Tuesday morning’s Future of the Industry (FOI) breakfast continued on from the Sunday’s Worship Him themes. But FOI also highlighted CBA’s new emphasis on big, shared data for the Christian retail industry.

Following a musical set by Curt Anderson at the keyboard, CBA President Curtis Riskey introduced the topic of the FOI discussion.

“There isn’t an industry with a more powerful and important message,” the former Christian retailer declared. Focused on the future, Riskey prayed to the “God of new beginnings.”

The new chairman of CBA Service Corp. and chairman of the Roush Foundation, Eddie Roush invited his business partner, Kurt Ruf, and Clyde Rivers, a U.S. citizen who is an honorary ambassador at large for the nation of Burundi, into a living room setting, asking attendees to listen to their “private conversation.”

Roush talked of the Christian products industry as lacking “tools, vision and even the resources” to expand, noting how big the world market is. He asked Rivers if it would even be possible to pair a retail store in the U.S. with a city or region elsewhere to meet the needs of the internationals there. Rivers answered in the affirmative, saying it is possible to “re-store a nation.”

Roush cautioned against a close alignment with American politics and governments, which, he said, “turns off people, including Millennials.”

Rivers shared what life is like in Burundi and how open the people are to Christianity. Christian music is played in the airport he travels to and can be heard in restaurants as well.

Roush said the industry needs to “clean up our act” to be ready for this “global play.”

To do that, Ruf noted the importance of tailoring customer communication, to “differentiate and personalize.” Ruf observed that “the old spray-and-pray days are over” and that the industry must use data as a tool to target customers in a mobile society. Ruf spoke of isolating consumer prospects that align with key values such as “small town sensibility” and the need to continuously clean the data to be sure it is accurate.

Rivers believes that governments are willing to share data “if we can help them meet their needs.” He’s believes reaching the global market is possible.

“Jesus wants to set the narrative for every community in the world,” Rivers said.

Roush said the way forward is about “spreading the Jesus narrative,” not an American-style gospel. He also thinks Americans will benefit from global partnerships that pair particular stores with regions of the world to meet their needs for resources, even older products, and to hear from them as well.

“Who are the voices in those countries who have something to say back here?” Roush said.

Marilyn Hood, who with her husband, Frank, recently closed their Sweet Spirit store, have been coming to CBA for over 30 years. The FOI discussion gave Hood “a real sense of hope” for the future of Christian retail.

“I’m excited about the future of the industry even though we’re transitioning out of it,” Hood said. “If we were starting today, I would be so excited about having a little city in some other country where we would maybe give a little portion of our income, that we would be maybe taking a mission trip with our customers or even through our church or whatever to go visit that little country and get that sisterhood bonding.”

Becky Gorczyca, executive director of the Association of Logos Bookstores, believes that Logos Bookstores are “customer centric” rather than “product centric,” another topic in the FOI discussion.

“Our joy is matching up the need of the customer with the product and helping those people walk closer to the Lord because of the relationship with us, whether it be conversation or product, and also with the product that has prayerfully been developed by authors and publishers,” Gorczyca said. “I think there’s a very big network that the Lord has put together to take His people where they are and expose them to things that are going to help them to grow. He uses authors, He uses publishers, He uses bookstores, He uses staff people, He uses marketing, He uses catalogs, all these kinds of things the Lord uses to reach His people to bring them closer to Him and to grow them. I am very privileged, as all the local stores are, to be part of that plan. And may we be here for many years, and we plan to be, in order to be part of His plan.”

The Logos association had its annual conference just before Unite.

“We at the Logos Bookstores are optimistic and encouraged about the future,” she said. “The theme for our conference this year was based on Micah 6:8, What would the Lord require of us but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. That is the path that we are going to take, and we think the future is bright if we follow the Lord and walk humbly where He wants us to go. We’re going to continue to reach out to our customers on an individual and relational basis. We’re going to continue to meet customers where they are and often that means that it’s not in our physical stores, but it’s outside of the four walls of our stores. We have been doing that consistently for years, and we’ve decided to ramp that up. We are happy about the future and are looking forward to it.”

Christian retailers went to church Monday night at CBA’s Worship Him service during Unite 2018. CBA’s annual convention is being held July 8-11 at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville.

Jekalyn Carr (Lunjeal Music/New Day Christian Distributors) kicked off the musical portion of the evening as she reminded participants through the power of song that God is bigger than anything they might face.

With his crowd-pleasing band, Jason Crabb (pictured) continued the theme of expecting big things of God, praying, “Bless us, Lord. Bless us, Lord. Send your presence.” Crabb mentioned his recent CD release, Unexpected (Daywind/New Day Christian), but sang one classic not on the current CD that really roused the crowd, “Working on a Building.” He also gave away a Rahab’s Rope product, which benefits the poor in India.

Sandi Patty brought her resounding voice to the service although she is no longer touring regularly. While she sang a number of favorites, she also played and sang a quieter song, declaring that “Jesus is a faithful friend in the in between,” referring to the “in between seasons” of life. HarperCollins Christian Publishing releases her new book, The Voice, on Nov. 6.

In a welcome by CBA President Curtis Riskey before the music started, he promised that Unite 2018 was “not business as usual.” The service did seem different than usual with the challenge by one key speaker, Eddie Roush, chairman of the Roush Foundation, which gave a million dollars toward CBA member retailers’ show expenses.

Roush, who is also chairman of the CBA Service Corporation, stood with a Bible held high declaring many of the names of God from the Scriptures. When Roush was young, his pastor-father sang “There’s Something About That Name.” He talked of facing troubled times and said God’s Word warned of that ahead of time.

Roush went on to talk about the power of words, to say that Christianity needs to be rebranded and that the Christian products industry needs a dramatic change in its business practices and strategies.

He spoke at length about the fact that there is no such thing as a “Christian business,” but that only people can be Christian: “Can an organization or corporation be born again? The answer is no.”

He talked of the rebranding of Christianity that’s needed because evangelicals have become “especially paranoid.” Christians “seem to be governed by fear.” He added: “We fear change, any change. … Perfect love drives us away from fear.”

A former lawyer, Roush seemed to speak against the Christian baker who recently won his Supreme Court case for not baking a cake for a homosexual couple and against the alliance of believers with right-wing politics. He called out double standards and hypocrisy among Christians and called for compassion rather than cruelty.

“We abuse the name of Jesus for our personal gain,” Roush also said, calling on the industry to become “consumer centric.”

“I never ask God for money,” Roush said. “I ask Him for ideas because God always finances His ideas.”

“I’ve come to interrupt the industry,” Roush declared, reminding attendees of the lyrics to a Stephen Curtis Chapman song, “Saddle up your horses. We’ve got a trail to blaze.”

Keynote speaker Clyde Rivers, a U.S. citizen who is the honorary ambassador at large for the African country of Burundi and founder of iChange Nations, closed the night by saying “there’s nothing bigger than God in this world.” But, he added, “His currency is people. There’s no economic famine. There’s a gift famine.”

Rivers talked of Noah and Enoch receiving radical words from God that changed their generations.

“God wants you to do something different,” Rivers told the audience, calling on retailers to “retake the top, which, he said, is what repentance means. Some attendees responded to his altar call, going forward to be honest with God, repent and leave behind the old in a “spiritual trash can.”

Rivers called CBA “the organization that can reframe the world.”

Center Street author Charlotte Pence visits Unite 2018.

Charlotte Pence, the middle child of Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, talked with Christian Retailing about Where You Go: Life Lessons From My Father. The Center Street book is set for October release.

Pence, who is starting her college career at Harvard Divinity School this fall, wrote Where You Go for her family but then decided to share it with the public.

“I’ve kind of been writing it, I feel like my whole life,” she said. “I’ve been writing down lessons that my dad and my mom have taught me and so being able to put that into print and share that with other people has been really fun and special.”

Pence’s father was elected to Congress when she was only 6. After he served as a congressman for 12 years and then as Indiana governor for four, he assumed the vice presidency.

Being in the public eye has “been pretty constant in our lives ever since I was very young,” Charlotte said. “It’s just kind of part of life, and I tell people it’s just what my parents do for a living. It’s not the most important thing in our life, but it’s definitely a constant presence. But I think that they’ve really protected our family through it all, and we’ve stayed really close.”

Although she is a “political child,” Charlotte believes readers will be able to relate to the stories and lessons she shares in Where You Go. She also hopes readers will “think about the ways in which they’re teaching others in their life and think about the ways in which they’ve learned from those around them.”

At Harvard, she plans to earn her master’s in theological studies; then Christian retailers can expect to hear more from her.

“I’ll be studying religious themes in literature, and I still want to go down the writing track,” she said. “I’m hoping that God’s going to challenge my thinking and my writing and really enrich my storytelling.”

Barbour Publishing CEO Timothy Martins announced that Mary Burns has been promoted to the position of president and chief operating officer, effective Jan. 1, 2018.

Martins, who served as Barbour’s president for over 20 years, will remain active with the company as CEO and serving on the company’s board of directors. Burns, a 23-year veteran of Barbour Publishing, has served as vice president of marketing for the majority of that time. The executive team will now report directly to Burns. Together they’ll be responsible for executing Barbour’s strategy and managing the business.

Martins commented on Barbour's future under Burns' leadership.

“I'm ecstatic about the possibilities for the company and its owners under Mary's leadership and look forward to watching her very capable team reach new heights in the months and years to come,” Martins said.

Burns cast a sunny vision for the company's future.

“I’m excited to take on the leadership role of president," Burns said. "With our recent transition to an ESOP, there are endless opportunities for Barbour to grow and continue our success in book publishing. It will be my pleasure to guide our motivated and dedicated team in accomplishing the goals we have set for the future.”

Burns also announced the promotion of Shalyn Sattler to the position of vice president of marketing. Sattler, who joined the Barbour team in 2005, has served as director of marketing in recent years. With this promotion, she will now be responsible for providing team leadership and strategy for all of the company’s marketing activities.

Sattler said she was pleased to receive this promotion.

“I’m incredibly honored to accept this new position with the company that has become my family over the past 12 years,” Sattler said. “Book marketing has drastically changed since I first began my career, but I’m energized by the challenge of continually finding new and better ways of connecting readers with our uplifting products.”

Parable.com, the online presence for The Parable Group family of independently owned retail partner stores, has discontinued its e-book sales.

New International Version was top-selling translation of the day with English Standard Version gaining ground

Change comes after HarperCollins acquires the romance publisher

Harlequin announced the ending of the Heartsong Presents line it acquired in January 2012 from Barbour Publishing. Harlequin Enterprises changed hands in 2014 with HarperCollins completing purchase of the company in August.

Steve Laube, literary agent and owner of The Steve Laube Agency, said that Heartsong Presents, which was founded by Barbour in 1993, has been “primarily a ‘direct-to-consumer’ book club which published romance titles with a specifically Christian message.”

Laube said that Heartsong will continue publishing the books already slated for release through June 2015, and that Kathy Davis, editor of the line, will be leaving the company at the end of January.

Laube pointed out that many best-selling Christian novelists either got their start at Heartsong or published with them on a regular basis. Some of those authors are Tracie Peterson, Wanda E. Brunstetter and Colleen Coble. —Johnson

New agreement means the Big Five publisher can set its own e-book prices, will be prominently featured

Former guild president steps up to fill the void with new nonprofit to train writers following CWG closure

The Christian Writers Guild (CWG) dissolved in November after 50 years in business. Author Jerry B. Jenkins has owned and operated CWG for 14 years, and in 2013, launched a custom publishing house bearing the guild’s name, Christian Writers Guild Publishing.

Aiming to “train tomorrow’s Christian professional writers,” CWG had more than 1,000 members worldwide, according to its Facebook page. The guild ran an email correspondence course and assigned each student a seasoned professional to mentor them throughout the program. CWG also operated the Writing for the Soul conference.

Several months prior to the dissolution, Jenkins and Sheets began exploring the idea that the educational model of the guild was better suited to nonprofit environment, considering the economy.

“I’m a bit melancholy, but I have a heart full of wonderful memories too,” Jenkins said in a posting to CWG’s site after the closure decision was made. “It’s been a great ride. I’ve been blessed to be able to give back to an industry that has been so good to me, and it’s been a privilege to help train thousands of writers and try to restock the pool of Christian authors.”

With a belief in “finishing well,” Jenkins promised CWG members that they would receive all of the benefits that came with membership.

Dave Sheets, former CWG president, and Rebeca Seitz, CEO of Spirit of Naples, a nonprofit developer of Christian content creators, formed the nonprofit BelieversTrust to “fill the void” left after CWG’s closure.

Believers Trust is part of TheBelieversGroup, which also includes BelieversMedia, which will provide publishing services. Seitz will run BelieversTrust from Naples, Florida, and Sheets will run BelieversMedia from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Julie Boynton, former marketing coordinator for CWG, also joined the staff of BelieversTrust.

Believers Trust also formed a strategic alliance with Word Weavers International, an 18-year-old writers organization founded and led by author Eva Marie Everson.

All critiques offered by BelieversTrust will be provided by Word Weavers-trained teachers. The Word Weavers critique method, co-created by Everson, is known for its effectiveness and clarity.

Everson also wrote the BelieversTrust “How to Write a Novel” course and will teach its first class this month. —Johnson

Best-selling author appreciates the partnership of Christian retailers who are on the ministry front lines