The Christian Merchandising Machine - Is it Too Much?

Being a relatively new Christian, I have been completely amazed at the amount of merchandising associated with our faith. Going into a modern Christian bookstore is like walking into Wal-Mart. There are books, bibles, magazines, clothing, bookmarks, toys, artwork, journals and anything else you can possibly imagine.

As a kid growing up in a family that didn't go to church, I figured Christian merchandise consisted of bibles and...bibles. It didn't occur to me that there were stores devoted to Christian items. In fact, I didn't even realize there were other translations of the bible than the King James. I was way out of the loop in terms of Christian culture.

Jump ahead to 2000 and I had recently become a follower of Jesus Christ and took my first field-trip to a Christian bookstore. I was shocked to say the least. I was just planning to maybe pick up a nice new bible or something. Little did I know the choices I would be seeing there that Friday night. It was overwhelming.

The specialization is astounding, particularly among the bibles themselves. First you have to navigate all the different translations and paraphrases. I had no idea they existed. I was familiar with the King James version and had heard of a few of the others, but I had no idea there were so many. Once you choose a KJV, NIV, NLT, CEV, NRSV, NIRV, Message or some other version, you have to further decide what edition you have to have. You can always just choose a plain old bible I suppose, but there are so many more "improved" editions to choose from. You can choose a Study bible, a Life Application Study Bible, A Women's Devotional Bible, a Men's Devotional Bible, a Couple's Devotional Bible, a Student Bible, a New Believers' Bible, a Women of Faith Bible, a Recovery Bible, a Bible-in-One-Year Bible...and the list goes on for miles.

After you have your bible or bibles of choice, you must then begin to assemble an arsenal of peripheral books to complement your bible. This is where the marketing machine really kicks in. There have always been the classics of Christian literature; concordances, commentaries etc., along with the writings of C.S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Oswald Chambers and the other giants of the faith, but there is now an unprecedented library available to those who have the incliniation, the time and the money to join the fray.

Such household names and near-household names as Max Lucado, Joyce Meyer, Beth Moore and John Eldridge have consistently topped the best-seller lists in recent years, but the Grand Poobah of non-fiction Christian Writing is Rick Warren from Saddleback Church. The Purpose Driven Life is, according to recent editions of the book itself, the best-selling hardback non-fiction book of all time. That's pretty impressive, regardless of the subject. And in all fairness, this is a very good book. In fact, my wife and I are reading it as I write this as part of a series our church is doing based on the book. It's a very well-written and readable book and I am enjoying it. There are two things about the book and the industry that bother me. One is that it seems many Christians, myself included at times, seem to overestimate the importance of these books to our faith. They are not the inspired word of God, yet some of seem to place undue importance on them, giving them credit for things that should be credited to God. The other problem is with the peripheral merchandising the success of such books ignites. In the introduction to the edition of the book I am reading, there are two examples of what I would call advertising for related Purpose-Driven products. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth. We are encouraged to purchase journals with the Purpose Driven logo, workbooks, keychains and lots of other items that seem to serve no real purpose except to make money. I suppose there isn't anything inherently wrong with offering all this stuff, but it disturbs me to see so many people who think buying all these "resources" will make their lives better.

Whenever we have that void in our lives we need to fill we find something to fill it with, hoping it will go away. I say this speaking from experience. I have a piles upon piles of Christian books on marriage, men's issues, child-rearing, depression, addiction, and everything in between. Most of them have never been read all the way through and the ones that have were sometimes interesting but rarely helpful in any meaningful way. The same goes for the other merchandise available to us. If I take notes as I study my bible, will it mean more if I write them in a Deluxe journal with a fish on it? Doubtful. Maybe some of these resources can be useful if I use them correctly, but it seems as though we sometimes forget that we were given the bible as our primary way of knowing what God wants us to know, and I wonder if these things end up getting in the way of us actually reading it. In my case, I was drawn to the packaging and the marketing and the fact that every other Christian I knew was buying them and praising them.

The Christian merchandising industry is just that- an industry- and we have to remember that. As long as there is a market, there will be someone there to sell products to us. That doesn't mean we should shun all products, just that we should keep them in their proper perspective and avoid placing too much value on them. Sure, Christian music and books can be a nice alternative to their secular counterparts and I certainly think we could make worse choices, but I'd like to see us create an improved culture rather than mimic the prevailing one when it comes to blind consumerism and lemming-like behavior regarding trends.