For every Sunday and every midweek service that your ministry holds, your church bookstore has the unique opportunity to add a special, personalized item to the inventory mix: The messages delivered by your pastor or minister via CD or cassette tape. Though many church bookstores sprout from their pastor's media ministry, few truly recognize the gem that glistens within their own doors.

If your pastor preaches two-thirds of the Sundays in a year, then you have at least 28 different messages on various subjects that can be categorized and developed into life-changing products. For example, your pastor may have preached two messages on how to love your neighbor. Take these two messages and combine them into a CD or cassette album with a well-designed cover.

This collection of messages can be made available for years to come in your Christian living section in the same manner as you would offer a paperback or an audiobook. You can create a variety of different products by using albums and targeting messages to meet the needs of your congregation and community.

Another great way to maximize the resources offered by your pastor is to combine them with books and music to create gift sets. By combining a message or teaching series with a book on the same or related subject, you extend the value of both that book or CD and your pastor's resources.

For example, take a collection of messages about fulfilling your God-given purpose and package it with Rick Warren's book The Purpose-Driven Life. Package a message targeted to women with Stormie Omartian's The Power of a Praying Woman. Take a message on developing a closer relationship with God, and package it with Myles Munroe's Understanding the Purpose and Power of Prayer, or Juanita Bynum's The Threshing Floor.

These types of packages provide a more complete set, giving your customers both a nationally-known name and a local person who can be a ready resource.

-Pearlina Simmons is the former director of the Alvin Stewart Ministries Center in Tallahassee, Fla.

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