To get to the movie section at Lifeway Christian Store in Bridgeton, customers pass by shelves of books, CDs and greeting cards. The rack of Christian DVDs isn't huge, but it's twice as big as it was a year ago and "growing all the time," said manager Francine Evans.

Some of the Christian titles these days, she said, tackle "touchy subjects" such as drugs or domestic violence. Two on the shelf at Lifeway, "Sarah's Choice" and "Bella," are about abortion.

"These are movies that deal with issues that real people deal with," Evans said. "Sometimes that's what's necessary to reach people for God. But the seals are needed. They're a good idea."

The seals Evans anticipates are part of a new system to gauge the Christian values in films that contain sex, violence and drugs — a system developed by the Dove Foundation, a nonprofit based in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The organization is introducing a purple "Faith-Based" seal that warns of raw images or language in otherwise Christian-themed movies and a gold "Faith-Friendly" seal, indicating a Christian-themed movie that's safe for a family audience.

For 20 years, the Dove Foundation has placed a blue "dove" seal on any DVD it considered family-friendly, from "Star Wars" to "Toy Story 3." Now, says Dove chief executive Dick Rolfe, the system is expanding to accommodate the demands of Christian retailers.

The launch of Dove's new seals is part of the International Christian Retailers Show, which officially begins today at America's Center. About 7,000 people will descend on downtown St. Louis for the convention, which runs through Wednesday. This is the 62nd year for the show and the first time it's come to St. Louis since 1979. It's scheduled to return in 2013.

The trade group represents about 1,700 Christian bookstores and more than 500 book publishers, record companies and gift companies that serve a mostly evangelical Christian market. It says the sales of its members are valued at more than $4.6 billion.

Book and music purchases represent a significant portion of Christian retailer revenues. As music sales increasingly go digital, retailers are expanding their DVD offerings to recapture those sales, said Curtis Riskey, CBA's executive director.

In 2009, Christian retail sales of music declined by 1 percent from 2008, but Christian retail sales of videos increased by 26 percent, according to the Christian Music Trade Association and Nielsen Christian SoundScan. In comparison, general market stores' sales of all music decreased by more than 10 percent for the same period and video sales decreased by 23 percent.

The growth of the Christian DVD market means retailers need guidance for their customers.

"A consumer looks to Christian retail to find family-friendly entertainment," Riskey said. "The ratings system helps identify for the Christian consumer the kinds of things they can expect in a movie."

To caution parents that some Christian films can also contain un-Christian behavior or situations, the Dove Foundation's new "Faith-Based" seal will carry letters indicating the offending content: "V" for violence, "D" for drugs and alcohol, "S" for sex, etc.

Many movies don't make Dove's original "Family-Approved" cut at all. The group's review of the recent comedy "MacGruber," says: "Unfortunately, despite some good acting and fighting sequences, the violence level, not to mention the strong language and sexual content, clearly prevents us from awarding this film our Dove 'Family-Approved' Seal."

"It's the retailers that really want there to be a rating system to help them serve their customers," said Bobby Downes, a Christian producer, whose latest movie, "Like Dandelion Dust," with Mira Sorvino, will be in theaters this fall. "If a pastor walks into a Christian bookstore and wants a movie he can show to his entire church, the current rating system doesn't help him make that determination."

The Dove Foundation's new gold "Faith-Friendly" seal will alert consumers that a movie is not only family-friendly, but that it contains a Christian message. DVDs of movies such as "The Blind Side" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" will receive the foundation's gold seal on their packaging.

While the foundation's purple "Faith-Based" seal will register as a caution for parents, those in the film industry say they're not worried it will have a chilling effect on Christian writers and directors concerned about DVD sales.

Dave Austin, vice president of sales and marketing for the Bridgestone Group, which distributes Christian films, said the "Faith-Based" seal is actually "a positive step for filmmakers."

"As a distributor, if we look at a film that's not approved by Dove at all, we might ask for it to be edited slightly to get that Dove approval," he said. Now that Dove will be issuing a seal for edgier fare, "if we think all the content has value, we won't have to encourage the filmmaker to alter the film as we have in the past."

Christian filmmaking has flourished since Trinity Broadcasting Network's 1999 ode to apocalyptic cheesiness, "The Omega Code." In 2004 Mel Gibson's mega-blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ" opened Hollywood's eyes to the financial potential in Christian movies.

Gibson's movie made $371 million at the box office and is the most successful R-rated movie of all time. The first two Narnia movies, in 2005 and 2008, based on the Christian-themed C.S. Lewis novels, together brought in $434 million.

There are annual Christian film festivals in Texas and Massachusetts, and Christian Film Festivals of America stages one-off festivals around the country. Some large evangelical churches have their own film divisions, and both Sony and Twentieth Century Fox own marketing or production departments dedicated to Christian films.

Many of those movies feature big-name stars like Cuba Gooding Jr. ("Gifted Hands"), Peter O'Toole ("One Night with the King"), Alfred Molina ("Luther") and Tilda Swinton ("The Chronicles of Narnia").

The success of Christian films inspired a new generation of Christian auteurs who have since introduced variety into the Christian film market. Fans of Christian movies can now choose between squeaky-clean evangelistic efforts like Sherwood Films' "Fireproof," about a firefighter's marriage, and "Facing the Giants," about a football coach's trust in God, and grittier fare, like this year's "To Save a Life," about teen depression, suicide and bullying; and "Preacher's Kid," about domestic violence.

The latter two films "have some rather graphic scenes in them of inappropriate sexual behavior, drug and alcohol use and violence," Rolfe said in an interview. "However, they also have very powerful stories of redemption through Christian faith."

Austin said the new rating system was "a positive step for the consumer." He and Downes were part of a team of industry experts who helped Dove come up with the system.

"With some parents, when there's not gratuitous violence or sex, they're still comfortable with their 13-year-old seeing some rough subject matter," he said. "Others aren't. If every family had identical tolerances, then a system like this wouldn't be necessary, but there's a wide range out there."

Jim Britts is the youth pastor at New Song Community Church in Oceanside, Calif. In January, New Song Pictures released "To Save a Life," a movie Britts wrote and produced, described by the Los Angeles Times as "a drama involving a teen coping with the aftermath of a student's suicide who finds solace in a group of outsiders."

The movie, produced for $500,000, made $3.7 million in theaters and is set to be released as a DVD Aug. 3. Britt said the film has been licensed by 1,500 churches and schools for screening and estimates 10,000 more will license it for Suicide Prevention Week in September.

But despite its message of Christian redemption, "To Save a Life" received only three (out of five) doves on the Dove Foundation's website, with a 'some content may be offensive" warning.

"While this film is a genuine view of teen life, the nature and depth of the content of the stories portrayed becomes slightly graphic at times," according to Dove's review. "And yet, the movie has a strong message of spirituality."

The DVD packaging for "To Save a Life" will include one of Dove's new "Faith-Based" seals "with cautions about sex and drug use," according to the site.

It's "a little bit of a bummer that could scare people away from the DVD," Britts said. "But in general, what Dove's doing is great for families, and we'll keep reaching teens who are hurting through the DVD anyway."