January 18, 2012 (Colorado Springs, CO)--We are pleased to announce that Mark McNeece has joined NavPress to lead the sales initiatives and strategies for NavPress direct-to-church resources.

Mark comes to NavPress after nearly twenty years of working with churches and church leaders as Regional Vice President of Rives, Leavell & Company (Jackson, MS), a national provider of financial services to churches and faith-based organizations. He earned a BS in Business Management from Mississippi College (Clinton, MS). Mark and his wife, Jena, live in Mississippi where he is a leader in his church, a gifted Sunday morning Bible study teacher, and a discipler.

“I am thrilled that Mark is bringing his expertise and experience to NavPress. His deep understanding of the local church, his years of consulting experience, and his love for pastors and staffs make Mark an invaluable addition to our team,” says NavPress Executive Vice President Barry Sneed.

“I am delighted to be joining NavPress and look forward to continuing my work withchurch leaders,” says Mark. “More than thirty years as a believer have convinced me that the specific calling of the church to make disciples is also the most difficult area of church life to measure.  What a challenge and pleasure it is to be part of an organization with the stated and singular focus of coming alongside church leaders as they strive to see church members become disciples of Jesus.”

Focus on the Family will air the testimony of author and speaker Carol Kent (When I Lay My Isaac Down) and her husband, Gene, on Feb. 1-2, 2012. The message was recorded at an Extraordinary Women area event.

In When I Lay My Isaac Down, Carol tells the story of her son's incarceration for murder and shares the transformational power principles she and Gene learned about forgiveness and faith. Dealing with her anger, grief, and shame, Carol could have given up. Instead she tells a highly personal, heartbreaking, and uplifting story that will bolster your faith.

NavPress announced today that it has partnered with Greater Texting in order to turn prayer cards, verses from The Message Bible, material from Pray!, and Discipleship Journal magazine articles, and other NavPress discipleship resources into inspirational Christian text message subscriptions.

Greater Texting offers subscriptions of daily messages that are delivered directly to a mobile phone at a time selected by the subscriber. No launching an app or digging through an email inbox is required. Text Message Devotionals are great for anyone who owns a cell phone, but can be especially valuable to teens and young adults who are increasingly devoted to their cell phones and less and less to the Word of God.

"It's very simple,” said Cynthia Bezek, an editor at NavPress. “You go to a website, pick out the topic you'd like to receive prayers, Scriptures, or inspiration about, pay $5, select the time of day you would like your text messages to come, and then for the next 30 or 40 days an inspirational text will come directly to your phone. You can also subscribe to a set of topical text devotionals for a friend, the kids in your youth group, or whomever you know who enjoys texting."

"We are excited to be making valuable Christian discipleship content available utilizing this simple but impactful form of delivery,” said Michael Visentine, COO of NavPress. “Subscribers also get the opportunity to donate 30% of the subscription fee to a church or ministry of their choice, so it also becomes a great way to support a church, school, or other ministry organization, like The Navigators.”

People can browse and subscribe for text message devotionals and find out more at Greater Texting.

NavPress is pleased to announce the appointment of Steve Herron as Bookstore Development Manager.

“The addition of Steve as our Bookstore Development Manager solidifies a significant position for our future growth within NavPress,” explained NavPress Sales Director Eric Helus. “Steve brings knowledge and skill from more than ten years of buying, selling, and merchandising, as well as account and product development. His role is one of great importance as we continue to see tremendous growth in our connection of The Navigators ministry as a whole and how that has influenced and aligned with our bookstore partners in their mission in delivering biblically based content to their current and future customers.”

Herron has a BBA in marketing from the University of North Alabama. His previous experience includes American Wholesale Book Company, Inspirational Publishers Group, WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, and Anderson Merchandisers.

"I’m so honored to be a part of NavPress and support The Navigators’ mission worldwide. God has allowed me to experience so many unique opportunities to serve Him, and I want to pour all of the gifts He has given me into serving our retailers and church bookstores across the country,” said Herron.

NavPress has entered into an agreement with Kerygma Publishing/Allen David Books to distribute books and teaching resources by pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie beginning in October 2011.

In addition to distributing bestsellers such as Hope for Hurting Hearts, What Every Christian Needs to Know, and Married. Happily., NavPress will publish new Bible studies by Laurie beginning in 2012.

“Jesus told us to go into all the world and make disciples. This is not a request but a command from our Lord,” Laurie said. “My life is committed to doing everything I can to bring the gospel to our generation. As both an evangelist and a pastor, my interest is not only in seeing people come forward to follow Christ, but also to go forward in spiritual maturity. That is why I am so excited to be partnering with an organization that understands the importance of evangelism and discipleship: The Navigators.

“Since 1933, The Navigators have been actively involved in equipping Christians to study and memorize Scripture, as well as share their faith and make disciples. I am confident that, as we partner together, we will help even more people do that in the days ahead,” he added.

Laurie, who founded the evangelistic Harvest Crusade events in 1990, serves as senior pastor of one of the largest churches in the United States, Harvest Christian Fellowship, which has campuses in Riverside and Irvine, CA. During the past 22 years, Harvest Crusades have drawn some 4.3 million people to events in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

In addition to speaking and assisting other ministries, Laurie has authored more than 70 books including As I See It, Daily Hope for Hurting Hearts, Christian Dating, Essentials, Run to Win, Upside Down Living, The Greatest Stories Ever Told, and many more.

His autobiography, Lost Boy, was released in June 2008 and continues to be one of the bestselling Christian biographies of all time.

Laurie has written study notes for the bestselling The New Believer's Bible. He also wrote the notes for the recently released Start! Bible in the New King James Version, published by Thomas Nelson. Greg is presently working on a new Bible project called Refresh, which is a devotional Bible.

As host of the television program Knowing God with Greg Laurie and of the syndicated radio program A New Beginning, Laurie has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. He also functions as a guest commentator at Worldnetdaily.com, and appears regularly on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).  Laurie also serves on the board of directors for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

“We are thrilled to partner with Greg Laurie in this way,” said Mike Miller, president of NavPress. “Greg has impacted millions of people around the world with his speaking and his writing. It is a joy and an honor for NavPress to be a partner in reaching more people with Greg’s resources. We anticipate many more lives changed through his messages for years to come.”

For more information about Greg Laurie, visit his homepage at www.greglaurie.com or his ministry website, www.harvest.org. To find out more on Allen David books, visit www.allendavidbooks.com.

Christian Smith's National Study on Youth and Religion revealed that only 8% of the teens polled could truly be classified as "devoted" to Jesus. The majority of those who responded either were uncertain about God or were completely uninterested.

In response to these statistics and to a culture that is increasingly anti-Christian, NavPress in conjunction with Student Life and Compassion Intl. is launching MORF, a free quarterly magazine on spiritual transformation written for student pastors, parents, and youth workers. MORF will be available on Monday, September 26. 

In Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (WaterBrook Multnomah 2010), Dr. David Platt presented a radical idea to American Christians: live the gospel in ways that are true, filled with promise, and ultimately world changing. Readers responded positively to his message, resulting in Radical sitting on The New York Times Best Seller List for a remarkable 55 weeks.

NavPress wondered what could happen if teens embraced the ideas in Radical and understood their biblical basis. Would their parents’ lives be impacted? Would schools and churches look different? And how would these teens live the rest of their lives?

Radical for Teens: The Bible Study (NavPress, July 2011) is written specifically to help students see how the revolutionary things Jesus said 2,000 years ago—such as denying ourselves, giving up everything, and loving Him above all else—still apply to Christians today.

But what makes this eight-lesson study unique is that it is subscription based, which allows a study leader to access lessons anywhere, at anytime. The cost is based on the number of students and includes everything a teacher needs for lesson preparation: commentaries, teaching plans, activities, downloads, discussion questions, and more.

“NavPress is proud to be able to offer Radical for Teens: The Bible Study,” says NavPress Executive Vice President Barry Sneed. “This generation of students has a deep desire to do more than attend youth group—they want to affect their communities and world. This Bible study is a catalyst for them to do something radical in their lives.”

For more information or to try Radical for Teens: The Bible Study for free, visit www.radicalforteens.com.