The Gospel Shop celebrates third generation of ownership

Family, faith and community: Does it get any more Amish Country than that?

For Freeman and Rhoda Mullet, owners of The Gospel Shop in Sugarcreek, family has come long before they took ownership of the business in 1987, and it will now move on to the next generation.

Rhoda Mullet’s parents David and Erma Stutzman started The Gospel Shop in 1967, getting a head start by opening Stutzman Gospel Records in their Main Street Sugarcreek home in 1966, where Rhoda got a firsthand view of how a family business operates.

“My dad had this vision that he could sell records, books and cards right out of our house,” Rhoda Mullet said. “We’d write out receipts like one record, $1. It started as something so simple.”

Today, she has second generation families coming back to shop, talking about how they can remember coming into the store as a wide-eyed child taking in all the Christian books, toys and more.

The Gospel Shop is a longstanding Christian bookstore and gift shop located in the heart of Sugarcreek, where its story reflects both the strong faith of the area and the family values that are embedded in the community.

The humble story of The Gospel Shop began in 1966 when the Stutzmans started their small Christian bookstore in Sugarcreek with the idea of providing Bibles, Christian literature and faith-centered resources to the local community.

What began as a modest business quickly attracted customers looking for religious books, inspirational gifts and music, and above all, it began a family business in which building strong relationships was central.

As the business grew, the Stutzmans moved the shop to different locations in town before establishing a permanent storefront in 1987 on East Main Street in downtown Sugarcreek. The shop also began hosting author visits and book-signings, strengthening its reputation as a hub for Christian literature in the region.

Rhoda Mullet said each time the family found a new building to move into, it seemed to be led by God, and the bookstore grew with each move.

“We were so happy and so blessed through what was taking place in the business,” she said. “This has been a joy from day one.”

In 1987 the Stutzmans passed the torch, selling the business to their daughter and son-in-law Rhoda and Freeman Mullet, making the shop a second-generation family business. Rhoda Mullet said it was imperative they continue the store’s mission of providing faith-based materials while maintaining the welcoming atmosphere that had characterized it since the beginning.

Today, the Mullets are easing the transition of ownership over to the third generation in the family, Linford and Kelly Stutzman. Linford would be Rhoda’s nephew, and the Mullets were elated to see the business remain part of the family linage.

“We weren’t sure what was going to happen to the business when we reached retirement age because we never had any children,” Rhoda Mullet said. “We had been praying and praying, and to have it stay in the family like this is a true blessing.”

She said while she and her husband are retirement age, they will continue to hang around and be a part of the store for the time being.

“That is definitely a blessing,” Kelly Stutzman said. “I’m not sure what triggered us to begin exploring this, but one night we were sitting there and began talking about what they were going to do with the store when they decided to retire. Then we kind of dropped it, but it came back around recently.”

Talks quickly turned into the third generation taking over the business, and soon the Stutzmans' son Connor also will join them in the business.

“We felt it was very important to keep this in the family,” Kelly Stutzman said. “It is an honor to be involved in carrying on this mission to serve others and share the Gospel.”

While the literature, music and décor sold over the decades have been a big part of the mission, what has stuck out in the Mullets' minds has always been the relationships they have developed with customers over the years.

“To me, it’s always been about the people,” Freeman Mullet said. “It’s been a blessing to be able to share the Word of God with so many people.”

Rhoda Mullet said 60 years of serving the community in this capacity has brought joys untold for themselves and for the people who frequent the store.

In celebrating a milestone year, The Gospel Shop will host its annual anniversary sale March 16-21. Hours for the sale are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and open until 7 p.m. Friday.

The event will include 20% off on all sales, free coffee and homemade cookies from Kelly Stutzman’s daughter. There also will be a raffle drawing for a men’s, women’s, child’s basket full of items, available to anyone who makes a purchase.

See The Gospel Shop’s anniversary ad in today’s Bargain Hunter.