Nation's Largest Christian Retailer is Shutting Down: Family Christian Stores Announces Closure

“Despite improvements in product assortment and the store experience, sales continued to decline," said Chuck Bengochea, the company's president.  "We have prayerfully looked at all possible options, trusting God’s plan for our organization, and the difficult decision to liquidate is our only recourse.”

At its height, Family Christian Stores represented over 30% of physical sales for many Christian music releases. The retail chain's dominance in the Christian book and music market began to steadily decline with major retailers like Wal-Mart adding key Christian releases to their shelves, along with the launch of iTunes in 2001 and the growing presence of online retail led by Amazon.

NewReleaseToday's roots are closely tied with Family Christian Stores. Its founder, Kevin McNeese, started the site in 2002 while managing music marketing at FamilyChristian.com. "It was such an incredible time," recalls Kevin. "But I could certainly see the beginnings of the shift. Between Napster's quick rise and fall, Apple launching the iPod and iTunes and major retailers beginning to latch onto our biggest products, the writing was on the wall."

The nation's largest Christian retailer, Family Christian, is closing after 85 years.

The non-profit company, employing more than 3,000 people in 240 stores in 36 states, said in a brief statement that the retailer had been facing declining sales since filing for bankruptcy protection in 2015 and had no choice but to shut down.

Family Christian Retail Chain To Produce ’90 Minutes In Heaven’ And Other Films

Family Christian Stores, the nation’s largest Christian retail chain, is getting into the movie business. Rick Jackson, the entrepreneur behind the chain, has formed Family Christian Entertainment. The company will produce two films per year, and gets underway by financing and teaming with Emmett Furla Oasis to produce 90 Minutes In Heaven. An adaptation of the bestselling book about a Baptist pastor who was pronounced dead after a devastating car accident — only to come out of it an hour and a half later fully recalling a vision of heaven — the film has been scripted and will be directed by Michael Polish. Hayden Christensen and Kate Bosworth will star.

Jackson said he has been a passive financier in six films with Randall Emmett and George Furla. He made his fortune founding Jackson Healthcare, the third-largest healthcare staffing company in the U.S.  He once considered becoming a missionary, but was told by some fellow company creators that he’d probably screw that up, and would be best off focusing on what he was good at — making and giving away money. He’ll put up the budget for a film that will likely cost $5 million or $6 million. His share of the profits will go to charity. That makes him an anomaly in Hollywood, where financiers shriek when the do not make a return on a movie.

The move into production came after Johnson discovered that good wholesome movies sell strongly — the Family Christian chain sold $4 million worth of The Blind Side DVDs, he said — but there just aren't enough of those movies to go around.

90 Minutes In Heaven fits perfectly in that mold. The book was written by Don Piper, who in 1989 was on his way back from a minister’s conference when his car collided with a semi-truck that crossed into his lane. Thought to be dead, he lay covered with a tarp, but when a passing minister who’d been at the conference came to pray over Piper and sang to him, Piper recovered enough to sing along. His arm was severed, and his leg was hanging by a thread, and Piper endured a brutal recovery in which he didn't get out of bed for 13 months. After experiencing a warm cozy dream where he felt he was going to heaven before being pulled back, Piper was flat out angry with his maker because he was compelled to return and endure all the pain he went through to regain any mobility. After suffering silently, he wrote the book and went on to become an accomplished speaker, describing what he saw. The book sold 7 million copies, in 46 languages.

Emmett Furla Oasis is producing Silence, the Martin Scorsese-directed drama that is now in pre-production. Production starts January 26 in Atlanta on 90 Minutes In Heaven.