LifeWay recently announced plans to close three stores on Southern Baptist seminary campuses. The stores at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri; Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina; and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, will close before summer.

The employees affected by the closures have reportedly been encouraged to apply for positions at other LifeWay stores and, if they choose to leave the company, they will receive severance benefits. LifeWay stores operating at other Baptist seminaries, such as Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana, are not at risk of closing.

LifeWay Christian Stores is hosting an All for You Children’s Ministry Day in partnership with Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU). The event, held Saturday, Feb. 13, promote missions awareness among children grades 1-6.

Charisma House announced Wednesday the addition of a Christian publishing industry veteran to its team. Ken Peckett will now serve as director of CBA and international sales.

Effective immediately, Peckett will head day-to-day sales operations of CBA and international channels, aiming to achieve divisional objectives for Charisma House. Peckett was the director of sales and marketing for 10 years at Influence Resources/My Healthy Church, the publishing and distribution arm of the Assemblies of God (AG). He led the reintroduction of Gospel Publishing House (GPH) and AG materials into trade and international markets, supported the launch of My Healthy Church and Influence Resources, and developed strategic partnerships with publishers, denominations and distributors to help bring Spirit-empowered resources to the local church.

Americans plan to spoil their loved ones this Valentine’s Day, according to a new study by the National Retail Federation (NRF). In the NRF’s Valentine’s Day Consumer Spending Survey, conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics, 54.8 percent of consumers surveyed said they will celebrate Valentine’s Day, spending an average of $146.84 on flowers, jewelry, candy, apparel and more, up from $142.31 last year. Total spending is expected to reach $19.7 billion, a survey high.

When it comes to the top gifts this Valentine’s Day, 50 percent of consumers surveyed said they plan to buy candy, spending a total of $1.7 billion. Nearly 4 in 10 of those celebrating the holiday (38.3 percent) plan to treat their dates to a night out at a restaurant, tickets to a show or another experience, spending a record total of $4.5 billion, the highest since NRF began tracking spending on gifts in 2010.

Christianaudio received two Audie nominations from the Audio Publishers Association for The Boy Born Dead and The Pastor’s Wife. The Audie nominations were announced Feb. 9.

The Boy Born Dead was narrated by Paul Michael, written by David Ring, John Driver and David Wideman, and published in print by Baker Books. The Pastor’s Wife was narrated by Sadie Alexandru, written by Sabina Wurmbrand and published by Voice of the Martyrs. Both were nominated in the Inspirational Non-Fiction category.

Hachette Nashville announced it has shipped more than 400,000 copies of Joel Osteen's The Power of I Am: Two Words That Will Change Your Life Today, which released Oct. 6, 2015. Published under the FaithWords imprint, the book spent 13 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, was No. 1 on CBA's best-seller list and is in its fifth printing.

David C Cook announced that Christian publishing veteran Matthew Lockhart was hired Feb. 1 as publisher of the Standard Lesson Commentary, Bible-in-Life curriculum and adult trade book resources.

Lockhart has over 20 years of experience in the industry, specializing in developing resources for the church and its leaders. He has served in a variety of roles at Serendipity House, Group Publishing and, most recently, Standard Publishing as vice president, general manager and publisher.