Gospel Light has acquired “The Next Generation-KIDS Church” product line from Strang Communications' curriculum division. The acquisition was announced Jan. 3.

“As Gospel Light looks for new ways to grow and serve more churches, the opportunity to acquire 'KIDS Church' made great sense,” said Bill Denzel, vice president of publishing and marketing at Gospel Light.

Since 1990, CharismaLife has been a pioneer in developing innovative curricula and ministry resources to help churches train and disciple young people, including “KIDS Church”-CharismaLife's children's-church program, which stands for Kids In Divine Service-and “Jr. KIDS Church” for preschoolers.

“We believe this acquisition of CharismaLife puts us in an ideal position to offer churches of all kinds an even wider array of resources to help them reach and train children,” Denzel added. “While the need to disciple young people is as essential now as it always has been, the changing face of culture and technology demands that we offer ministry tools that connect with today's 'sight and sound' generation. We are thrilled to be able to offer churches this amazing 'KIDS Church' program.”

“I have a lot of respect for Gospel Light,” said Stephen Strang, CEO of Strang Communications. “I'm happy that they're able to carry on the ministry that my father and I started back in 1990.”

Strang's late father, Dr. A. Edward Strang, headed CharismaLife for the first five years of the curriculum-publishing venture until he retired.

Last year, Strang and his wife, Joy, decided to put CharismaLife up for sale in two phases in order to focus more on the books and magazines published by their company.

The sale to Ventura, Calif.-based Gospel Light was the second phase. Gospel Light bought the publishing rights, customer database and inventory for “The Next Generation-KIDS Church” products, which has been the most successful part of Strang's curriculum-publishing enterprise.

As phase one of the sale, the Strangs sold the CharismaLife Sunday school curriculum on July 1 to One Accord Resources Inc., a consortium of Pentecostal denominations and fellowships that joined forces in 1999 to produce a common Sunday school curriculum that fit with their theological distinctives.

“Our decision to sell was not an easy one,” Strang said. “We have never sold any part of our company. But we decided we are trying to focus on too many things. In order to give a greater priority to our book area, which is exploding, and also to focus on our core magazine business, we felt that this was the right strategy to maximize our company's growth in the future.”

Financial details of the sale were not disclosed.

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