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In a deal that will unite the country’s two largest religion book publishers, HarperCollinsPublishers (@HarperCollins), parent company of Zondervan (@zondervan), has reached an agreement to acquire Thomas Nelson (@ThomasNelson) for $200 million. HC expects to close the purchase before the end of the year. Here’s the report by Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly):

HC CEO Brian Murray said the publisher was attracted to Nelson because of its “great content and great authors.” He sees Nelson as being more broad based than Zondervan, pointing to Nelson lines in such areas as business and leadership. Nelson, he added, “is a leader in the inspirational market and we are always looking for good content.” Nelson has had one of the bestselling books of the year in Heaven Is for Real. The area where the two are in the most direct competition is the Bible category. Nelson and Zondervan are the dominant Bible publishers in the Christian market, and they license or own translations that compete head to head.

HC also has a religion imprint called HarperOne (@HarperOne) and its Avon (@avonbooks) romance imprint has a Christian fiction line called Avon Inspire.

Read the PW report in full.

Read the news release.

Read coverage by The New York Times.

Read coverage by The Wall Street Journal.

Read coverage by Christianity Today.

See "Perspective on the Sale of Thomas Nelson Publishers" by Steve Laube of The Steve Laube Agency (@stevelaubeagent).

Chaves, professor of sociology, religion, and divinity at Duke University in Durham, NC, and director of the National Congregations Study, says the number of Protestants attending independent churches increased from 14% in 1989 to 19% in 2006.

“If the unaffiliated congregations were all in one denomination, they would constitute the second largest in number of participants (behind only the Roman Catholic Church) and the largest number of congregations,” Chaves writes. “Although most Protestant churches are denominational, a noticeable and growing minority are not formally affiliated with any denomination.”

Chaves says an increase of 5 percentage points in the number of people attending independent churches may not seem like much, but he notes that growth occurred over a period of just 8 years. He adds those numbers probably understate the cultural significance of the trend, because denominational affiliations seem to be decreasingly important to congregations and their members even when they do exist.

Read this in full.

The health of America’s congregations remains a challenging situation, according to a new report from Hartford Seminary’s (@HartSem) Faith Communities Today.

A Decade of Change in American Congregations 2000-2010 shows that despite efforts at innovation, bursts of vitality, and increased civic participation, faith communities are entering this decade less healthy than they were at the turn of the century.

In 2010, more than 1 in 4 congregations had fewer than 50 people in the pews. And although the number of megachurches doubled in the last decade, the growth of the evangelical church seems to be plateauing and their congregations beginning to shrink.

·         Fewer members

·         Older members

·         More tech-savvy

·         Less funds

·         More fights

Read the report in full.

The findings dovetail those of the Barna Group’s report, State of the Church, announced in July. A story in the Sun Sentinel says that study, covering 20 years, finds a general slide in adult church attendance and volunteer work at churches, and that most people don’t normally read the Bible or trust it to be totally accurate. Yet 84% of Americans call themselves Christian, and half say they’ve made a “personal commitment” to Jesus.

Also see Religion News Service (@ReligionNewsNow) article “Trends For US Churches Mostly Pointing Down, Says Report.”

At Somersault (@smrsault), we’re committed to leveraging all advances in technology to help publishers and other content creators reach their audiences effectively and efficiently, and achieve sustainable growth in their business endeavors. But we also can see how engulfed in – and dependent upon – technology our culture has become, to the point of potential detriment in our daily lives and spiritual development.

On his blog, Nathan W. Bingham (@NWBingham) writes about the alluring and subtle pull of technology to become our idol. He quotes Tim Keller from his book Counterfeit Gods on describing idolatry as: “...anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”

Compared with many other potential idols, technology has a greater idolatrous potential; not only can it become an idol in and of itself, it can also serve as an enabler of other idols.

This is an important distinction because although it can be subtle, it means technology is doubly potent for the idol factory that is our heart.

Read this in full.

Let Somersault help you properly manage technology to attain your publishing objectives. And be sure to use our SomersaultNOW online dashboard to remain abreast of news and information for publishing and marketing executives.

This article by DailyFinance (@daily_finance) says that, “from a city planning perspective, churches that occupy dead mall space are godsends.”

As malls across the country empty out, it's no wonder their remains are being scavenged. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, a third of America's indoor malls are currently in “financial distress.” Retailers are leaving indoor and strip malls for popular outdoor “lifestyle centers,” those cutesy, mixed-use developments that resemble the Main Streets their predecessors helped destroy.

Meanwhile, it is no news that Protestant churches in the American suburbs are growing and franchising. The Hartford Institute for Religious Research defines a megachurch as a Protestant congregation with more than 2,000 members, and estimates that their numbers have grown from 350 to more than 1,200 since since 1993.

Most of the churches DailyFinance identified that reside in malls or former malls fit the Institute's description. According to its 2008 survey, which got responses from about a third of the nation’s megachurches, most practice a generic form of evangelism, view themselves as contemporary, and regularly adjust worship styles to meet demand. While individual church practices vary, many are “seeker friendly” in that they use technology, pop music, and relatable sermon topics to reach non-churchgoers.

Read this in full.

Christian retail stores are changing the way they display product. Christian media-on-demand kiosks by Integra Interactive, called the myMEDIA BurnBar, are now in 500 locations across the United States, Canada, the Bahamas, and England. According to its website

the myMEDIA BurnBar™ enables retailers to virtually stock thousands of digital products and have them burned on-demand by customers. It’s the world's largest retail-based burning kiosk system despite focusing on just the CBA channel. The kiosks sell music CDs, Bible software, video, games, and audiobooks.

Digital products in virtual displays are game-changers in the world of retail.

Be sure to visit a Christian bookstore during the nationwide event, Christian Store Week (@CSW_2011) from Oct. 1st through the 10th.

For more than 60 years, independent and chain Christian retail stores have represented the crossroads of faith and community for all denominations and walks of life. Also a safe haven for Christian consumers, these wholesome, family-friendly environments provide the best selection of the highest quality products in the Christian market.

It’s in honor of these retailers’ steadfast commitment to create a store culture of dependability and outstanding customer service that we celebrate Christian Store Week. The top brass among Christian publishers and music companies will be working together to host Christian Store Week celebrations across the country this October.

Several publishers are sponsoring the celebration, including the Common English Bible (@CommonEngBible).

Visit the official Christian Store Week website.

Also read Christian Retailing's (@ChristianRetail) "Christian Store Week unites 500 retail outlets."

By the time early church scholar St. Jerome died more than 1500 years ago, he had laboriously translated the Bible into Latin, taking more than 20 years working within the confined technology of the late 4th century. Considered the patron saint of all translators, today the Feast of St. Jerome is celebrated Sept. 30 as International Translation Day to highlight the degree of difficulty in translating from one language to another.

Electricity, the Internet, and instant global communication have allowed immense strides in communicating across languages, including new Bible translations like the Common English Bible (http://CommonEnglishBible.com), in which 120 academic scholars and editors, 77 reading group leaders, and more than 500 average readers from around the world joined together to clearly translate, in record time, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages from thousands of centuries ago into the English of today. See an interactive Google Map showing the locations of the translators (http://j.mp/p5aiO0).

“Even the usual Bible translation schedule is not for the timid,” says Paul Franklyn, PhD, associate publisher for the Common English Bible (@CommonEngBible – http://twitter.com/CommonEngBible). “Accomplishing it in less than four years requires extra stamina – and modern technology.” Less than four years is phenomenal when compared with other recent modern English Bible translations that took 10-17 years to complete.

Already in its third printing after only one month in stores, the popular new Common English Bible is known for being “built on common ground.”

“When we say ‘built on common ground,’ we mean that the Common English Bible is the result of collaboration between opposites: scholars working with average readers; conservatives working with liberals; teens working with retirees; men working with women; many denominations and many ethnicities coming together around the common goal of creating a vibrant and clear translation for 21st century readers, with the ultimate objective of mutually accomplishing God’s overall work in the world,” says Franklyn.

Translation efficiency was possible by using an online project management database that permitted more than 200 collaborators (translators, editors, and field testers) to communicate immediately. The project was constructed in a workflow matrix with more than 400 overlapping parts.

“Translators and editors of previous Bible translations typically met face-to-face twice a year to debate and vote on challenging passages,” says Franklyn. “By contrast, Common English Bible editors worked by consensus in real-time and deferred any difficult decision to the senior editor for a particular testament.”

The online project management database that was used was first constructed to handle the development of the New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, which contains 8400 articles from more than 1000 contributors in 40 countries. “The system is relatively easy to understand as an online document management application with archiving, version control, scheduling, reports, and workflow. If such a login system is not used, the project can quickly collapse into confusion by trying to manage by email,” says Franklyn.

The translation tool used by Common English Bible editors is the BibleWorks software. Franklyn says that platform was chosen “because we could add the emerging Common English Bible translation into the Bibleworks translation database. This allowed for rapid searching and contributed significantly to a more consistent vocabulary across the translation. It also helped identify traditional vocabulary in older translations that we no longer use in common English.”

Franklyn says BibleWorks is being used to also generate a Bible concordance. “A programmer is working with us to develop a new cross-reference system for the reference edition of the Common English Bible, as well as a ‘phrase concordance’ that’s required for a more functional translation,” says Franklyn. These tools will also become enhancements for future BibleWorks releases.

Another technical tool used by the Common English Bible editors is the Dale Chall readability software. According to Franklyn, Edgar Dale and Jeanne Chall are two reading scholars who developed the most accurate reading measurement formula based on a math computation as well as a comparison to vocabulary word lists that are sorted by grade level in standardized testing.

“Previously the Dale Chall method for measuring readability would work on samples of no more than 400 words. We asked that the program be modified so it could process a readability score and vocabulary assessment for entire books of the Bible,” explains Franklyn. “Each document was measured on the first draft and last draft. Bear in mind that readability is a measurement of the clarity of the translator. It does not reflect on the intelligence of the reader.”

The Common English Bible is written in contemporary idiom at the same reading level as the newspaper USA TODAY—using language that’s comfortable and accessible for today’s English readers.

Also facilitating the rapid translation process was attention given to tagging. “Because our text was well tagged from the beginning in Microsoft Word documents (each text was tagged as soon as the first draft arrived), we were able to complete the XML tagging in the OSIS schema for of the whole Bible in about 4 weeks after we exported from Adobe InDesign typesetting,” says Franklyn.

“Our use of technology was very practical. We used a software tool if it helped us get the job done efficiently. We did not try to chase impulsive or esoteric possibilities that computer tools sometimes inspire for translators,” says Franklyn. “It’s possible to tag a Bible text too extensively, with expectations that someday a scholar could do interesting computerized data mining. That sort of data mining would be fun someday, but not when the real job is to complete a Bible translation containing 930,000 words.”

The complete Common English Bible debuted online and on 20 digital platforms in June, and in paperback format in mid-July. Six other editions, including one with the Apocrypha, are now in stores. The Common English Bible totals 500,000 copies in print, including the New Testament-only editions released a year ago.

Media coverage of the launch of the Common English Bible has included TIME magazine, USA TODAY, The Tennessean, Seattle Post Intelligencer, The Toronto Star, Florida Today, Orlando Sentinel, The Christian Post, Associated Baptist Press, Read The Spirit, and others, along with reviews by bloggers. Information about the Common English Bible is also available on its website, Twitter stream, Facebook page, and video.

Combining scholarly accuracy with vivid language, the Common English Bible is the work of 120 biblical scholars from 24 denominations in American, African, Asian, European, and Latino communities, representing such academic institutions as Asbury Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, Bethel Seminary, Denver Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Seattle Pacific University, Wheaton College, Yale University, and many others.

Additionally, more than 500 readers in 77 groups field-tested the translation. Every verse was read aloud in the reading groups, where potentially confusing passages were identified. The translators considered the groups' responses and, where necessary, reworked those passages to clarify in modern English their meaning from the original languages. In total, more than 700 people worked jointly to bring the Common English Bible to fruition; and because of the Internet and today’s technology it was completed in less than four years.

Visit CommonEnglishBible.com to see comparison translations, learn about the translators, get free downloads, and more.

The Common English Bible is sponsored by the Common English Bible Committee, an alliance of five publishers that serve the general market, as well as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (Chalice Press), Presbyterian Church (USA) (Westminster John Knox Press), Episcopal Church (Church Publishing, Inc.), United Church of Christ (The Pilgrim Press), and The United Methodist Church (Abingdon Press).

For a media review copy of the Common English Bible and to schedule an interview with Paul Franklyn, please contact Audra Jennings, ajennings@tbbmedia.com or Diane Morrow, dmorrow@tbbmedia.com, at 1.800.927.1517.

An article by Piet Levy (@pietlevy) for Religion News Service (@ReligionNewsNow) says that “when the Borders bookstore chain — the nation’s second-largest — finishes closing all of its stores this month, Christian retailers see a window of opportunity in the death of a mega-competitor that once threatened to put them out of business.”

With 70% of Christian retailers reporting flat or declining sales last year, and overall sales dropping 3% according to the Christian retail association CBA, proactive Christian booksellers, marketing agencies, and the 1,200-member CBA are taking any opportunities they can.

After Borders announced its liquidation in July, Colorado Springs, Colo.-based CBA sent an alert to member stores: “Post Borders Growth Strategy: As Borders Shuts its Doors, Christian Booksellers Should Open Theirs Wider.”

The letter offers suggestions for retailers including discounts for customers with Borders loyalty cards and trying to lure former Borders customers into Christian stores.

Read this in full.

Also see the article by Lynn Garrett (@LynniGarrett) in Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly), "After Years of Loss, Only the Strong Christian Stores Survive," and The Atlantic's (@TheAtlantic) article, "Is the Death of Borders Really Good for Independent Bookstores?".

Sam S. Rainer III writes in Leadership Journal (@Leadership_Jnl) that Millennials, those born between 1980 and 2000, “are America’s most educated generation, most diverse generation, and surprisingly, America’s largest generation. And they are beginning to get married, enter the workforce, and lead the world.”

This generation is hopeful. In fact, 96% of them agree with the statement, “I believe I can do something great.” But the majority says individual prominence is secondary to helping the community and accomplishing things for the greater good.

Yet this hopeful generation lacks a solid spiritual foundation on which to base their hopes. As few as one in four attend church weekly. Nearly two-thirds never attend religious services. Church leaders face unique challenges in reaching them.

Older generations tended to place a higher priority on church activity and attendance. The younger generation, however, demands to know the purpose behind each activity. For Millennials, just attending church does not equal faithfulness. The only way they'll attend is if they see the church as being a meaningful part of their lives.

Read this in full.