These have been very hot, sluggish days in Houston. It is easy in the middle of summer to believe that the rush of August and September will not come. But it will! Staff will return from vacation, Bible study teachers will begin to call and the fall semester will begin. So let me share some thoughts on how you can start to prepare for the fall and do some things that will make the summer special.

Your customers are going to be coming in from the heat, so why not greet them with something cool? Brownlow has some great lemonade mixes that you could sample to your customers. The company has sample packs, so that you do not have to crack open retail packages.

You might purchase some small bottles of water and have them waiting at the front door in a big bucket of ice. You could even make some labels on the computer, with the name of your store and your contact information. Even though you have air conditioning, a display that includes a table fan just suggests extra "cool."

Monday, Aug. 10, at Harvest Bookstore at Eastview Christian Church in Normal, Ill. (within three hours of St. Louis, Chicago & Indianapolis). Topics and vendors TBD.

Contact regional director Susan Chipman at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

TEXAS

Thursday, Aug. 20, at Gateway Church's Southlake Campus in Southlake, Texas, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Topics and vendors to be confirmed. Will include discussion and training for church coffee bar managers and staff.

Contact regional director Bobby Williams at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Our group of managers and frontline staff primarily from Twin City area church bookstores had been meeting for several years before the creation of regions for the Church Bookstore Network, so it has been a natural fit into Region 6 (Indiana, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin).

We have a mailing list of stores we are aware of in the five states that make up our region. We meet at 8 a.m., on the second Thursday of the month, for a couple of hours. We occasionally hold a meeting in the evening in an attempt to offer an alternative to managers who cannot attend a morning meeting. The regular attendees represent stores from Lutheran, Catholic, Presbyterian, Episcopal and nondenominational churches.

We take turns hosting the meetings, and it's the host's responsibility to provide coffee and continental breakfast. After we catch up on graduations, weddings and grandchildren, a typical meeting will start out with a short devotional or scripture reading and prayer.

Got article ideas or feedback and comments on things you have read in Christian Retailing magazine or The Church Bookstore magazine? If so, take a few minutes out of your time to visit with members of the editorial team, who will be on hand at the magazines' booth (#1814), Monday-Wednesday, 2-3 p.m.

Standard Publishing's 'Sneak Peek'

Standard Publishing is hosting a special Sneak Peek Party at the International Christian Retail Show in Denver, on Sunday (July 12), 4-5:30 p.m. The event will include a premiere of the company's 2010 Vacation Bible School program, its new "Baby Blessings" products and an opportunity to meet authors.

R.S.V.P. to Robb Faust at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

For more information about ICRS, go to http://www.christianretailshow.com/

Most congregation members of churches with cafes-or even full-service restaurants-have enjoyed the convenience of not having to leave the property to enjoy a cup of coffee or meal. Cafes also provide an inviting environment conducive to fellowship and additional ministry opportunities, and they can bring added ambience and excitement to a church campus.

But before your church decides to build a cafe, you need to carefully evaluate all of the pros and cons.

Common mistakes to avoid when considering a cafe addition to your church are:

- having unrealistic financial expectations for the cafe's performance
not determining the type of menu early enough in the planning process

- not having a realistic knowledge of the cost of construction
not understanding the pricing structure required to produce acceptable food-cost expense

- failing to contact the health department early enough in the process
underestimating the amount of expertise required to run a successful food operation

- failing to involve professional food-service experts in the planning process

- not allocating enough space for kitchen and/or food preparation areas

- not allocating enough space for traffic flow during peak business periods.

The decision to build a cafe in your church is not one that should be entered into lightly. But with planning and prayer, many churches can find a format that works well, complements their bookstore ministries and blesses their congregations.

-George Thomsen is manager of the Harvest Bookstore at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif.

Read the complete article at http://www.thechurchbookstore.com/a.php?ArticleID=13233

Marketing groups are valuable in many respects. They offer a large number of retail offerings such as signage, pricing stickers, catalogs and other special promotions. Membership qualifications vary from group to group.

Some offer training while others actually have online help. Membership is diverse with a mix of church stores and independent stores in many of the groups. If there is an interest in being part of such a group, representatives are most often at industry trade shows. There they will have information that will help you see if a group is right for your store's needs.

Got a question for Betty Bookstore? Write to her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Representatives of more than 20 churches were "refreshed and encouraged" in their bookstore ministries when they gathered at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., last month for a Region 3 (Georgia and the Carolinas) Church Bookstore Network meeting. Moments from the presentations, discussions and fellowship were captured by David McIntyre, a church bookstore consultant who also spoke to the group. Watch his video:

In the last 15 years, changes in Hispanic "faith dimensions" include a 25% drop in alignment with the Catholic Church, a 17% increase in being identified as a "born again" Christian and a 10% increase in regular church attendance.

Though born-again Hispanics compared closely to the nation's born-again population at large in most areas, there were some notable differences:

Born-again Hispanics were more likely to believe that though their salvation was based on confession of sin and accepting Christ as savior, it was also possible for someone to earn their way into heaven through good behavior.

Share your experiences and ideas with others, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

" ‘I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve' "

Jeremiah 17:10, NIV