E. LaRue Bennett has always cultivated a kind attitude toward the competition.
Forty years ago, when his Agapé Christian Outlet was only a year old, his wife made a cake for the chain Christian bookstore that had opened in the mall about a mile to the south of Agapé.
Now, with a For Sale sign in front of the building at 2131 N. Mitthoeffer Road in Indianapolis, he does not sound bitter about a newer competitor that’s helping close the doors.
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He understands the appeal of a book arriving at one’s doorstep.
“I don’t blame the Christians at all,” Bennett said in between customers at his counter. “It’s just technology.
Agapé has been one of few Christian bookstores within driving distance for Hancock Countians. Its coming closure follows the closing of the eastside Family Christian Store (and the chain) in 2017 and the closing of Greenfield’s Lambs Books in 2009.
The closings are part of a shift in how parishioners buy Bibles, books and study guides. Some point and click to order online or find popular titles on the shelves at mainstream retailers. Others are picking up books at in-church bookstore areas on Sunday mornings.
“Having it right there allows them to thumb through it,” said Lance Conway, who usually orders the materials for a resource area at Park Chapel Christian Church in Greenfield. The church’s Meeting Place is stocked with some Bibles and Christian books — perhaps a popular title or a recommendation from a pastor — that can be picked up for a suggested donation dropped into a box.
“Our objective with it isn’t to make anything on it,” Conway said, “just to try to get those resources into people’s hands.”
Other area churches also work to put books into hands. Realife Church has about a dozen books in its bookstore, and they’re sold at cost, the Rev. Adam Detamore wrote in an email to the Daily Reporter.
Brandywine Community Church in Greenfield has a bookstore area in its lobby. Wilkinson Church of Christ also offers resource books and small group materials onsite.
Other local churches lend books.
“We have an awesome church library and a library of resources that have been used in the past,” Carla Carter of Calvary Baptist Church in Greenfield wrote in an email to the Daily Reporter. “We do loan them out to other church groups as well as our own members for private study. We have Christian novels by many different authors. It is a pretty good-size library.”
Similarly, Cross of Grace Lutheran Church in New Palestine has a library anyone is welcome to borrow from, according to the Rev. Mark Havel. Greenfield Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Zion Lutheran Church in New Palestine also have libraries.
New Palestine United Methodist Church’s lending library is in its lobby, where borrowers can fill out the book slip and place it in the box.
The New Palestine church also pays for RightNow Media for use by the congregation. RightNow — “basically a Netflix for Bible studies,” Park Chapel’s Conway said — charges a monthly subscription from churches on a scale based on the church’s size. The subscription gives that church’s members access to more than 15,000 Bible studies online.
The flip side of an overwhelming number of options, though, is that it can be just that — overwhelming. There can be a lot to wade through, and Conway said there’s such a thing as “taking in tons of information but not really being changed.”
Also, amid all the options, Conway hasn’t necessarily seen fewer books in people’s hands. “It does seem like people still like having a hard copy,” he said.
And some people still like browsing at the Lifeway store in Castleton, he said. One of Bennett’s customers, perhaps not surprisingly since he had just walked into Agapé, said he, too, likes in-person browsing.
Bennett himself remembers the lunch hours he used to spend at a Christian bookstore close to the downtown Indianapolis bank where he worked. He remembers the customers who were enthusiastic as his own store opened, across the street from its current site, volunteering to unload boxes and help set up.
“People would just walk in and say, ‘We’ve been praying for you to be here,’” he said.
It was a great time to get into the business, Bennett said. There was the excitement of the Jesus Movement: “All the hippies were becoming Christians, and as a result they brought their music with them.”
That dawn of contemporary religious music was another draw for customers to the shop. Bennett found it fulfilling to see young people finding music they enjoyed that also had a meaningful message. For a few years he even teamed with a friend to organize and promote concerts.
But technology has been changing how people listen to music, too, perhaps even longer than it’s been changing how people read. Over time, people weren’t coming to the store as often for CDs or accompaniment tracks.
There were other factors, too, Bennett said: Churches began ordering supplies online. Listener-supported Christian radio made it difficult to advertise over the airwaves. Large mainstream stores made deals with Christian publishers, buying at higher volume and selling at a lower price than Bennett could.
All these contributed to a decline that’s been going on for 10 to 12 years, he said. Yet, as the store’s days wind down, he appears more reminiscent than resentful.
“It’s been enjoyable all the way through,” he said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to do anything else…
“I’m not all gloom and doom. The Lord may be saying it’s time to slow down.”
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Lance Conway of Park Chapel Christian Church said there are lots of free Bible study curricula online, but one has to know where to search for it. One place he likes to point those who ask him for recommendations is the Anthology site (https://www.anthology.study/) powered by Andy Stanley’s North Point Ministries in Atlanta.
Brick and Mortar
Still want to browse in person? Agapé Christian Outlet is still open for now at 2131 N. Mitthoeffer Road, Indianapolis. There’s also Breath of Heaven, 10625 Pendleton Pike, Indianapolis, and Lifeway Christian Store, 5458 E. 82nd St., Indianapolis.
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