Budgets cuts meant that many of you were not able to attend the recent International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in Denver. You missed out on walking the show floor, seeing new vendors and new products and taking advantage of the specials on offer. But all is not lost.

Christian Retailing and The Church Bookstore magazines have a solution for you-and it is as easy as a click of your computer mouse. Simply go to www.Christianretailing.com, and follow the link to "VCRS 2009," and you will find yourself at the Virtual Christian Retailing Show.

Here you will find a virtual world of showrooms with product presentations, links to catalogs, special offers and focus on specific products. The neat thing is that the timing is up to you-you can visit at any time that is most convenient to you.

Another special element of this new virtual show is that your whole staff-whether volunteer or paid-can hear and see the same presentations and product array that you do. Sometimes it is hard to convey the excitement we feel about products when they are presented to us, but through the virtual retail show everyone can be excited, and, as a result, better present the products to customers.

This new opportunity has already proved to be hugely popular. In the first week, the virtual show had more than 1,300 visitors.

Anyone who knows me is aware of how much I love to talk-especially about all aspects of a church bookstore. Nothing thrills me more than to sit down with one (or a group) of you and just chat about challenges, victories or ideas we share for our ministry.

Well, now there's a way for us to do that even if we can't meet in person at an event. As part of the new virtual show, there's an online forum that we can join and and talk about any part of Christian retail we would like.

Once again, just go to the Christian Retailing Web site, and follow the link to the Christian Retailing Community and register. Introduce yourself so that all of those on the forum can get to know you, a little about your store, and where you are. Then you can choose one of the topics already posted, comment or ask questions, or start a new thread of your own.

I am just beginning in all of this "social networking" stuff, but I love this opportunity because it is all about a subject I love dearly. Our goal in the Church Bookstore Network is to make your job in the ministry of church bookstores easier and more of a blessing. And thanks to the great team at Christian Retailing and The Church Bookstore, we now have two new tools to do that.

I look forward to connecting with you online!