Emerging Conservative

To the Friends of The Shepherd’s Nook,

At this time, we feel it is important to communicate with our customers our reality and hope to continue to have your support.

You need to be aware that now, more than ever, we need you. After making several large moves to answer the call of our customers; including moving the store to a more convenient and more costly location, we are a critical place financially. Without a change in customer support, we are very close to financial failure and closing the doors.

We have been getting less church support as churches go direct to the venders themselves receiving a similar price that they would get through us. Pastors are receiving their resources through Amazon and the like. Individuals stop by Walmart to pick up the new fiction book while getting their groceries. As a consumer myself, I can understand the mindset but at the same time, I hope people can take a moment and understand a larger picture. A few years back, there were three Christian stores in Marion and now, due to lack of support, we are the only one left for the time being.

We love serving our community through resources, praying with customers, and helping people as they go through celebrations and tough times. We are about to make more sacrifices during this tough time including a small reduction of hours, laying off our full time staff, and deleting a few lines of lesser supported resources. We pray we can survive this season until things get more consistent financially.

There are also things we are investing into while we try to survive and serve including used books, bargain books, and, if we can, a new music listening system that allows you to burn thousands of CDs, accompaniment CDs (including out of print), audio books, software and more on demand! The level of these services will depend on the support of the community.

We know it is hard times for everyone but it takes just a little from a few. Out of our 7,000 customers, if just the top 2,000 spent $20 a month with us, we could double the size of the store and the resources for the community. We need $10 a month per the same number of customers to break even. Right now, we are receiving less than $5 a month from this same amount of customers.

Please let us know of any ideas we can do to serve you better. We are happy to do what we can.

We have full faith in God and look to Him for our direction. We also know that often times, He uses us, His children in His work. We believe that you are not able to pray about your part of what He may have you do without knowing the circumstances of our ministry. We do ask you to remember one thing, when it comes to stewardship; it is not just a matter of saving a dollar. Stewardship  is a matter of how we invest what God gives us into His kingdom. Please continue to support your local church ministry and as always, thank you for supporting the local ministry that’s here to support you.

Blessings,
Tom and Jenni Hypes
The Shepherd’s Nook
316 McMahan Blvd.
Marion, Ohio 43302
740-389-4000
www.shopthenook.com