Latest / Mission SONlight CHATT / Mission SONlight Chatt Season 4 Ep. 16 Nikki Gelman - Thomas Nelson Publishing

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Mission SONlight Chatt Season 4 Ep. 16 Nikki Gelman - Thomas Nelson Publishing · Mission SONlight CHATT

0:09
Welcome to Network 7's Mission Sunlight Chat.
0:12
We are at the General Conference session in 2025.
0:16
Recording this, I don't know when you'll be listening
0:18
or when you'll be watching, but we are grateful
0:19
that you have come along to the program today.
0:22
The General Conference session has a... extensive
0:25
exhibit hall and we are sitting in that exhibit
0:27
hall now with hundreds of exhibitors sharing
0:30
ministry stories and tools and just all the things
0:34
that you want to know about what Jesus is doing
0:36
around the globe and it's such a special privilege
0:38
to be a part of that have our studio set up here
0:41
in the exhibit hall and today I want to bring
0:43
you right here to our booth number 325 and with
0:47
me is Nikki Getman. Did I say it right? That's
0:50
right. Nikki, you are the vice president for
0:53
Bibles at Thomas Nelson Publishing. Did I say
0:57
that part right? Yeah, that's good. Okay. I'm
1:01
bad with names and I'm bad with titles, so I
1:03
was trying to make sure I got it out. I won't
1:05
be able to repeat it again by the end of the
1:07
program. That's fine. Nikki, thanks so much for
1:08
being a part of our program. Before we go any
1:10
further, would you invite Jesus to be a part
1:12
of our conversation? Oh, my pleasure. Jesus.
1:17
Please be here with us, with Christopher and
1:20
me, as we talk about the beautiful journey that
1:24
you have each of us on as we walk each other
1:28
home. Father, bless the words, bless the spirit
1:33
of the conversation, and most of all, Lord. Bless
1:36
the people who are listening that they will be
1:40
encouraged and be inspired to look even more
1:46
to you and to trust you more with the day to
1:49
day of their lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
1:54
Amen. Nikki, before we talk a lot about Thomas
1:57
Nelson, could we spend a few minutes talking
1:59
about your journey, where you're from? Yeah.
2:02
So tell us about your youth and growing up years.
2:05
Happy to. I grew up in various cities around
2:10
the U .S. People ask me where I'm from, and I
2:13
don't have a really good answer. My dad moved
2:16
us around a bit. But I grew up in a Christian
2:19
home with faithful parents, and so I don't remember
2:25
a time that I didn't believe in Jesus. That's
2:30
a blessing. It's a tremendous blessing. It makes
2:34
me a little teary even just saying that out loud.
2:38
And I remember when I was 10 years old, I was
2:44
sitting in church, and I'd been thinking about
2:45
it for a while, and I wrote on a piece of paper
2:48
that I... folded up that I wanted to be baptized.
2:52
And I walked down the aisle at the end of the
2:54
service and, um, handed it shyly to the pastor
2:59
on my way out on the shaking hands on the way
3:02
out. And, um, and then it turned out that apparently
3:07
several of my friends were doing the same thing.
3:09
So there were about seven of us baptized around
3:11
time when I was fourth grade. How exciting. And,
3:14
um, And then I remember, this is funny or it's
3:20
sweet given what I get to do now, but I went
3:26
home that day from church and I went up to my
3:30
room and I grabbed my little, we call it... At
3:35
the office now, it's called the Seaside Bible,
3:37
but it is a little KJV Bible that a lot of people
3:40
have seen and had before. It has a picture of
3:43
Jesus teaching on the front with the blue page
3:48
edges. And I still have it in my study today.
3:55
Published by Thomas Nelson. Yeah. And I went
3:59
out and walked down the driveway. Nobody, my
4:02
parents didn't know I did this. And I was like,
4:04
I'm going to go to my neighbors and I'm going
4:06
to tell them about Jesus. Amen. The very day
4:08
I got baptized. Fortunately, they weren't home
4:10
because I don't know what I was going to say.
4:12
But, yeah, so that was when I was 10. So it's
4:19
in your blood to share the story of Jesus with
4:21
people. Yeah. And then. you know, proceeded on
4:26
and have been blessed to, while have had, you
4:33
know, the challenges of growing up and trying
4:36
to figure out faith for yourself and adopting
4:39
what that means to you. You know, you have ups
4:41
and downs and times where you're more engaged
4:44
and less engaged, but always have had that sense
4:48
that I have a personal Savior and really. blessed
4:54
by that so as a moment in your spiritual journey
5:00
you were about 10 years old when you when you
5:03
confirmed the decision but you really just had
5:07
him in your years growing up yeah it was just
5:10
in the air you know with My mom was very diligent.
5:16
We had worship before we left for school every
5:20
morning, no matter what. I remember at 8 o 'clock
5:27
every night for elementary school anyway, everything
5:30
got turned off. TV was turned off. Everything
5:33
was done. We'd have worship again at night before
5:36
bed. So it was just really in the air. I like
5:41
that phrase, in the air, because it's like you're
5:43
not just living it, you're breathing it. And
5:47
also I would say my grandparents on both sides
5:51
of my family, um, were musicians, um, and church
5:58
musicians. So, um, my grandma, um, Oakley was
6:04
my, my maiden name. Um, she was, um, a church
6:08
organist at, um, first Baptist Madison and in,
6:12
uh, Madison, Tennessee. And for many years, and
6:16
my grandpa was saying, and, um, and then on my.
6:19
Mom's side of the family, they were Seventh -day
6:23
Adventists, and my grandfather was the church
6:29
organist, and my grandmother sang. And so hymn
6:31
culture was a really big deal in my family, and
6:34
we were always singing hymns. Sometimes today
6:38
my husband tests me because he did not grow up
6:40
that way, and he will open up a hymnal just to
6:44
a number and read the name, and it's, you know,
6:46
can you come up with a song? And I generally
6:51
can come up with it. You know, I think there
6:54
was a time in my life, I don't remember it exactly,
6:56
where hymns were not my favorite thing. But as
7:00
I've matured and as I've continued, I've been
7:03
a music chorister since my 20s. And the more
7:07
I sing them, the more I hear them, the more they
7:10
mean so much. Like the old hymns, there's some
7:14
great new ones as well, but the old hymns just
7:16
really are written with such... passion and empathy
7:23
for what Jesus has done for us. Yeah. And this
7:25
is a little bit out of school of my specialty,
7:27
but I've read that, you know, when we sing and
7:30
music in particular engages both sides of our
7:32
brain and how it, how it crosses the, um, was
7:37
it the corpus callosum? Like it goes between
7:40
the half of the halves of your brain. And, and
7:43
I think sometimes that like, that's just so,
7:47
um, It's so beautiful that God designed music
7:51
to interact with us, like that whole self experience.
7:55
A fully cerebral experience. Yeah, that you can't
7:58
have like any other way. Right. It's really cool.
8:00
Yeah. We're blessed with a creator God who has
8:04
made us, as scripture says, fearfully and wonderfully.
8:08
Mm -hmm. I'm curious, the rest of your family,
8:10
do you have any siblings? I have a brother. Okay.
8:13
Do you like him? I love my brother. We're going
8:15
to send you a link to this. He's the sweetest.
8:17
He's so sweet. And a lot of people, he works
8:20
for Advent Health. He's one of the executives
8:23
down in Florida in Advent Health. And, you know,
8:28
my mom was telling me the other day, my mom is
8:30
here with me supporting this because this is
8:32
a lot of work here at this conference for us.
8:35
Very physical job. She was saying her prayer
8:41
for us growing up was that the work of our hands
8:43
would be a glory to God. And so it's interesting.
8:47
And she just thanks him that the things that
8:51
my brother and I have ended up in our careers
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are kind of uniquely positioned to do that in
8:58
different ways. But they're both very much in
9:01
the marketplace, per se. You know, we're not
9:03
in ministry, neither of us. In the traditional
9:07
sense of ministry. But we have the privilege
9:12
that the work of our hands does something good
9:15
for people. Yeah, I would respectfully beg to
9:18
differ. I think you both are immersed in the
9:20
kind of ministry that Jesus wants us to be in.
9:22
And that is a recognition that wherever you are,
9:25
you have an opportunity to witness. You have
9:28
an opportunity to share the gospel. I can think
9:31
of... Really no better witness than to be in
9:34
the publishing of the Word of God. What a great
9:38
thing. So anyway, that's just my little soapbox
9:41
for you. But it didn't start that way. You know,
9:44
there are many years. So I've been in publishing
9:49
generally for, you know, 25 years. And that really
9:55
started when I was in graduate school. in Chicago,
10:03
Northwestern University. As part of our program,
10:06
we were farmed out for a summer to different
10:10
companies around the country. And we had no input
10:17
into where we landed. So some people went to
10:22
American Express, some people went to Dell, some
10:25
people went, you know, wherever. And I got sent
10:30
to a publishing company in Pennsylvania, which
10:35
has since been sold, but it was Rodale Press,
10:38
and they did health and fitness publishing, magazines
10:45
and books. And that was the job that I was assigned
10:48
to. And so that was how I got into publishing,
10:53
was I went and I did a project there as part
10:56
of my graduate program. So that wasn't necessarily
10:57
your plan? No, it wasn't my plan. And I had no
11:04
say. I didn't apply for it. I didn't do anything.
11:07
It was part of my school program. And that was
11:12
my entrance into publishing. And then after I
11:15
finished my master's degree, there I was rehired
11:21
back and I could tell you story after story about
11:27
you know how I can look back and see God's hand
11:30
in that time but you don't see it when you're
11:33
in it necessarily programs that were started
11:37
or created jobs that were started and created
11:40
that I got and then those programs as training
11:45
programs were shut down after whatever you know
11:49
and and there were many times where I wondered
11:56
like this you know what am I doing that But what
12:03
I can see looking back is that I was learning
12:07
skills and diligence and business principles
12:12
and action in very specific ways that now many
12:20
years later I get to apply to Bible publishing.
12:27
Yeah, so I think that's the thing. The path of
12:31
life looks pretty messy, but when you look back,
12:34
you can see. God has a plan for each one of us,
12:41
doesn't he? He does, and you can see his faithfulness
12:43
even in the mess and the questions and the hard
12:47
times. and layoffs and like all the things, like
12:53
all those things that happen. Sometimes on the
12:56
way from A to B, God takes us to X, Y, and Z.
12:59
Yeah, that's right. That's right. Let's talk
13:02
more about Thomas Nelson Publishing and the work
13:04
that you're doing in just a moment. We're going
13:05
to take a break. Thank you to our listeners and
13:07
viewers who are joining us today. You can connect
13:09
with us at missionsunlight .org. Of course, you
13:12
can click the donate button there. Text us at
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1 -423 -855 -4877. Email hello at missionsunlight
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.org. We'll be back with more Mission Sunlight
13:21
Chat. orphanage or hospital. It means fire, rain,
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ice and snow. It means gifts by the dollar and
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donations that fly. It's a movement on a trail
14:06
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14:12
together. And individually. It's who you are
14:16
or who you are becoming. And to her, it's a simple
14:21
gesture that means hope. Whatever it means to
14:24
you, being a media missionary means more than
14:28
you might think. Welcome back to Mission Sunlight
14:38
Chat. We are at the General Conference session
14:40
of the Seventh -day Adventist Church here in
14:42
the exhibit hall where exhibitors from all over
14:45
the world are showing the things that God is
14:48
doing in their ministry and their work all over
14:51
the world. One of those is Thomas Nelson Publishing.
14:54
Now, Nikki, thank you for being on the program
14:58
today. I wonder if I can share. Thomas Nelson,
15:01
to me, has been just kind of that... house symbol
15:07
on the spine of books that I love to read. Um,
15:11
books from Lakato to, um, I can't remember her
15:16
last name. Sarah, uh, Jesus Calling. Uh -huh,
15:19
Jesus Calling. Sarah Young. Sarah Young. Yeah.
15:21
Lisa Turkos has done some really incredible,
15:24
uh, books on, on hurt and healing. And, and then
15:28
of course the New King, New King James version
15:31
of the Bible. So. I've seen it. It's been a household
15:35
thought, I guess. I don't go, oh, Thomas Nelson.
15:39
But, you know, I've seen it, and it's been in
15:42
my home and growing up years and so forth. So
15:45
I'm familiar with the idea of it and the name
15:47
of the publishing. But what is Thomas Nelson?
15:50
What is it really? Well, Thomas Nelson was founded
15:54
in 1798. in Edinburgh, Scotland. So you're saying
15:58
it's 227 years old? Yeah, it's been around for
16:01
a long time. In Scotland? In Scotland. It was
16:04
founded in Scotland, and then it's moved around
16:06
a little bit, came to New York, and ultimately
16:08
landed in Nashville, Tennessee, which is where
16:10
we're based now. Okay, is there a story behind
16:12
the ultimate landing in Nashville, Tennessee
16:14
from Scotland? There is, but I don't know if
16:17
you have time for it. Give us the elevator speech
16:20
for it. So ultimately, it landed in Nashville
16:25
when a very enterprising Lebanese -American Christian,
16:30
Sam Moore, purchased the company. really helped
16:39
create the Nashville part of the legend of Thomas
16:42
Nelson and was also really instrumental and drove
16:48
the decision to commission the New King James
16:53
Translation Committee, the New King James Version
16:56
Project, and enlist the Translation Committee,
17:01
which was... a very large group of scholars that
17:08
they that they pulled together to probably the
17:13
largest i'm going to say is the largest group
17:17
of scholars to actually do a new to review And
17:25
develop the translation from beginning to end.
17:28
So, you know, a lot of people think that the
17:30
New King James Version just removes the these
17:33
and the owls. And it does do that. They were
17:35
very careful to maintain the King James where
17:39
it is beautiful and precise and good and all
17:45
of those things. But they also did a full back
17:48
to the manuscripts review all the way back, you
17:52
know. So it's... I'm not saying this because
17:55
you're here, but by far New King James Version
17:58
is my favorite both to preach from and to read
18:01
from. Oh, thank you for saying that. Love it.
18:04
It's beautiful. It really is. I like to say it
18:07
sounds like the Bible because it does maintain
18:11
that beauty of the King James and as that is
18:16
in culture, you know. My personal study Bible
18:20
is the Andrews Study Bible, which I know that
18:22
they came to Thomas Nelson and connected the
18:25
study part with the New King James Version with
18:27
Thomas Nelson. And it's just a great layering,
18:32
and it's a great partnership. I hope it's been
18:34
great for you because I really, really love using
18:36
that as my study Bible. I'm so glad you love
18:39
the translation and, more importantly, the Bible.
18:43
So tell us more about Thomas Nelson. We're here
18:46
in Nashville. We're not here in Nashville, but
18:48
it's here in Nashville. Yeah, it's here in Nashville.
18:50
So what else do you have? Well, we do publish
18:54
pretty broadly. So in Bibles in particular. So
19:01
the New King James Version is our largest translation
19:05
that we publish at Nelson. But we also do publishing
19:10
in a number of other English translations, KJV,
19:13
NET. We do a little bit of NIV, a little bit
19:17
of NASB, a little bit of other things. So from
19:21
a business standpoint, you own the NKJV. We have
19:25
the copyright. We have the copyright of the NKJV
19:28
because it was created or commissioned by Thomas
19:32
Nelson back in the late 70s and initially rolled
19:34
out in 1982. So we hold that copyright. The other
19:39
ones are all licensed, or the King James Version
19:42
is public domain because it's been around a long
19:46
time. 1612? 1611. I could give you a lot of history
19:51
on that, too. So 1611 was the original one, but
19:55
the one most of everybody is reading today in
19:57
the King James is the 1769 revision. Because
20:03
what happened, I mean, it's actually pretty fascinating,
20:05
but the 1611 KJV, English, modern English was
20:11
very, and written and codified was, a lot of
20:17
that work was being done at that moment. So the
20:20
KJV was really seminal to the codification of
20:23
the English language. And, I mean, I could go
20:29
into a whole thing about how faithful God is
20:32
about, like, and uses faithless leaders in power
20:39
to do good things for God's word. Because then
20:43
you have, of course, you know, you have the expansion
20:47
of the English. what would you call it, going
20:55
out around the world, the explorers and the colonizers,
20:59
which of course is a fraught topic. However,
21:02
what it did is it took this Bible along with
21:06
it all around the world and in the process of
21:12
creating a global language also took a global
21:15
faith. Pretty interesting, actually. You made
21:18
me think of another great organization who is
21:22
doing work with Bibles, with the Bible, and that
21:24
is the Bible Museum in Washington, D .C. I've
21:27
been there several times. Yeah, we partner with
21:30
them. I love the variety of Bibles that they
21:32
have on display there. I'm not trying to do an
21:35
extra plug for them, but if someone wants to
21:38
see some of the... some of the Bibles that you
21:40
would have no idea around the world. One of the
21:42
most intriguing ones, don't want to get into
21:43
this too much, it's one of those fraught topics,
21:46
but the slave Bible where they took many words
21:49
about liberty and freedom and took them out or
21:52
just took entire passages out. But that one was
21:55
one that really touched me. It made me sad. We
22:00
have to be so careful because as much as the
22:03
Bible is God's, And it is so precious. It is
22:10
also easily abused. And so, I mean, it's something
22:16
we are so mindful of in the work that we get
22:19
to do every day. Well, there's a reason in Revelation
22:22
where we're told don't take away and don't add
22:25
to. So what else is Thomas Nelson doing? Well.
22:32
I am so pleased to report that Bible sales around
22:35
the world are really going strongly. That's not
22:39
unique to Thomas Nelson. We see that from all
22:43
publishers. And the hunger for God's Word is
22:49
just very, very strong. So the work of the moment
22:52
is... is to bring the best of our skills and
22:58
abilities and business acumen and all of those
23:02
things in order to provide beautiful Bibles to
23:10
everyone who wants one around the world. In these
23:13
times that feel so uncertain and like everything's
23:17
changing and the sand is moving under our feet.
23:22
one thing that we can stand on is God's word.
23:24
And so to see that hunger and general rise in
23:33
interest in the Bible across denominations, across
23:39
cultures, across the world, where we get to stand
23:43
on the front line of that and say, how do we
23:45
make sure we can keep providing them keep? Keep
23:51
printing. Keep things moving. The supply chain
23:55
is always moving. The numbers are always changing.
24:00
All of those things. So how do we keep moving
24:03
forward? How do we keep the ball rolling so that
24:06
we can keep Bibles in people's hands? That's
24:09
our work. What do you have in your hand there?
24:11
In my hand, I have an open Bible. While you're
24:14
talking about it, can I just... Yeah, you can
24:15
hold it. So this is the open Bible. Just this
24:20
year, we're celebrating the 50th anniversary
24:22
of the open Bible, printed and published by Thomas
24:26
Nelson. It's been in different... And it's had
24:31
different tools and things over the years. But
24:32
the fun thing about this, and this is a personal
24:34
story, and I think we keep bringing it back in
24:36
the last few years because I keep advocating
24:38
for it at the office. But when I was 16 years
24:41
old, for my 16th birthday, my mom gave me a Bible.
24:45
It was my first adult Bible. And it happened
24:48
to be an open Bible. She went to a Christian
24:50
bookstore. She looked around. She said, I don't
24:52
know. But it happened to be an open Bible published
24:58
by Thomas Nelson. And in the New King James Version,
25:04
of course. And so, yeah, so the great thing about
25:09
the open Bible. is that I'll give a little sales
25:14
pitch on it, but it has this huge topical index
25:19
in the front that helps you find anything really
25:22
that you're looking for. You don't have to be
25:24
word perfect in it, like a concordance is, I
25:26
want every verse that starts with the word grace.
25:30
Okay, so that will give you a list if you know
25:33
that's what it is. But the topical index has
25:36
outlines and things around topics, which is an
25:40
easier way to find exactly what you're looking
25:43
for. Huge, huge index there. And it also has
25:48
a Christian's Guide to the New Life. core Christian
25:52
theological concepts in their chain reference
25:56
through here. You have word studies, you have
25:58
a whole lot of things. So this is just a daily
26:01
driver type Bible that will carry you through
26:05
a lot of things. It doesn't have a lot of extras.
26:12
It gives you those... those guides so you can
26:16
hop in and find where you want to go or you can
26:19
just it's beautiful on the inside too so you
26:21
can uh enjoy your reading experience on on the
26:25
open bible so when my study bible wears out you're
26:27
kind of letting me know where i maybe need to
26:29
be looking next i think so i think so um okay
26:33
so yeah so this is the open Bible and it means
26:36
a lot to me because this one I just pulled off
26:40
our table here at the general conference but
26:44
the one I have that is still my daily driver
26:47
despite my access to every Bible that's available
26:51
is my burgundy bonded leather Open Bible. It
27:00
still has my maiden name printed on it. Okay.
27:02
So you've had it a few years. I've had it a few
27:04
years. It's worn. And it comes in different colors?
27:06
This one does, yeah. This one is the black, and
27:09
we have it in brown, and a really nice gray hardcover.
27:14
Yeah. We need to take a break, but when we come
27:17
back, I wonder if you could talk about some of
27:19
the other products of Thomas Nelson, because
27:21
you're not just about Bibles, and there's quite
27:24
a bit going on with publishing. At Thomas Nelson.
27:27
I'd like to hear a little bit more about that.
27:28
Thank you for staying with us. We hope you're
27:30
enjoying the program today and we are enjoying
27:32
having you along. Connect with us at missionsunlight
27:35
.org. We are at the general conference session
27:37
here in the exhibit hall with hundreds of exhibitors
27:40
and media ministries and publishing ministries
27:44
and ministries that are doing all kinds of things
27:48
around the globe. We're excited to be a part
27:50
of them. We hope that you will come back in just
27:53
a moment with more Mission Sunlight chat. Our
28:03
salvation is a day -to -day matter, isn't it?
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The real principle of the Sabbath is reconnecting
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ourselves with the Creator. We must learn to
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abide in Jesus' name. We move ahead with our
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mission objectives, recognizing that we are serving
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together the Most High God. Welcome back to Mission
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Sunlight Chat. We are talking with Nikki Getman,
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the Vice President for Bibles. I think that is
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the coolest title. Vice President for Bibles
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at Thomas Nelson Publishing. You've got one there
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in your hand. You said that's the open Bible.
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And you know what we're going to do for the very
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first person that texts us. 1 -423 -855 -4877.
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The first text we get. We're going to send this
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very Bible to them. So if you'd like to get a
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copy of the open Bible, text us 1 -423 -855 -4877.
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You do a lot of other things besides Bibles at
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Thomas Nelson. Yes. Tell us about that. Well,
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obviously, having been around since 1798, we
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do a few other things. But we publish books.
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So you mentioned up at the front, Max Lucado
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is one of our authors that we've published for
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many years. And I've also had the privilege of
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working with him on the Lucado Encouraging Word
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Bible and the Grace for the Moment Daily Bible.
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And he's fantastic to work with. We also publish
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a number of books and resources. So one of the
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ones, authors that you may have heard of or may
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not have heard of, Lisa Tarkas from Proverbs
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31 has done a lot of really good work on... very
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impactful books on healing and going through
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hard times. And Forgiving What You Can't Forget
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was one of her big sellers. And a lot of us have
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hearts. And so that's been, she's one of our
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big authors. But we have a whole... a whole lot
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of other ones that so many I can't remember we
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are the largest Christian publisher in our office
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so between Thomas Nelson and Zonderman the two
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of us are together in the same company and so
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there's a lot we publish probably a story behind
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that merge at some point Yeah, I can tell you
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that story at some point, but let me finish here.
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And then we've published Billy Graham. We've
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published a whole number of things you mentioned.
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Jesus Calling with Sarah Young, which has been
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a very impactful book for many people. And we
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have gift books. We have over here at our booth,
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we have... Some of the God's Precious Promises
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gift books and things like that from Jack Hunterman.
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And we also, Tommy Nelson is well known as a
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kids publisher. So we've done a lot of, we have
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done a lot of kids books. We have a bunch of
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them over in our booth as well. Storybook, Bibles,
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all those things. But, you know, we really publish
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for Christians of all. I'm going to put you on
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the spot here. If you don't have an answer, that's
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okay. But could you say what the most unique
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book or the most unique product is that you've
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published through the years? And maybe it was
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even before you were working there. Is there
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something that's just like, wow, I didn't know
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they did that. Or that was really unusual. Anything
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like that? Or you feel like you're fairly mainstream.
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That's okay, too. Yeah. I mean, so it's interesting
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in book publishing. One of our internal art directors
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who serves a number of our publishing teams,
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we have 17 different publishing teams, and Thomas
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Nelson Bible is one of them, in our company.
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But we released some classic fiction books that
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they kind of re - just redid the covers and the
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page edges and all of that. And, um, like Pilgrim's
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Progress or something. And, um, she did this,
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uh, cut paper, um, relief kind of cover that
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was under plastic. And then it also had all these,
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this really elaborate, like stained page edges
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and stuff. So it's, it's, we really, um, it's
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fun. And we, we, We push the envelope wherever
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we can. We work with printers around the world.
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The other day here in the conference, we gave
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away a volume of Luke Acts. It's in a flip -back
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edition, which is published by Royal Youngblood
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in the Netherlands. And they have this copyrighted
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format. It's like a palm -sized book that actually
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flips up. And so it's a very small... So, you
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know, we really look at all of the options that
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are available from printers, and we can figure
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out how we implement some of their innovations
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that are happening there. Constantly adapting.
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Yeah, constantly adapting. And, you know, we
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do beautiful things, and we want to meet people
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where they are. You know, you said a few minutes
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ago that... Bible publishing is strong across
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the board, not just us, but all, which in an
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age of digital media is saying quite a bit. It
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does. Is there an aspect to what you're doing
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that includes meeting people that are only digital?
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Oh, for sure. So we definitely, we have a rise
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in audio Bibles as well. At Thomas Nelson, our
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best -selling audio Bible is Word of Promise,
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which we did. It was from 2005, but it actually
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keeps growing and growing, which was a dramatized
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version of the New King James with actors, actors
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you would know. And people just want to hear
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the word. We also, I have going in my car right
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now, the New Testament read by Johnny Cash, which
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he actually did live and in studio. So it's not
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AI. And I tell people, like, this is really important
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for us to make sure it's in the description of
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this, that he actually recorded this here in
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Nashville, the whole New Testament. And yeah,
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so we have some things and it's just it. We want
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people in God's Word. But we're also working
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with all kinds of... We work hard to get our
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Bibles, our audio Bibles, our digital Bibles.
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YouVersion is coming up on a billion downloads
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of their Bible app. this year and the New King
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James Version was the first translation they
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had in their app back in the early days of their
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app development. So I want to pause on that statistic.
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There's 8 billion people on the planet. There's
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a billion downloads. Yeah, they're coming up
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on it this year, and they're really excited about
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it. It has to be some sort of record. That's
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pretty incredible. Yeah, so we've been talking
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with them about that. You mentioned Museum of
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the Bible. We actually are Thomas Nelson Bibles
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is the sponsor of their really incredible shows
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that they have going on at the theater and the
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museum. and it's a beautiful theater. They're
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doing just really high -quality stuff there.
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They are going to have a, I think, I can't remember
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how many performances of their Christmas candlelight
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service is going to be at the theater in the
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week before Christmas. So we're working with
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them to sponsor those events and make sure that
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people are... doing our part to just raise the
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visibility of the power and impact of the Bible.
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Wow. Nikki, this is kind of exciting stuff I
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didn't know all about Thomas Nelson. Yeah. Can
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you stay for another hour or two? I'd be happy
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to. Your staff might be missing you. We could
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get into... Or we could do some one -on -one
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study. Let's go. How everything works, yeah.
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Yeah, thank you for joining us. Would you share
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just an encouraging word from wherever you'd
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like to there in your open Bible with our listeners
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and viewers? I'd be happy to. So, you know, again,
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as I think about the course of... my my career
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but also you know my my children as I mentioned
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to you are young adults and growing up into a
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world that we aren't quite sure what that's going
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to look like in the next few years and so I think
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of this text often this is Colossians 3 23 and
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24 and whatever you do Amen. And that's New King
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James. This is New King James. Yeah. I like the
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way it puts it. Yeah. I had to think of that
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a little bit. Thank you for sharing. Thank you
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for telling us about Thomas Nelson and just sharing
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your faith here today. Yeah. It's a blessing.
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It's been my pleasure. We serve an incredible
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God, don't we? We do. Yeah. Nikki Getman from
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Thomas Nelson Publishing. We hope you've been
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blessed by the program today. If you want to
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business meeting of the Seventh -day Adventist
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Church held every five years. And we are in the
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exhibit hall where hundreds of other... Exhibitors
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and ministries are sharing what Jesus is doing
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in their work around the world. Thank you so
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much for being a part of our program. This is
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Mission Sunlight Chat. This has been a Beeson
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Brook production in association with Network
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and Rebecca Beeson Roddy Scarborough Don and
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Nancy Van Ornum Associate Producers Jordan and
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Ashley Wagner Gary and Dina Bartle Wagner. Your
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