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Company Overview

CSS Publishing Company is a Christian publisher, that publishes liturgical and non-liturgical Sermon Books, Exegetical Resources, resources on the art of preaching, Worship Resources, Worship Preparation Tools, Pastoral Resources, Lectionary Resources, Advent and Christmas material, Lent and Easter resources, Christian Education Resources, Church Supplies and many other worship resources and Christian resources.

Company History

From humble beginnings over 40 years ago, when a paint salesman convinced his pastor to distribute copies of the weekly children's sermon so that other preachers could also use them, CSS Publishing Company has grown today into a nationally-known publisher of ecumenical Christian resources, specializing in titles that meet the practical ministry needs of a diverse customer base.

On a warm summer day in 1968, a paint salesman in Lima, Ohio visited his pastor, Wesley T. Runk, and announced that he had been sharing Runk's children's sermons with his customers, who were sharing them with their pastors. A few began to inquire if the messages could be obtained in a written form. The salesman had a vision: "Pastor, you write the children's sermons a couple of weeks ahead of time and mail them out to other ministers. They will pay for them — it will be like a magazine subscription." After sending some samples to pastors in his synod and receiving positive replies, Runk sensed that perhaps the paint salesman was on to something. So in October of 1968 the Children's Sermon Service was launched by a team of two Lutheran pastors (Runk and Tom Lentz) and a Christian education director who took care of mailing lists and performed office duties.

In January of 1970 CSS Publishing Company was officially founded. It's product line quickly expanded beyond children's sermons to many other offerings, yet the company retained the initials CSS from Children's Sermon Service as a nod to its heritage.

Today, CSS is a thriving company boasting an active backlist of more than 1.000 titles. In addition to producing many new titles per year, CSS Publishing Company continues to provide the subscription resources for clergy that it started over 40 years ago, including Children’s Sermon Service Plus, Emphasis: A Preaching Journal For The Parish Pastor, and Gospel Grams (the original children’s activity bulletin).

In 1973 CSS began to publish lectionary-based sermons and worship resources, the niche upon which the company built its name and reputation. Each year CSS broadened its approach, as it became a highly regarded channel for pastors of many different denominations to share their work. Field-tested programs in stewardship, evangelism, drama, youth ministry, and Christian education were added to the children's lessons, sermons, and worship resources.

As a result, CSS Publishing Company has continued to grow in publications, employees, and sales. The company built its own in-house printing operation, and became fully self-sufficient with the capability to handle diverse book projects from start to finish.

Fairway Press was created as a division of CSS in 1977 for self-publishing.

Academic Renewal Press was founded in 2001 with the purpose of reviving out-of-print works of religion, especially from the academic community.

In 2002, CSS launched it's online service, SermonSuite, a website designed to help pastors with sermon writing and worship preparation.

In 2008, CSS acquired FaithWalk Publishing.