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Dave Schroeder, Dir. of Communications

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NASHVILLE, TN (September 19, 2014) – Coming off being named Publisher of the Year at the Spanish Evangelical Publishers Association (SEPA) Awards announced during Expolit 2014, B&H Publishing is expanding its international focus with the launch of B&H Global.

B&H Publishing is creating a dedicated business unit to better reach the world with biblical resources. B&H President Selma Wilson has appointed Craig Featherstone to lead this division. Craig Featherstone brings over twenty years of Christian publishing experience and leadership. Throughout nearly a decade of service at B&H Publishing, Featherstone has led as the Senior VP of Sales to help B&H expand to 27 market channels, 70 countries, license in multiple languages, and experience rapid growth in digital content.

“For years I have been blessed at B&H to work with a team from all over the world,” commented Featherstone. “God has given us a passion to take the gospel to the world. A team of ours recently returned from India where we shared over 200,000 Bibles in the country and met with dozens of pastors who were asking for help. It is an incredible privilege to see the face of someone receiving a Bible for the first time. We want to see more faces.”

B&H President Selma Wilson feels that this is a major call for B&H, “I am excited about Craig Featherstone leading our team. He has a heart for reaching the world that is unmatched. We are moving with a greater sense of urgency than before. The gap between what we have as Christians in the West and what people have in the rest of the world demands a response. One of my daughters and her family are church planters in Thailand so my heart is near and dear to support the growth of the church worldwide.”

In the past twenty years, there has been a lot of focus in the Christian book community on how to weather market change here in the United States while the opportunity to impact and support the body of Christ internationally is growing exponentially.  According to common research by Pew Forum, LifeWay Research, and Barna, there are between 700-800 million evangelical Christians in the world. Only 15% of those live in the United States, which leaves an opportunity to make a difference helping Christians around the world to be better equipped to share the gospel. This challenge aligns with the core mission of B&H Publishing and the great commission.

Featherstone continued, “People at B&H are serious about the gospel and God’s call to us through Psalm 46:10, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!’ We were made for this and are committed to biblical solutions from here to the ends of the earth.”

For the past decade B&H has been positioned to support this growth. As a part of LifeWay Christian Resources, B&H has multiple international partnerships established to help reach this group including the International Missions Board (IMB), MinistryGrid.com, and WordSearchBible.com. Acquired three years ago, the B&H WordSearch team has been focused on delivering biblical content to Christian leaders domestically and worldwide. WORDsearch offers preachers and teachers over 4,500 Bibles and books that make Bible study faster, easier and more enjoyable. The entire B&H team is excited to move forward and use all of their resources to reach the world for Christ. 

LifeWay President Thom Rainer noted, “It gives me such a joy to see the body of Christ work to take the gospel to the world. I am thankful for all of the teams associated with LifeWay as we are focused on not only the church in America but of the world. Our LifeWay vision is to provide ‘Biblical Solutions for Life’ and our hope through this initiative is to provide the same care and content for those internationally as we do domestically. Our LifeWay employees are regularly in countries around the world on mission trips to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.”

B&H is looking for people to join our team who have a good understanding of how messages are shared and have a heart for the gospel to reach the world. Please stay up to date on our BHPublishingGroup.com job portal.

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

- Matthew 28: 19-20 HCSB

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B&H Publishing Group, a division of LifeWay Christian Resources, is a team of mission-minded people with a passion for taking God’s Word to the world. Because we believe Every Word Matters^® we seek to provide intentional, Bible-centered content that positively impacts the hearts and minds of people, inspiring them to build a lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ. Among our print and digital releases for the trade, church, and academic markets, titles include The New York Times No. 1 best-sellers The Love Dare and The Vow, #1 CBA best-seller I Am a Church Member as well as the award-winning HCSB Study Bible, which features the Holman Christian Standard Bible translation. www.BHPublishingGroup.com. Follow us on Twitter at @BHPub and on Facebook.

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