⁶ CBA Retailers+Resources | 05.08

Chairman’s Perspective

Jim Whitaker, CBA chairman

and president of New Life Christian Stores, Lynchburg, VA. E-mail: jim@thenewlife.com

>Responding to His Voice

_W>_{hat a}>BEHOLD, I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK. IF ANYONE HEARS My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3: 20, NKJV) promise from Jesus. He says He’s standing at the door. He didn’t send someone else of less importance to stand there for Him. There isn’t an implied time limit as to how long He’s willing to stand there, or that we have to answer in a certain amount of minutes, hours, days, months, or even years. He’s standing at our door and wants to come in to fellowship, spend time, and share His love and wisdom with us.

“If anyone hears My voice.” He’s not just knocking, but also calling to us to open the door and let Him in; a plea from Jesus to open our hearts and let Him in.

Recently, the CBA board and key CBA staff gathered in a retreat setting to invite Jesus to come in and meet with us as we sought His direction for our industry and association through prayer and fellowship around the Word.

Bob Pike was our facilitator, keeping us on track through the process as we considered a number of written resources and presentations from outside sources. We received a wealth of information on the first day and sought the leading of the Holy Spirit overnight as He prepared us to begin looking to what the future of our industry might be and how our association needs to prepare to support that future.

David Kinnaman from The Barna Group shared data about the changes going on within the church, and culture now and in the future. There are different worship styles and approaches to the church experience. These will affect how Christian retail needs to change its marketing, product mix, and services to meet the expectations of these Christian customers.

Research was shared, and we delved into the many changes occurring in the world of retailing. We studied the principles of successful associations and reviewed the priorities, issues, and concerns identified by CBA members at the Industry Conference.

What we heard over and over was, “You can’t continue to do what you’ve done in the past and expect to get the same results in the future.” The Church has changed, retail as a whole has changed, and customer expectations have changed. Therefore, if our industry is to succeed, Christian retail must change, and the association that supports and leads Christian retail must change as well. God is speaking—how will we respond?

Out of the work of our two-day retreat, we articulated a new vision statement: “To serve Jesus Christ by equipping those called to share the Good News and make disciples through Christian retail.” We also identified four areas of major concentration for our association. ( 1) For our members to be strong in what they’re called to do, they need and deserve a “strong association” working for them. ( 2) Our association needs to develop stronger partnerships and alliances, inside as well as outside our industry, that align with our strategies, mission, and purpose and help us expand our services to our members. ( 3) Our association needs to challenge and equip members to make the changes needed to be stronger and successful retailers and suppliers. ( 4) Our association needs to be actively involved in driving greater consumer awareness of our products and services, and Christian retail as the best place to buy them.

Continue to pray for your association as we develop strategies, products, and plans to build a stronger association to meet our members’ present and ever-changing future needs. I can assure you our greatest call is to serve Christ by focusing on our members. R+R

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