Not gonna happen Shane. If there's on e thing that Christians seem to lack it's imagination and creativity. Two things that Christians lack, imagination, creativity and courage. Three things that Christians lack-imagination, crativity, courage and strength. Four things...

Shane,

Thanks for the thoughts! The Burner is also grossed out by Testa-mints--and by the American flags sold in the Christian bookstore. We as Christians should realize the separation between our being set apart for the glory of God and serving our country.

Yet your advice reminds me of the 'if you like this, you'll like that' music charts you talked about in Part 1: Don't buy plastic stuff at the mall, by handmade wooden stuff at a Christian store. Isn't the very drive to possess and consume a key component in our Western rebellion from service and charity?

(TB says this in a spirit of questioning, not judgment, because TB loves to buy stuff!)

It seems to me that the main purpose for Christian bookstores is to create a place of imagined safely for Christians where they can shop without being bombarded by "worldly" stuff. The problem with an emphasis on safety is that it eventually kills the power of the gospel, which is anything but safe. The gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ is that radical affirmation that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners--and that proves God's love for you. It's also a push for radical living--to engage in life with the outcast, to touch the untouchable, and to do so with the humble recognition that we who think we're already in are also outcasts and untouchable.

Can't be done in a Christian bookstore. I would guess that just about everyone who walks in is already quite sure of his or her cleansing and is just trying to prop up that affirmation by more walls of safe Christianity to separate themselves from the sinners outside the walls.

The demise of the Christian bookstore could very well be a movement by the Holy Spirit to say, "you've got it all wrong."

I love these articles Shane! I for years have been trapped between my own self-righteous indignation towards "commercial Christianity" that you see in most Christian stores, and the fact (from somewhere in the Old Testament) that "my word will not return to me void, but will accomplish what I have intended".

These days I am just plain sick and tired of most of Christian radio and stores with their emphasis almost exclusively on Stay-at-home moms, the "my kids first" suburbanites, and the "keeping my kids ears safe" crowd. And what will the next marketing trend focus on at most Christian stores and across Christian airwaves? Will it be teens? Probably. Will it be the shut-ins or the handicapped? Most likely not.

Oh, I am sure they will employ some new focus group on which to hang their hopes on. Meanwhile, myself and many of my Christian friends will continue to be perpetually BORED with Christian radio (this is not mere conjecture on my part, but actual comments from more than a few of my brothers and sisters in the Lord) for their lack of variety in music and programming (come on, you are STILL playing that song form 8 year ago 6 times per day?). No matter what I say or anyone else says, it seems that our Christian bookstores and radio stations just won't get it and continue to put out second rate irrelevant garbage.

But then again, there is the fact of God's word going forth and not returning to him void.

Shane,
I dont really follow you so I don't feel that I have a frame of reference to really understand your question.

It would seem to me that while Christian book store owners/purchasers have the responsibility (hopefully bathed in prayer) as to what to stock on their shelves, perhaps your article should have also been a call to arms to the "Industrial Complex" of creators and suppliers of those goods as well. I don't run a store so I dont know the process, but I would imagine that like anything else, there are vendors that peddle the available goods of mass-produced product that owners choose from for their inventory.

The tenor of your article seems to put the blame on store owners for the fact that I cannot purchase certain "pure and innocent" items when in fact maybe those items are not produced, available and priced affordable for the average consumer..

While i do appreciate subjective, anecdotal writing, this particular article seems to have missed the mark of any clearly defined problem and possible solution

I try to avoid Christian bookstores altogether. Most of what I'm interested in reading - like Shane's books, etc. - I can find at Borders or online and I'm not distracted by the stuff that sillifies or Americanizes Christianity.

We have two major chains of bookshops in Australia - one more or less serving the evangelical christian community, the other more or less serving the pentecostal/charismatic christian community. With some overlap. Twice this year I have done visits to them to test out something: books available on environment topics - the biggest thing in a world discussing what's wrong with the planet. Not a book. Not a thing. So am I right to think that environmental issues don't rate in churches with these leanings?

Daily newspapers - which actually have to sell across the whole community to survive - clearly don't think the topic is of no interest...but these Christian bookshops or those who feed into their industry have clearly decided so. Or at least to Christians. Funny that! No interest in God's biggest thing...Creation!

Read your article with interest. Like most bookstores, the e readers and on line sales are tough to compete with. All bookstores are in business to make a profit which I have no problem with. Truthfully, I do not often go to our local store which sells secular books and items. But that is not the reason. Trying to get some one to check me out is the hard part. The clerks are too busy helping those on the phone or on the floor. Cute tables were set up as part of the renovation for chatting but no book clubs or drinks are there. It is like I as a customer should be glad they are there. I can get everything they have on line or at a chain store. I would love to shop there more but poor service and management sends me else where.

Shane--

1. Your article shows a complete lack of economic knowledge. Christian bookstores are creatures of the market. If you took time to study and learn about supply and demand, ecnomies of scale, just basic economic knowledge really, you might be better placed to critique Christian bookstores.

2. Selling fair trade coffee, which you characterize as "being a pioneer" and not a "chameleon," is just imitation of a different kind (and one less attractive to the market Christian bookstores are selling to). How is fair trade coffee in any way pioneering when it is sold at massive corporate stores like Trader Joe's and Starbucks?

3. I agree with the above comment that these articles neither clearly lay out the problem, nor present any sort of viable solution. I have found this to be a major problem in all of your writings. Your stories are interesting and often charming, sometimes convicting. Christian bookstores cater to the desires of the Christian market. They are a symptom of the problem. They are going out of business because the watered down content the Christian market desires can now be easily purchased online, or at other stores.

4. May I take this opportunity, while I hopefully have your attention, to lay out a final critique of your writing? I think you raise a lot of very interesting points, and you clearly have a great deal of passion for the poor, the dispossessed, etc. This is commendable, and certainly the church needs to hear voices like yours. But so long as your critique comes from anecdotes, statistics, and carelessly used Scripture, the majority of the audience you are trying to reach will not listen. I read your books, The Irresistable Revolution and everytime you used Scripture out of context, I was turned off to any point you wanted to make. You will not appeal to people who take the Word of God seriously so long as you continue to use it carelessly.

Shane, I love your article. I so agree that the Xtian subculture lacks creativity and courage. I'm a church librarian, now looking at the unenviable task of getting the congregation back INTO the library where I've thrown out more 80s Christamerican junk than I'd thought existed. And there's a void, a disconnect somewhere between life-giving texts and authors and consumerist junk written by "inspirational" speakers. No-one cares about either anymore. It's both sad AND curious...in a way.
Well, thank you for your refreshing perspective.

We are just closing off another year in a real live bricks-and-mortar bookstore. A little bruised but still selling books. We do have a display of "fair trade" coffee, the odd carpentry book, maybe even one on Amish quilts...But our "imagination" is a bit worn none the less. It becomes harder to visualize exactly what this venerable and worthwhile tradition of bookselling will look like in a few years. Shane, you definitely have a knack for knowing which way the winds are blowing when it comes to launching a new book (no doubt with some good help from the folks at Zondervan marketing) but I'm not sure how far the imagination would fly if it came to the realities of running a bookstore. But please keep the new books coming.
Happy New Year.