On February 23rd, Family Christian Bookstores announced that all 240 stores were going out of business. The dominance of Amazon and popularity of i-tunes was too much to compete with over time. When you add in the fact that only 3 out of 10 Christians ever visited these stores, I guess you can say they were destined to fail. As for me, this eliminates my monthly experience of exploring, listening and purchasing new music.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being, Psalm 104:33.
Prior to college, the majority of my music collection was secular. However, this all changed when I was introduced to the Sonshine House, a Christian music store 15 minutes from campus. The former owner, Jackie Johnson, was a good sport, regularly listening to me sing a chorus of a song before leading me to the actual artist and album. Jackie’s passion rubbed off on me, resulting in 3 decades of pursuing inspirational music.
Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, Ephesians 5:19.
Although I am not sure where I am going to go to keep up with cutting edge artists, I won’t allow this hobby to die. One of my goals in life was to run my own Christian Radio Station, creating a business plan, call letters and weekly programming. Yet. after the FCC updated the fees for playing songs to a third party, this added expense wasn’t worth the investment. While one era comes to an end, I pray that Christians will develop another avenue to allow aspiring artists, bands and musicians to flourish by sharing their God-given talents. In addition, I will continue to share you tubes of these artists whose song enhances each blog title.
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 