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The phone rang Saturday night at 8:30, just as we were putting our two toddlers to bed. The caller was a pastor with an emergency: while getting ready for services the next morning, he discovered his church was out of Communion bread—a familiar problem. Jeff jumped in the car and drove downtown to our small Christian bookstore in Bloomington, Indiana, to provide it.

From 1983 to 1993, we sold everything from curricula to candles, Communion bread to contemporary fiction. We read the books we sold and enjoyed hand-selling them to customers, many of whom we knew by first name and reading preferences. Serious reference volumes and niche books that met a felt need stayed on the shelf, sometimes collecting dust, waiting for the right pastor or customer to walk through the door. We talked with seekers, prayed with those who were hurting, did impromptu counseling, and hosted midnight music parties and pastors' breakfasts. Our staff members were encouraged to drop what they were doing if someone needed to talk. And we weren't alone. Bloomington had three other Christian bookstores, all with the same sort of books, products, and ministry heart.

Today, not one of the four is left.

In the past two decades, Christian retail has taken a roller coaster ride. The CBA (formerly the Christian Booksellers Association), a Colorado Springs–based trade association for retailers, says that as recently as the mid-'80s it had 3,000 members of an estimated 4,000 Christian retail stores. Today CBA has 1,813 members of an estimated 2,800 stores.

According to CBA, just 98 stores were added in 2007, compared to 589 in 2006 and 437 in 2005. Store closures continue, although they've slowed: 160 in 2007, compared to 286 in 2006 and 337 in 2005.

And yet. To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of the Christian bookstore's demise may be exaggerated. "Are we seeing the death of Christian retail? Certainly the old way of doing Christian retail is dying," CBA president Bill Anderson tells CT. "Christian retailers no longer have the corner on the market. The stores who are not willing to meet customers' expectations in terms of customer service, convenience, and core inventory are struggling."

Ironically, Christian books have never been more popular. "Blockbusters like The Prayer of Jabez and The Purpose Driven Life ended up doing more harm than good for Christian booksellers," says Lynn Garrett, senior religion editor at the book industry journal Publishers Weekly. "The general-interest bookstore chains, discounters, and 'big boxes' picked them up and sold huge quantities at deep discounts that Christian stores couldn't match. I think that contributed to Christians getting in the habit of buying their books in places other than Christian stores."

Independent Christian retailers find themselves appearing overpriced, and dependent on backlist and items with higher margins, such as gifts. Music, which once played an important supporting sales role, went digital, and music sales began shrinking faster than a wool sweater in a hot dryer. Other competition—Internet booksellers, book clubs, and direct-to-consumer sales by publishers—nibbled away at profits.

Christian bookstores, especially independents, aren't the only ones facing marketplace pressures. According to the American Booksellers Association (ABA), the national trade association for general independent bookstores, membership plunged from 4,057 in 1996 to 1,625 in 2006. But three straight years of net store openings have brought the membership level back to around 2,000. ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz calls the most recent gains (115 new stores last year) "very good news and an indication of a growing trend among communities that are recognizing the unique contributions of local independent businesses."

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April 2008, Vol. 52, No. 4