The Christian Bookstore is becoming the new church in which people who call themselves Christian worship. In far to many evangelical circles the bookstore has become a safe place for non-thinking congregational robots to go nuts buying meaningless things for meaning's sake.
Christian bookstores have found creative new ways to take the Lord's name in vain. Put Jesus' name on a moderately cute or stylish picture frame, figurine, bookmark, pen, pencil, magazine, painting, bumper-sticker, eraser, bracelet, greeting card, journal, software, video game, stationary, CD, stuffed animal, sticker, candle, briefcase, T-shirt, candy, jewelry, calendar, credit card, video, pet treats, or key-chain and you will sell it to some poor sap who thinks that buying Testamints is actually the best way to be faithful to God.
Actually you don't even have to put Jesus name on it. Jabez will do. (and you can keep the WWJD bracelet... what would Jabez do?) We've create modern indulgences for people. Conversion in the US seems to mean we've exchanged some of our shopping at Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, and Borders to the Christian Bookstore down the street. We've taken our lack of purchasing control to God's store, where we buy our office supplies in Jesus name.
The problem is that we have failed to understand the magnitude in which the Christian Bookstore will lead our people. The average member of our congregations views Christian Bookstores as safe and theologically correct simply because they have been purchased at a store called Lifeway. In the future, the biggest source of misguidance for the church of America may be the short drive to the Family Christian Store down the street. Do you think I'm exaggerating? Maybe I am crazy or going overboard? But try finding a CD in the music section at your local Christian Bookstore with an ugly person on the front? Where are all the ugly Christian musicians? Poor folks never had a chance.
I'm all for creativity and artistry.
Veggie Tales is amazingly brilliant and creative. But do we really need veggie tales flatware? Don't give me this "we're competing with the world manure" We are not competing with the world. So stop trying to win. Trying to replace Pokemon with a Bibleman action figure is asinine. If it was a competition Pokemon would kick Bibleman's ass all the way back to his Brady Bunch days.(or least Charles in Charge) On the other hand I am still looking for a Christian video game to hit the market. I'm ok with that as long as the first one is called "Circumcision: A Virtual Reality Game".
Listen!
The world does not need Precious Moments.
The world does not need a book named "What Would Jesus Eat?"
The world does not need a WWJD pencil eraser.
The world does not need Thomas Kincaid art.
The world does not need Christian Computing Magazine
The world needs Jesus. Be creative in reaching people, not making money off Jesus.
Am I being harsh?
Try this little experiment.
This Christmas buy a $50 Precious Moments statue, a $20 What Would Jesus Eat Cookbook and a $3,000 Thomas Kincaid painting and send it to a Missionary or refuge in Afghanistan.
Speaking of Precious Moments.
Here are some Biblical scenes you will never see on a Precious Moments figurine.
1. John the Baptist being beheaded.
2. Jesus on the cross
3. Kirk Cameron living through the end times. (that is in the Bible right?)
4. David Killing 200 philistines and cutting off their foreskins.
5. Sodom and Gomorrah
6. Elisha calling 2 grizzly's out of the woods to maul 42 adolescents.
7. Onan
8. Jesus kicking Jerry Falwell's ass... (oh wait that's just a dream I had)
Look, "This bloods for you shirts" were cute 10 years ago. But how creative do you have to be to come up with one? As I write this I'm sitting next to the dog food. I'll give those snappy advertising execs a free-be. IAMS Dog food. Change that to - "I Am's Lamb formula -It's good for life." I'll bet if you put IAMS dog food in a Christian Bookstore the stock would soar! Maybe a smart business move for IAMS. However, it’s not much for forwarding the gospel.
Did we really think that when Christ said "Thy kingdom come" he meant building a Christian subculture?? Most evangelical conservative churches are going the way of the Amish.... the only difference is that their U-haul is a hell of a lot bigger and it’s filled with less meaning.
Mark Riddle lives in Tulsa where he does stuff for God. He is the Co-founder and Lead Gardener for Liquidthinking. No one knows what Liquidthinking is but their website will be up sometime in May.
You can email mark mark@liquidthinking.org
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Wow, that was pretty bitter. What's wrong with a store, which chooses to sell primarily Christian items? What is wrong with a Christian theme if it gets the people thinking? What little faith you must have in people to think that they go to these places for no reason or to look good. And so what if people need to be creative to others attentions.
As far as the flatware goes, listen here, my 10 month old daughter was born with a birth defect called Peter's Anomaly. She has had corneal transplants in both eyes and they have failed. Now we were able to find a doctor to put artificial corneas in, but she still may be blind. I only wish I could find the Veggie Tales bright flatware so she can actually see the fork and spoon coming to her mouth so she learns to open it and eat. She can see your ordinary silverware. Maybe you should be more Christian and think that maybe just because you may not need it someone else out there does.
Posted by Emily | Posted at 04/29/2006 8:56 AMWhat I find about the "emergent church" is that they love to bash the "modern church" because they were condenscending towards others and felt that everyone had to fit into their mold. But what I am seeing from the emergent church and the new generation is that they are doing the exact same thing. If we dont question authority, or we propose some absolute truth, they will reject us as being to "old-fashioned" and too modernistic without knowing many of us. I am a young man (early 20's) who grew up in the postmodern age and I find my contemporary "new way of thinking" Christians as being more arrogant than the past. They think that if the older generation, who has more wisdom, knowledge, experience, and years under their belts, doesnt adjust to their style of worship and doesnt let them go off the deep end, that they are old farts who need to be done away with. The emergent church needs to see how it relates to the past wisdom. There is good in the "modern" way of thinking. The emergent church has just brushed it all aside in one stroke, and they will reap the consequences years down the road. Sorry, I just barfed all this up. I am just fed up with the arrogance of the emergent church. Posted by Chris | Posted at 05/10/2006 12:48 PM