Christianity Today September 21, 2026 7 min signal 2026-09-21

Amazon can't pray for you

Archived text mirror, captured for personal reading when the Signal ran. Formatting is approximate — read the original at the source.

Christianity Today

September 21, 2026

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“People are always telling you that change is a good thing. All they’re really saying is that something you didn’t want to happen at all has happened,” says Kathleen Kelly, the children’s-bookstore-owner heroine who’s losing her Shop Around the Corner in the classic rom-com You’ve Got Mail. “My store is closing this week. … It’s a lovely store. In a week it will be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap. Soon we’ll just be a memory.”

When You’ve Got Mail premiered in 1998, independent bookstores were shuttering as big-box establishments like Barnes & Noble opened in their neighborhoods. But a bigger challenge was yet to come. On the cusp of the new century, Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks were tapping out emails and surfing the web, and Jeff Bezos had already founded Amazon.

Soon, Barnes & Noble and its ilk were themselves threatened by the online juggernaut’s fast shipping and undercut prices. The indie bookstores struggled too, and by 2009, their numbers were at anall-time low.

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But these days, a change is underway that might actually be a good thing for in-person bookworms. Industry stats reveal a revival, with the number of indie bookstoresincreasing by 70 percent between 2020 and 2025. Barnes & Noble has opened dozens of new stores in 2026.

In the midst of these trend lines, for worse and now potentially for better, Kolas Christian Bookstore in Highland, Indiana, persists.

Sherri and Dale Vandersteen inherited the shop from Roy Kolas, Sherri’s father, when he retired in 1989. Roy started selling Bibles on his front porch in 1947. A retired local pastor, now in his 90s, bought his first Bible on that porch as a child, Sherri told me.

Roy moved Kolas into a brick-and-mortar building in 1950. The current location in downtown Highland sits a few doors from a music shop and a Benjamin Moore paint store.

I visited Kolas often as a child, when my family attended the same church as the Vandersteens. They offered my mom a job when money was tight. I still remember the toy section, with its neon-orange alien pens and Scripture verse bracelets, and the kids’ corner, where I’d scanThe Action Bible.

Recently, Kolas’s young adult group drew me back to the shop. When I walked under its red scalloped awning, I found that, reassuringly, it looked the same as it did when I was a kid. A coffee table offered free cups. Framed Scripture verses decorated the front walls, knickknacks adorned the shelves, and overflowing book stacks in the back invited me to unearth a surprise read. Conversation tables for chatting sat near the counter. The space was cluttered but homey.

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Old men talked around a puzzle table, slowly putting the pieces together. Ladies behind the counter sang along to worship music as they rang up customers. Visitors to Kolas leave with loaves of homemade bread, whether or not they buy anything. The bread is made by a local woman who supports Kolas’s mission.

Kolas doesn’t just sell books. It also offers a place for this small suburb’s Christians to gather, from parishioners at St. James the Less Catholic Church one neighborhood over to members of Redeemer Lutheran several blocks away. That’s the secret to its success. The Vandersteens host what can’t be replicated online: “coffee and canvas” painting events, apologetics groups, and live music from local Christian artists like The Sampsons.

When customers walk into the store, they often say they feel the presence of Jesus. This is because of the prayer saturating the place, Sherri told me.

Brick-and-mortar bookstores may be doing better, but that doesn’t mean keeping Kolas afloat has proved easy. The store weathered the 2008 recession—and the 2020 pandemic, when the Vandersteens couldn’t teach piano lessons on the side or host concerts to bring people through their doors.

But even now, able to put on events once again, Kolas contends with Amazon’s continued dominance, distributors who’ve upped costs or sold products elsewhere, beleaguered denominational publishers, anddeclining readership. In 2025, Christian retail salesonly slightly increased, by 2.27 percent. Sherri is hopeful Kolas can survive the ongoing industry uncertainty, but she and Dale have to be smart.

Over the years, the Vandersteens have looked for ways to minimize costs, believing their ministry is too important to abandon. They’ve sought deals from conventions in Georgia and Chicago, returning with carloads of discounted books and merchandise.

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And they’ve made other big changes when necessary, including a 2007 move from Hammond, Indiana, to Highland for safety reasons. (Dale chased a knife-wielding thief from the old Kolas location after he demanded money.)

Meanwhile, other nearby Christian bookstores have shuttered in recent years: Calvary Bookstore, Count Your Blessings, and three local branches of Family Christian. The Vandersteens’ hearts broke over each closing. They’re grateful as customers rally around them, some even supporting their work by refusing to pay sale prices. Amid financial stress, Kolas has again and again reaffirmed Roy’s motto of a “healthy, not wealthy” business focused on ministry rather than revenue.

To make Kolas a “place for people to come to,” Sherri and Dale offer those conversation tables, the puzzles, the coffee, the bread. They organize discipleship groups ranging from moms’ groups to boys’ Lego clubs. Lately, the Vandersteens have been connecting with local authors by hosting book signings, and they’ve also hosted young adult groups like the one I attended.

Trying to cultivate community has never just been about attracting customers, says Sherri. It’s about loving neighbors. Sometimes, the relationships turn tender: “We keep the Kleenex box handy.” One of Sherri’s employees regularly visited a customer diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in the hospital until she died: “She sang songs with her and helped her sing her benediction at the end.”

Believers can’t afford to lose Christian bookstores, says Sherri. Amazon can’t pray for hurting people. It can’t help pastors or parents or students choose the right Bibles for their needs or surprise them with unforeseen reads.

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Whatever the future holds, Kolas is still in business today. Sherri is hopeful he’ll continue to bless the ministry, regardless of what additional changes are ahead for bookstores like hers: “It’s God’s provision, God’s direction for us.”

I’m not 6 anymore, and I recognize that Kolas is so much more than a place to buy wacky pens. It’s a home where people receive love, prayer, and peace. Where songs are sung; and sweet, fluffy loaves are distributed; and awkward young adults experience a community where they’re unconditionally accepted.

If there’s a Christian bookstore near you, stop in. Tell your friends about it. Consider buying that book on the corner shelf. Better yet, ask a real person for a recommendation. Be part of the revival, flesh and blood, paper and ink.

Sadie Maples was the 2026 Gene Habecker Fellow at CT.

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