What Christian Bookstores say about Christian values

[Charismatic-sts1]

I am using the word church as in ''fellowship''not as in the body of Christ. My wife and I decided to go to Barns & Nobel to look at journals and get coffee. I went straight to the religious section and saw a barrage of different versions of the Bible many which were paraphrased. There were many books on improving marriage, how to live life manuals, very few books on the Gospel. I assumed as much since the Gospel doesn't sell books secularists probably had no interest on selling books on the subject. Nor would I think many authors write on the subject since it is very limited. There were no books on evangelism that I could find nor books related to freedom. I felt disappointed about the selection but seeing how it was a secular bookstore I wasn't to concerned.

I then decided to go to a Christian book store, there were very little differences in book selections, as I strolled passed all the home decor, you know the massive painting of what I assume is supposed to be Jesus, custom engraved bible verses and bumper sticker T-shirts and Jesus fish car ornaments and testaments. I realized that Christian book stores thrive on selling Jesus, I could not help but feel dirty for being there. I wondered if Jesus were there if he would be impressed or angry of the selling of the gospel. I could not help but wonder how Christianity went from Jesus on the cross and liberty from Sin to a improvement on marriage, dating and philosophy and fine art. How did we go from meeting from house to house and sharing our lives daily with one another to a sunday gig for a few hours or a few minutes? The church today looks almost nothing like the one described in the bible, its something else. Is the Christian Church dealing with an identity crisis? Do you think the churches we see today reflect the teachings of Jesus or something else. Why the superficiality and how do we get back on track?

 

[Allin]

I have a name for middle-upper class Charismatic type churches that stress coffee and bookstores; I call them 'Starbucks Churches' or 'Starbucks Christians'. That just means pretty much everything is super-superficial, almost like the Brits who drink their tea with the pinky finger pointing outward.

Anyway, things have changed a lot since the early Church and meeting home to home. How do we get back on track? By starting back at the beginning and putting first what God says is first, putting second what God says is second, and putting third what God says is third. We have some house churches that aren't any less superficial than church congregations. It's not a formula deal; formulas don't work (I think we should all know that by now), because they replace the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works... but only when He is allowed (and not just 'invited') to work.