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Let There Be Hip

News Channel 8 photo by MICHAEL EGGER

Raymoond Chadyadi (l) watches Jonathan Jerby demo Guitar Praise, a game that features Christian rock hits.

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By MICHELLE BEARDEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 18, 2008

ORLANDO - You can't judge a book by its cover. Such is the case with ''Sexy Girls: How Hot is Too Hot?''

The title runs across a photograph of a well-endowed woman wearing a tube top and low-slung, tight jeans.

But this isn't smut; it's spiritual.

Open it up, and the book by Haley DiMarco talks about God and Scriptures from the New Testament, along with advice on keeping a moral compass in an anything-goes culture.

Holy marketing! Religious books, music, gifts, gadgets and videos are getting hip.

''I think Christians are seeing the light,'' says Pat Layton, founder of A Woman's Place, a faith-based pregnancy resource center in Tampa. ''Being self-righteous and judgmental won't get us anywhere. We have to reach a new generation that's very discerning, so it's time to get out of our box.''

More than 7,000 vendors and retailers attended the 2008 International Christian Retail Show in Orlando last week to get an inside look at what's hot and what's hip in the $4.6 billion industry. Although sales of spiritual merchandise have suffered, like everything else, with the slumping economy, ''people are still buying because religious products respond to a need,'' says Bill Anderson, president of CBA (formerly the Christian Booksellers Association), the trade association for retailers, and the show's sponsor.

''We just have to find a better way to deliver it. Customers know what they want and we have to answer.''

Answers include: digital Christian books you download on your computer; 3-D animated children's videos; an entire audio Bible on a palm-sized device; burn-your-own choir accompaniment music; a Christian version of the wildly popular ''Guitar Hero'' video game; and ''witness wear'' clothing and skateboard art that proclaim faith in bold cultural statements, such as ''Satan is a Nerd'' and ''Global Warming is Nothing Next to Eternal Burning.''

Layton is all for innovation. She came to the show to check out the newest offerings of Christian books and materials for her Tampa ministry, which caters to young people opting to carry their babies rather than abort.

She picked up the line of Revell books by DiMarco because her client base goes for edgy over stodgy.

''As long as the material is true to Scripture, I don't think we should get caught up in the packaging,'' she says. ''We can talk to ourselves all day long. But we have to try something different.''

Some of the products generating the biggest buzz (with suggested retails prices where available):

Powerhouse Christian publisher Zondervan unveiled its answer to the digital explosion with Symtio, an in-store merchandising program that transforms the traditional reading experience. Customers purchase a title from a display of cards illustrated with book covers. They take them home and download from the Symtio Web site in the format of their choice. About 300 titles should be available by fall.

For Isaac Giles, manager of Van Dyke United Methodist Church's Vineyard Bookstore and Café, Symtio is the perfect solution to space limitations.

''I've got about 1,200 square feet — not a lot of room to display rows of books,'' Giles says. ''I prefer the old-fashioned book version myself. But people want to listen to audio recordings or read it on their Blackberrys. So we give them what they want.''

And think green. No gas for trucks to transport the books, no trees killed for paper.

Shred those riffs and blast the bass with Guitar Praise ($99), a PC game with a guitar controller. Digital Praise expects it in stores in September. The faith-based entertainment software company wanted to cash in on the $1 billion worldwide guitar game industry with an inspirational alternative. So it pumped in clean graphics and worked with leading Christian rock groups for the music library.''Parents begged us to develop this,'' reports Diana James-Cairns of Digital Praise. ''Judging by the number of requests, I suspect they'll be playing it as well. It's addictive.''

We're reading everything else in the palms of our hands, so why not the best-selling book of all time?

GoBible ($99) gives you preloaded chapter and verse in its own portable compact device, which means no software, no downloads and no computer. It comes with 75 hours of unabridged audio; a guide to reading the whole book over the course of a year; an index of more than 200 popular Bible stories; and a feature to search more than 31,000 verses.

GoBible's motto: Plug into God without unplugging from life.

Patrick Pellizze swears by it. He's with Tampa Christian Supply, which now has its own myMedia BurnBar (average price, $3,500) by Integra Interactive. The system allows customers to create their own custom DVDs by burning accompaniment tracks, Christian music, audio books, Bible software and video games right in the store.

''People come in knowing just what they want,'' Pellizze says. ''If you don't have it, they will go online and get it. So you've got to stay on top of things to survive.''

Tampa Christian Supply, the only local store with the software, is among the top 25 users in Integra's 300-client base, with about 125 downloads a month. It has changed how the West Hillsborough Avenue store does business.

''We don't have to stock rows and rows of product, some of which gets returned anyway,'' he says. ''This gives the customers a much wider selection at their fingertips.''

Thanks to Pixar and DreamWorks, kids these days are savvy when it comes to animated videos. ''They demand high quality, just like adults,'' says David Dorricott, executive producer of Friends and Heroes Productions. ''They're a tough audience.''

His company is based in the Isle of Man, a tiny island near Scotland that gave the world the Bee Gees. It's also the home of Friends and Heroes, an Old Testament Bible series featuring the adventures of Macky and Portia as they fight for justice and survival against the Roman Empire. What makes it unique: The videos use 2-D animation for part of the story, then move into 3-D when the Bible lesson begins.

The series, which airs on BBC overseas and TBN in the United States, includes an activity-based lesson plan for each segment.

''The idea is to teach the kids that Bible stories aren't just a thing you do on Sundays. You can actually apply them to your lives the rest of the week,'' he says. ''And what's more, they can be fun. Imagine that — something Christian and fun!''

David Lingner says tough guys can love the Lord. And with his sales and marketing experience, he knows that women are the biggest spenders in the Christian market. So he has come up with a line of clothing and caps that make a perfect gift for that manly Christian guy in a woman's life.

His Christian Outdoorsman apparel includes T-shirts with messages that combine faith and a love of outdoor sports like hunting, fishing and horseback riding. ''Go Fish — Matt. 4:19'' and ''What Are You Hunting For?'' are among the offerings. He has also built an online Web site community (christianoutdoorsman.com) where men can go for cyber fellowship, buy merchandise, learn about outdoor seminars in their areas and ''get equipped for the final destination.''

''We're using the outdoors for the Lord,'' Lingner says. ''Anyone who spends time in nature knows there's a God. So we're giving men a comfortable place to make that statement, loud and clear.''

CBA's Anderson knows that many Christian retailers view their operations first as a ministry, then a business.He doesn't mind putting prayer first, but without profits, they won't stay open.

So he maintains this mantra: Stay focused on customer service, have a strong business plan and enough financial backing, and keep tech-saavy. Those factors may help retailers ride out the shaky economy.

''There's an interest in the spiritual today that we haven't seen in decades,'' Anderson says. ''Some of those people are ready to explore what God is all about, but they're not ready to do it in a church. A Christian store is a safe place to find the materials that can lead to the answers they're looking for.''

Michelle Bearden can be reached at mbearden@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7613.

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