs multiple heads, too.  And as I look back on 2010, I am encouraged to see the emergence and recognition of individuals providing leadership in different areas of our world. 

The following eight folks probably won’t thank me for singling them out, but I thank them for their varying contributions to our industry.

As they ready themselves for the busiest season of the year, and one that could be make or break in some instances, Christian retailers are making sure that their shelves are in good shape.

I hope they make the time to ensure that their selves are, too.

For this final, crucial quarter won't just be about securing a good 2010, it will be vital for a healthy 2011 and all the years thereafter.

Shopper loyalty has probably never been at a lower ebb and with good reason. Consumers can find Christian products at countless other stores, or the Internet if they don't even want to venture out of the house, and the economic pinch means they are evaluating every purchase in multiple ways.