CHRISTIAN RETAILING Guest Editor Pamela Clements MINISTERING MORE WIDELY SERVING THE $4.6 BILLION CHRISTIAN PRODUCTS INDUSTRY CTO 12 /// 7.0 i du ry a yo ur i nge i ps www.c hri ti an retai i ng.c om Abingdon Associate Publisher Pamela Clements offers her thoughts on how and why Christian retail stores and publishers should consider expanding their vision and serving the wider body of Christ within their reach. More details on page A CHAR I A IA Publication STORE FOCUS Family store shines in gifts, homeschool Covenant Group store started with call to a machinist with no retail experience BY CHRISTINE D. JOHNSON A machinist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Curtis McGinnis believed he was called by God to do something very different than his day-to-day work. In 1976, he saw the first fruits of his obedience at the opening of the original Knoxville, Tenn., location of Cedar Springs Christian Stores, which are today part of the Covenant Group. knew nothing about the bookstore said Vicki Geist, daughter of Curtis and Lois McGinnis who was 15 when her parents started the store. Geist moved to Ohio for a time and became a sales rep for Enesco when Precious Moments were big, and is now a buyer for the store who oversees personnel and manages the store layout as well. you are called, you begin to listen, read and learn how to be the best at what you are called Curtis said. were very fortunate to have a lot of good people to help us, and with the help of CBA, we managed to do what we have He kept his Oak Ridge job for seven years, and his wife also continued her job there. Starting at age 15, their daughter and her aunt worked at Cedar first store, the 1,600-square-foot Kingston Pike location that has since gone out of operation. Eventually, Cedar Springs grew to three East Tennessee locations in Knoxville and Oak Ridge, but along the way went through many changes and expansions. Cedar current locations include an Oak Ridge store bought in 1992 with a partner who were later bought out and the Curtis McGinnis, from left, started Cedar Springs with his wife, Lois, while daughter Vicki Geist and son Link McGinnis joined in the family-run business that now encompasses three stores. Clinton Highway location in Knoxville that opened in 2001. Oak Ridge is composed of 5,400 square feet and Clinton Highway 8,000 in total. The main free-standing location at 504 N. Peters Road in opened in fall 1995 with a 16,500-square-foot sales floor. Together with office space and two conference rooms, Peters Road is comprised of approximately 35,000 square feet in total. As with many businesses today, Cedar sales have decreased in some areas. Whereas there used to be a buyer for each department, now Vicki and her brother, Link McGinnis, have assumed many responsibilities and wear many hats. Link, whose expertise is in computers and who formerly worked for The Limited, oversees Cedar STORE FOCUS, page 16 Mark Schoenwald appointed to lead newly formed Christian division Zondervan President and CEO Scott Macdonald to step down from helm of the Grand Rapids, Mich., publisher to serve in advisory role BY CHRISTINE D. JOHNSON Mark Schoenwald has been appointed president and CEO of new division, comprised of Zondervan and the newly acquired Thomas Nelson. Formerly president and CEO of Thomas Nelson, Schoenwald will report to Brian Murray, president and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, and will serve on the HarperCollins executive committee. is an experienced leader in the Christian publishing market, and we are thrilled to have him at the helm of our newly expanded Christian Murray said. new division adds further scale and balance to HarperSCHOENWALD, page 15 overall portfolio, MORE INSIDE and Mark will work closely with the leadership teams Nick Vujicic highlights the power of faith in action in page 18 of HarperCollins, Thomas New VeggieTales DVD release introduces four new superheroes, page 26 Nelson and Zondervan to build on the individual Category Key examines what makes a successful gift-book retailer, page 30 strengths of each Learn how stores can cater to fans of fiction series in Fiction Focus, page 32 Scott Macdonald will Academic publishers consider how to best reach the reader, page 34 leave his position as Building sales with local churches can help with managing cash flow, page 40 dent and CEO of Zondervan