Logos Bible Software has made 2012 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list, which recognizes the fastest-growing high-tech companies in North America based on five-year growth.

The Bellingham, Wash.-based digital Bible study company joins Facebook, Google, Pandora and Linked In on the list, considered North America's preeminent technology awards program.

"The 2012 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 winners have demonstrated remarkable innovation and spectacular growth," said Deloitte Vice Chairman Eric Openshaw. "Some of the most exciting and useful developments of the future are being created by the companies on this list."

The Fast 500 was created to recognize companies that are "on the cutting edge and are transforming the way we do business today" in the industry sectors of hardware, software, telecommunication, semiconductors, life sciences, clean technology and other emerging areas.

Logos, cited for its 134% growth from 2007 to 2011, was in not only the most competitive industry segment of the competition—software, which made up 40% of the 500—but also the most competitive regional segment: the West, home to 39% of the winners.

Besides Logos 5, the company has launched several other initiatives in the past year. Tied to the Faithlife Study Bible, the Faithlife social network brings together friends, family, colleagues and churches through shared reading plans, notes and prayer requests.

Logos also recently launched Kirkdale Press, an all-digital publisher. Logos' Proclaim church presentation software is a cloud-synced technology that allows pastors and worship leaders to collaborate on multimedia worship services. Additionally, Vyrso Christian ebooks, introduced a year ago, offers one-touch Bible references to readers' favorite Christian fiction and nonfiction titles.

Click here for more information on Logos Bible Software.

Overseas missions will benefit this Christmas from the efforts of Integrity Music artist Lincoln Brewster and Christian jewelry maker Bob Siemon Designs.

Proceeds from Brewster’s Joy to the World best-selling debut Christmas recording and his Christmas tour will be donated to the Covenant Kids Congo initiative. In addition, a limited-edition Fender Stratocaster guitar, played in concert by Brewster and featuring artwork by performance painter David Garibaldi, was auctioned at each tour date to further aid the outreach effort.

A Christian publisher in Kenya has launched a campaign to prepare Christians for the East African country's March elections.

Five years ago, post-election violence in Kenya almost plunged the country into civil war. The violence, which lasted two months, killed 1,500 and displaced 250,000, BBC News reported.

"We need the prayers, goodwill and support of Christian Trade members worldwide as we carry out the 'Spread Love in Kenya' campaign," said Martin Karanja, managing director of Arba Publications, a Nairobi, Kenya-based member of Christian Trade Association International (CTAI). "This initiative is geared to ensuring that Christians in Kenya practice the greatest commandment so that we never have a repeat of what happened in 2007 and 2008."

The campaign is focused around Love: The Christian Signature, an Arba-published book released in 2011, with a seven-minute DVD of the same name. The book by Edward Buri—a Princeton graduate, youth pastor and adjunct professor—has sold more than 6,000 copies and is in its third printing.

Working with churches, retailers and schools, Karanja has organized events in a dozen cities, including Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru and Naivasha. The campaign, which has reached more than 50,000 people via radio, TV, print and events, has also crossed national borders, with the most recent public meeting in Kampala, Uganda.

"We have 19 active members," said Jackie Ojiambo, owner of Wells Books and Gifts and chairperson of CTAI in Kenya. "We meet to pray, fellowship, encourage one another and address issues that affect our industry and nation."

Holiday shoppers helped drive up retail sales in November, providing a solid start to the first half of the holiday season.

November retail sales (excluding automobiles, gas stations and restaurants) increased 0.8% seasonally adjusted from October and increased 4.4% unadjusted year-over-year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). Book, music, sporting goods and hobby stores' sales increased 0.5% seasonally adjusted month-to-month and increased 7.9% unadjusted year-over-year.

"A successful Thanksgiving weekend for retailers and diminishing impacts in the Northeast due to Hurricane Sandy put retail sales back on track in November after tepid results in October," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. "Though negotiations in Washington over the fiscal cliff could effect consumer confidence and spending in December, overall we are optimistic they we'll see solid sales growth this holiday season."

Platinum-selling band Kutless has teamed with Samaritan's Purse on the Military Mission Project. The partnership is through Operation Heal Our Patriots (OHOP), a project of the Christian humanitarian organization that ministers to service members of all U.S. military branches.

After touring around the world and meeting members of the armed forces, Kutless wanted to give back to the troops.

"We have gotten to meet and interact with service members stationed everywhere from Alaska to Germany, and we are grateful for the stories they have shared with us," said frontman Jon Micah Sumrall. "Hearing their struggles and stories of sacrifice has both inspired and encouraged us.

"We hope that our music continues to be a blessing and an encouragement to all of our countries' service members, but we desired to do more to try and help and impact those who have sacrificed so much for all of us," he added. "That is why we created the Kutless Military Mission."

The project is a two-fold ministry, with the band giving away free concert tickets to active and retired military members and their spouses. Secondly, Kutless is donating a portion of all merchandise proceeds to OHOP.

More than 48,000 U.S. service members have been wounded or injured as a result of combat actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

"On behalf of Operation Heal Our Patriots, the staff of Samaritan Lodge Alaska and the hundreds of injured veteran families we minister to, I extend our heartfelt appreciation to Kutless for their selfless dedication to this great project," said James R. Fisher, a retired chaplain who was in the U.S. military for more than 30 years who now serves as OHOP's chaplain. "Their support, both through their music and their service, has a direct impact on veterans hearing the gospel and finding healing through Jesus our Lord."

Click here for more information on Kutless' Military Mission Project.

Known as the "father of contemporary Christian music," Ralph Carmichael, 84, will make history in 2013 as the oldest conductor to embark on a 30-city tour.

"This tour is a dream come true for me," Carmichael said. "We want the audience to be entertained, but we also want to present the gospel loud and clear. We will use a big band, a full symphony and a mass choir to accomplish that in every city."

Kicking off March 1 in Austin, Texas, the Ralph Carmichael Legacy Tour will feature 30 major symphony orchestras, the Ralph Carmichael Big Band and the Ralph Carmichael Mass Choir, recruited from local communities. In select cities, the tour will feature guest soloists with members, including Larnelle Harris, Wayne Watson, and members of The Archers and First Call. Holt International, an adoption agency established more than five decades ago, will serve as a sponsor for the tour.

Carmichael is known for his transitory influence on the style of music that was slowly embraced by mainline churches in the early 1960s. But he also worked with the biggest names in music, including Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Tex Ritter, The Carpenters, Rosemary Clooney, Pat Boone, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald.

Carmichael also composed music for such popular television shows as I Love Lucy, Bonanza, The Red Skelton Show and The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show, and he had a longtime association with pianist Roger Williams, with whom he scored the million-selling hit song "Born Free." He also worked with World Wide Pictures, the production company that produced movies for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

In the 1960s, Carmichael formed Light Records/Lexicon Music to be a vehicle for a new musical genre he had helped to create, which would become known as contemporary Christian music. Carmichael remembers doing church workshops introducing the new material to ministers of music, and the reaction was not always positive.

Despite criticism, Light Records went on to sign and launch the careers of Christian music icons Andrae Crouch, the Winans, The Archers and Resurrection Band, among others. One of Carmichael's contemporary hymns, "Reach Out to Jesus" was recorded by Elvis Presley on the singer's 1971 GRAMMY Award-winning album of sacred songs, He Touched Me.

Carmichael was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1985. In 2001, he was inducted into the National Religious Broadcaster's Hall of Fame.

Click here for more information on the Ralph Carmichael Legacy Tour.

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) today announced the winners of the ECPA/dp Book Cover Award program. The publishers' group reported its best year with 101 submissions from 19 publishers for the sixth annual program, which is sponsored by Dickinson Press.

Launched in 2007, the awards aim to educate, promote and recognize superior cover design in Christian publishing. This year, the program presented two awards, one for design and one for research-based marketability.

"We were very pleased to continue the valuable component matching design to consumer behavior—while adding more criteria related to design merits," said ECPA President and CEO Mark Kuyper. "The industry responded enthusiastically and we saw a record number of entries from a record number of publishers this year."

Managed by Faceout Studio and highlighting the art aspect of book covers, the ECPA Book Cover Design Award was introduced this year and focused on the design merits of a book cover, including the level of conceptual thinking, the quality of the execution and appropriateness for the market.

Design winners are: Love Does by Bob Goff and designed by Connie Gabbert (Thomas Nelson) in the Large Publisher category; Daddy, Is That Story True or Were You Just Preaching? by James W. Moore and designed by David Carlson (Abingdon Press) in the Mid-Sized Publisher category; and The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung and designed by Josh Dennis (Crossway) in the Small Publisher category.

Managed by RISC AmeriScan and highlighting the science aspect of covers, the Consumer Research award is based on the consumer-buying research of the Research Institute for Social Change (RISC), which measures consumer motivations as it relates to cover design and book sales. Covers were judged and analyzed on how well their design elements match characteristics of their intended audience.

Consumer Research winners are: Soul Detox by Craig Groeschel and designed by Curt Diepenhorst (Zondervan) in the Large Publisher category; What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him by Byron Forrest Yawn and designed by Koechel Peterson & Associates (Harvest House Publishers) in the Mid-Sized Publisher category; and Spark by Jason Jaggard and designed by Kristopher Orr (WaterBrook Press) in the Small Publisher category.

"The book cover is advertising what the book is all about," said Rick Hamm, director of RISC AmeriScan Research, who pointed out that the judges looked at the full book cover, not just the front.

The art and science aspects of the awards were judged separately and operated independently from each other.

This year winners will receive a black glass plaque with a metal plate exhibiting the colors of the book cover winners.

To view past finalists and winners, go to www.bookcoverawards.com.