The "Christian" Bookstore

From Arminan Today:

"Today my family and I were in another city and I happen to come upon a
Christian bookstore. The store was fairly large and so I decided to browse
through. The same is true of nearly every book store that I visit that labels
itself Christian. First, the fiction books have taken up the front of the
bookstores. I imagine that sales for Christian fiction are up and so the desire
to make money puts them first. Second comes the Christian living section which
features some good and some not so good books from various authors devoted to
the Christian life. Third will usually be parenting,
men, women, teens, and finances. Fourth will be the commentaries, theology, and
church leadership books. Unfortunately this has become one of the smallest areas
of books in the store along with the prayer/devotion section. While devotional
books are high, actual books on prayer and how to pray are low.

This tour of this bookstore is a picture of the average Christian church
in the United States. It is sad to admit but the New Testament Church is hard to
find in most of our cities. What men call "church" looks nothing like what I see
in the book of Acts. Christian fiction and running after the fictional dreams of
this world are high while theology is low. Preaching today is based more on
fiction and the watered down books found in the Christian living section than
upon sound exegesis of the Scriptures. Tour the Bibles section of your local
Christian bookstore and you will find that dynamic equivalent translations (and
even non-translations such as The Message) are selling more than literal
translations are. Why? Because we are a generation caught up on pleasing
ourselves more than pleasing God. We want a soft, easy, non-abrasive gospel that
doesn't call us to repentance but gives us freedom to live in our sins and call
ourselves children of God. We want the world to like us and not hate us and we
do not want any persecution or any attacks upon our faith because we just want
to love everyone and get along."

Wow! How true is that? I've noticed the same things, but never put my thoughts down. Now, I guess, I don't need to.

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