If the road to that other place is paved with good intentions, it must also have a lot of sinkholes—a hazard we know something about here in Florida.

You can lay a nice new track and paint fresh markings, but if there is nothing of substance underneath, it’s only a matter of time before you’re going down rather than ahead.

This sad reality comes to mind at a time when I am vigorously enthused about a new sense of direction for our industry.

There’s fresh leadership at CBA. A sense of renewed commitment to and appreciation of the Christian retail channel from some suppliers. A new level of openness to cooperation and collaboration.

Take Christian Store Day, debuting next month. More than a year of discussions and negotiations have gone into the event, and credit to those who have been involved in the efforts. Then there are the ongoing talks about some sort of industrywide platform to help Christian stores provide e-books for their customers.

Yes, we have much to be encouraged about. But I believe that we also need to be realistic in the days to come, or things could come crashing down. So let me offer some cautions as we work on the road in front of us.

Compromise does not have to be a dirty word. We may be confident about the vision that God has given us, but it’s easy to confuse that endpoint with the actual implementation of getting there. Just because someone suggests a different route to the one we have mapped out doesn’t mean we won’t get where we want to.

Win-win isn’t always possible. Sometimes it’s enough that neither side loses, in the short term—at least they get to stay in the game together. Buying into the idea that there’s always an immediate fix that’s great for everyone ignores the fact that change can be a process that unfolds in stages and time, not as an instant event.

Let’s not rush to question others’ motives. It’s too easy to give ourselves a pass and decide that “they” have bad or selfish intent because our plans or programs are at cross-purposes. Maybe we should focus more on the facts of the matter—and addressing them--and invest less emotional energy in deciding why they did this or that. We all know what assuming does.

Hold our certainties lightly. I’m not talking about being careless about our core values, but be honest, how often do we end up majoring on minors? Just because we need to do it this way doesn’t mean everyone else has to. Try insisting everyone else paddles on the left-hand side, like you, next time you are in a canoe and see where that gets everyone. Nowhere fast. And dizzy.

Faithful does not mean successful. At least, not in the 21st - century Christian terms we have generally come to accept (big name, big car, big house. Big deal). God does bless, but not always in the ways we might think. Seems to me that the heroes of Heb. 11 would not get a book deal or a TV spot if they were around today.

Unity isn’t easy. The Bible exhorts us to “make every effort” to maintain the bond that we share with other believers. In other words, it’s not just about having a fuzzy feeling, and it won’t just happen. And, given that God commands a blessing where unity is found, we should not be surprised that there are efforts afoot to pull us apart.

With all this in mind, I encourage you to embrace opportunities to collaborate and cooperate. Stores, sign up for Christian Store Day. It may not be everything you would like, first time out, but the indie music store initiative it is based on took time to grow into the success it is now, and you can be part of making sure it has a future.

Will the e-book initiative in the works suit everyone? Unlikely, but that does not mean it isn’t worth supporting.

Back to the road: If we are going to get ahead, we are also going to have to go deeper and lay some good foundations for the future.

No surprise, perhaps, that a vegetable is the one to remind us that the salad days are over.

Bob the Tomato—at least the man who voices him, Phil Vischer—nailed this year's International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) from the start.

Speaking at the event's opening Pacesetter event, the VeggieTales founder recalled how the rise and fall of his former endeavor had mirrored the arc of Christian retailing's boom years.

"The party may have ended, but our call to ministry has not," he reminded everyone. "We would actually prefer to see the Holy Spirit move with us than Wall Street."

And that was how the first ICRS under new leadership went, prompting longtime independent retail leader Steve Potratz to describe it as "the most mission-driven" CBA show he had ever attended.

Re-sized and refocused, ICRS seems to have found its role and relevance anew. While there is room for more changes to help it better serve a changing industry, there seemed to a new level of acceptance of its ongoing value.

Retailers expressed appreciation for the greater emphasis on ministry and training, while suppliers who have adjusted their investment in being there acknowledged the valuable function the event serves, even though it is mostly no longer an order-writing show.

Looking ahead, then, the big picture seems good.

Looking back on the details of St. Louis, meanwhile, the Christian Retailing team offers its traditional thumbs up, thumbs down verdict. Thumbs:

for overall excellent program and positive spirit.

in particular for the positive way in which CBA addressed the digital-publishing challenge.

to independent bookseller and panelist Darin Sennett (Powells.com), whose love for retail and books shone through at the digital-future seminar.

for Randy Alcorn's passionate encouragement to retailers at the Worship Him service.

for the great speakers at the Pacesetter event.

for the Blackwood Brothers and Gold City, whose Pacesetter Southern gospel sets got people cheering.

that the Pacesetter ran almost an hour past schedule—a late night for starting the week.

on behalf of suppliers who had to set up for ICRS in an air-conditioning-less show hall.

that it got pretty warm at times during the rest of the week, even with the AC on.

for the heartfelt honoring of former CBA leader Bill Anderson—and his exhortation to retailers to defend the integrity of their calling.

for exactly the same food each day at the CBA meal events. Groundhog Day in St. Louis.

to FaithWords for bringing in a group of A-list authors for one of the show's few big-name events.

that some of those who turned out for the FaithWords reception waited ages for the food and then it ran out. Oops.

with relief that there were plenty of bathrooms within easy reach of the convention floor, for a change.

on behalf of some gift exhibitors who were uncomfortable about being placed right next to same-category suppliers.

for the focus given to inspirational movies, a bright-spot category.

on hotels that were short-staffed for checking in conventioneers.

for limited seating options in lobby and workshop areas of the convention center.

How stores care for shoppers—and handle their concerns

Though cheaper prices elsewhere have commonly been held to be a major issue for Christian retail stores, it seems that cost is not that big a deal after all.

Only one in 14 retailers "agreed strongly" that when consumers stopped shopping at their store. it was usually because of pricing, we found in our latest Vital Signs industry survey, which looked at how retailers view and care for shoppers.

Our findings separated for-profit stores from those that operate as part of a church ministry.

PRICE AND PRAYER

Retailers told us that they most commonly feel "frustrated" (48%) or "challenged" (50%) when shoppers mention they can buy products for a lower price elsewhere. However, nearly two-thirds of church retailers said they were "happy" for the shopper who could take advantage of a lower price.

One in three non-church stores provided shoppers with a means of listing prayer requests in the store (30%), while only 9% of church-based stores did so. Getting the staff together to pray for customers occurred "frequently" in 43% of non-church and 25% of church stores.

STATEMENTS AND STAFF

Nearly all stores made a point of greeting customers by name (96%), and shoppers were more likely to receive a thank-you note after shopping in a for-profit store (35%) than at a church store (7%).

Having a mission statement that staff understands can help them stay focused on ideals that are important to the store, and a majority of stores reported having one (60%), while less than one-fourth displayed it in a place where customers could see it (22%).

Staffing numbers are about equal in church and for-profit stores. At their busiest times, there are three to five people working the floor in 43% of non-church and 48% of church stores.

Commercially operated stores tended to provide more checkouts for shoppers, with 22% having four or more—compared to just 17% of church stores. The most common number of cash-wrap stations was just one, found in 34% of all stores.

RETURNS AND REWARDS

Customers will find staff in street clothes at 86% of all stores—with 68% setting guidelines for what to wear. Staff in church stores are more likely to wear a name tag or laminate (68% to 43%). About 10% of stores provided aprons or vests to help customers identify clerks.

It appears to be easier to return product in church stores. Only 37% of church stores told us that they require a receipt to process a return, compared to 51% of for-profits. There was a "no questions asked" return policy at 49% of church stores—while 31% of for-profits had a similar policy.

Additionally, half of non-church stores told us that they set a specific limit on how long after a sale they will accept returns, something practiced in 37% of church stores.

Frequent buyer rewards are the most common amenity offered by stores. More than 60% said they have a frequency plan in place, and a similar number offered comfortable seating areas for shoppers.

Customers in 39% of church stores are provided free WiFi. Far fewer nonprofits do the same (10%). Layaway services are seen more in for-profit stores (52% to 37%).

EXAMPLES AND IDEAS

What do retailers say to shoppers who mention lower prices elsewhere?

Some stores explain how because of their size they do not get the same discounts that other, larger retailers do, while others talk about the superior customer service they are able to offer. One retailer told us: "I encourage them to shop wherever they can get the best deal."

Respondents also listed some of the things they had done in recent months to make their stores more customer-friendly.

The initiatives included opening more hours, utilizing social media and learning customers' names.

Read more responses and comments in a special online supplement by clicking here.

Jim Seybert is an author and consultant living in Arroyo Grande, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

...of the findings and comments?
Write to Vital Signs at: Christian Retailing,
600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, FL 32746,
or contact Andy Butcher, Christian Retailing editor

Nervous in a spare-part kind of way at the delivery of my first child, I figured I could helpfully contribute to the process by correcting junior's mom when she misquoted the psalm she had memorized to help her through the birth.

Turns out that attention to detail isn't always appreciated in the midst of transition.

Nonetheless, while keen to encourage some joyful expectancy for this year's International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in St. Louis, I also want to risk seeming a bit of a mope.

First, the good. The content of the program is the strongest I can recall. It also is going to be a great opportunity to see and hear more of the new CBA leadership and the vision and strategy that I believe holds lots of potential. So, if you have been undecided about St. Louis, let me encourage you to be there.

See, we can talk all we like about how our industry is different from others and that, in addition to doing business, there is spiritual significance in meeting together. But unless some people are prepared to foot the bill for hosting an event (and that traditionally has been the suppliers) and others are willing to show up, it's just so much hot air.

And that is the reality CBA is facing. Yes there were high fives all round last year after such a positive response to the show in Denver. But let's be honest—while it was a good event, expectations going into the thing were, for the most part, so low that so-so became superior by comparison.

The real test, I suspect, is going to be this year, with what for many feel is a right-sized event. Will ICRS deliver the results suppliers need for them to justify returning—especially when they have so many new and growing marketing channels opening up, competing for limited dollars?

It's no secret that times have changed. You can get a snapshot of just how much by looking back, without turning to the high-watermark years of the industry and the show's resulting record attendances to make the point.

Just glance at 2005, the year in which CBA rolled out its revamped show, retiring the CBA International title in favor of ICRS.

Back then, there were around 320 exhibitors at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver—compared to the 235 or so (at the time of writing) signed up for St. Louis.

There are other signs. It used to be that attendees were spoiled for choices for evening entertainment, many splitting their time between events so they could double up on the free food and giveaways. Our office was awash with invitations to this dinner and that reception. This year you are going to be hard pressed to find much of anything to do (on a supplier's dime) after the show floor closes.

Another indicator of how things have changed can be seen in the show schedule. There was a time when the event was a who's-who of Christian books, with all the big names signing their new releases and available for media. This year it's more of a who-are-they list of new authors looking for some publicity.

I'm not predicting a failure—just wondering whether we will see enough of a success to permit an unchanged course. I wouldn't be surprised to find greater energy, after St. Louis, being given to discussions about some more collaborative event in the future, drawing together other associations and interests. The informal talks that have taken place to date are likely to take a more serious turn.

Any new effort would require those involved to give up some of their turf, but the reality is that the ground is already eroding anyway, so what do they have to lose?

And, while we're speculating, if we do end up with some sort of new event, could we please retire the current logo that is used to promote ICRS?

I've always felt that making the cross the center of a shopping bag is a little crass and certainly provides fuel for those critics who accuse our industry of commercializing the gospel. Maybe something a bit more inspirational?

You don’t find the title “Journalist” in the list of His names that includes Counselor and Prince of Peace, but Jesus would have made a great one.

He knew that the real heart of an issue couldn’t always be caught in stats and graphs, no matter how pretty they were made to look. That’s why He didn’t talk about world evangelism but told a story about the lost sheep.

Elsewhere in this issue we report on trends and studies that offer some encouragement to the Christian retail world, hinting at some bright prospects for the future. I’m jazzed by them, but what really has me pumped up on returning from The Gathering 2010, our own industry event, is not the numbers but the stories.

It’s the likes of Steve, Cathy, Joseph, Beverly, George and Bruce.

Steve is a longtime independent who has been around the block a few times, but is still enthusiastic about making Christian products available. At a time when other small business owners might be thinking about planning for retirement, he was at our event in Louisville, Ky., looking for new ways to differentiate his store and open to kicking around new ideas—like taking on the running of stores for local churches.

Cathy’s infectious, bouncing delight at being at an industry event for the first time could have been attributed to too much caffeine, but for the fact that she doesn’t touch the stuff—though she loves to serve it at the church café she oversees along with a bookstore, with her husband and son, making it a remarkable family ministry.

Joseph is a successful, savvy businessman who visibly choked up when he told how God led him and his wife out of a prosperous winery “into the Lord’s vineyard,” breathing new life into an historic branch of the Christian retail tree.

Then there was Beverly, who runs a church-based store founded to raise money that can be poured back into local missions efforts. She spoke about how she declined to operate a book table at a local event because she didn’t want to be seen to be in competition with the local independent who had been invited to be there, too.

George talked passionately about the need for retailers and suppliers to work together more closely—not ignoring the business realities that make different ones competitors in some regards, but acknowledging the greater truth, by which they are brothers and sisters, too.

It wasn’t just retailers, either. Bruce was there as a first-time author, less concerned about making a name for himself or big bucks than he was passionate about challenging accepted wisdom on truth and science—ready to give away copies of the book he had self-published (with high, full-color quality) to anyone who could help get it into other people’s hands.

I’m not telling you about these folks in the kind of mushy, after-conference glow that thinks everything is going to be just peachy from now on because we have spent a little time together away from the day-to-day grind. I have been around enough to know that mountaintop holy moments soon get tempered by encounters with grumblers, doubters and dissenters back in the valley.

We continue to face some big issues as an industry. And we certainly need to look at the hard facts. We need to apply our best, sharp minds to the challenges.

But we also need to be encouraged that, through the likes of these people and many more, our industry is in good hands—hands which are guided by soft hearts.

So while you are conducting business—in your store, at your office, at the International Christian Retail Show later this month, pay attention to the stats. But look and listen for the stories, too. And share yours, it might encourage someone else.

This is not intended as a back-handed compliment. Fact is, if anyone stepped forward claiming that they had all the solutions to the challenges that our industry is facing, I would also expect them to be able to turn base metal into gold and leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Take social media, for instance. Everyone’s excited about the potential and talking about how it upends traditional marketing practices and there are all sorts of “experts” out there hawking their advice. Sure there are some great ideas, but does anyone really have it all figured out? I think not.

So, for me, Riskey’s main qualification for the new role is not that he knows all the answers, but that, more importantly, he knows about asking the right questions. It is something he has been recognized for from his earliest days in the Christian products world.

One colleague recalls being impressed by the insightful questions Riskey asked at the prospective retailers course he attended before opening his store in Oshkosh, Wis. I appreciated the same thing during the time Riskey spent as a member of Christian Retailing’s editorial advisory board.

Perhaps it’s because he came to Christian retailing towards the end of its fat-cow years, but he has always seemed open to re-evaluating the ways things are done and not afraid to review accepted wisdom.

And, my, do we ever need to be asking some hard questions—about the church’s place in a changing culture, about the long-term impact of the economic downturn, about what makes Christian retail distinctive, about the relationship between suppliers and retailers, about what the digital revolution is going to do to traditional business models and practices. How’s that for starters?

This is not to say that Riskey and CBA have no clue, of course. He arrived at the organization as strategic solutions executive and has been a part of recent initiatives that have shown CBA to be responding to needs.

But I am encouraged beyond the specifics of Riskey’s new role, too. I believe that it is part of the emergence of what is, for me, a more open-handed, more collaborative and, yes, even more humble, trade association.

It’s not uncommon for member organizations to grow to a point where they become central, rather than the members, and you seem to end up with the tail wagging the dog. Some CBA members felt that was what happened somewhat with the association during Christian retail’s boom season, as the association’s coffers and staff swelled.

We’re now in the thin-cow days, as CBA’s shrinking staff and recent decision to sell off its building underscore. CBA can no longer afford to be high and mighty, or to be seen that way.

Naming Riskey as executive director and dispensing with the president/CEO position addresses this perception, and the shift in management style also gives more of an important role to the chairman—at least publicly. Former chairmen may have done a lot behind the scenes, but they were best known out front for using a big pair of scissors to cut the ribbon at the CBA shows.

Chair-elect George Thomsen is just the right person for this new season. He is widely recognized for his business acumen, his integrity, his ministry focus. That he is a church bookstore manager respected by independents, some of whom still find the whole church bookstore scene a little irritating, is a plus, too.

I am hopeful that this new-look CBA will also help foster some greater cooperation and collaboration with other groups in the industry. There has been talk about the need for this in the past, of course, but this new alignment might help it actually go somewhere.

CBA needs support like never before, so let me encourage you to join if you are not a member—because you need CBA like never before. If your membership has lapsed, it’s a good time to give the organization another chance. Get behind CBA and it will be able to come alongside you. Or, maybe better yet, come alongside CBA and it will be able to get behind you.

What is the vision of the Mission America Coalition (MAC)? " 'The whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole nation-and to the whole world,' which is a national expression of an international collaboration."

What is the history? "In 1974, Billy Graham invited Christian leaders around the world to Lausanne, Switzerland, to discuss world evangelization. Out of that came the Lausanne Covenant, written by Dr. John Stott. The U.S. delegation (members) decided that when they returned home to the U.S., they should continue to meet as the U.S. Committee for the Lausanne Movement. This national group continued to collaborate-as did many other countries-to pray and seek God, and ask, 'What can we do better together than apart?' There have been multiple collaborative initiatives over the years, such as the Lighthouse Movement, but the primary mission has been facilitating collaborative evangelism, in word and deed. In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Committee for Lausanne changed its name to Mission America Coalition.

"Also, in the mid '90s, the leadership team began to recognize and promote collaborative evangelism in cities. In March, Mission America Coalition hosted the 11th annual City Impact Roundtable, where cityreaching leaders came together in a learning community, to discuss collaborative prayer, collaborative evangelism and community transformation. Some of the various 'streams' of Mission America Coalition include denominational and local church leaders, ministry leaders, ministry network leaders, cityreaching leaders, marketplace leaders and global evangelism leaders.

Mission America Coalition promotes collaborative evangelism as a combination of praying, caring and sharing the love of Jesus Christ with a focus on Christ's desire for unity as described in John 17:20-23. Additional details as well as a copy of the Lausanne Covenant are given in the 'About the Coalition' section of www.missionamerica.org."