A message from Geni Hulsey, president of the Church Bookstore Network:

I am writing this week from Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., which is to be the site of The Gathering 2010, to let you know excited I am about next year's event.

Southeast Christian Church is a beautiful facility that is perfect for the event happening April 21-23. For those who may have have attended before or in the past couple years, The Gathering is the event formerly known as The Gathering of Church Bookstores.

While the event has been opened up to other Christian retailers, it still retains an emphasis on church stores, too.

The campus here in Louisville has ample space for all of the classes that we will have—for church bookstores, for coffee bars in stores and for church libraries, especially those in churches that also have bookstores.

The church also has a great space for the vendor show that will feature many of the suppliers you already know, along with some new ones.

Worship will be held in Southeast's beautiful chapel and the popular author/artist autograph party will be hosted in the unique youth facility known as The Block.

Southeast is also home to The Living Word bookstore, which earlier this year was named The Church Bookstore magazine's Large Church Bookstore of the Year. Bookstore manager Sara Peters and her staff will be our hosts.

Wish you could be here for it all? Well, you can-and you don't even have to pay the $125 registration fee.

At least, you don't have to pay the fee if you are among the first 100 people who place a $500 retail order with one of the vendors now presenting their newest and featured products in the Virtual Christmas Showcase at http://vcs.christianretailing.com.

There are more than 20 vendors with new releases, products that focus on the upcoming Christmas holidays and items that will enhance the ministries of your church.

I have just visited the show and know that with Christmas coming up, it would be so easy to place orders for the $500 retail value needed to qualify for the free registration for The Gathering 2010.

For example, B&H Publishing Group has specials on some of its titles with as much as a 58% discount, including Beth Moore's Praying God's Word. Carpentree has beautiful framed art and metal work that anyone would be delighted to get as a gift.

Discovery House Music has a selection of new Christmas CDs, including one from Wintley Phipps who has been featured at the last two Gatherings. Christian T-shirts make great stocking-stuffers, and Kerusso is offering 90-day dating and free freight on orders placed through the Christmas showcase. Lighthouse Christian Products is showing a variety of its wonderful, Scripture-inspired gifts and offering a special gift for a $250-plus net order.

These are only a few of the companies that are featured in the Virtual Christmas Showcase. Placing an order that equals $500 in retail is only $250-$300 wholesale. After you place your order, just fax a copy of it to Dave Condiff at Christian Retailing, at 407-333-7100. There's only one free registration per store, please.

The Gathering is a special time of fellowship, worship, learning and buying-all to strengthen the ministry of our stores and make us better managers, frontliners and volunteers. It is a time like no other time in our industry.

The 100 free registrations are going to go quickly, and the Virtual Christmas Showcase will be over before long. So let me encourage you to visit the event and place your order quickly so that you can be one of those 100.

Having seen firsthand where we will be meeting, I cannot wait to come back to Southeast Christian Church for The Gathering 2010-and look forward to meeting you there.

I will be the one with the big smile and a welcoming hug just for you.

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