Many Christians get so frustrated by their inability to distribute truth in the cultural marketplace that they move to the “Little Christianity” section of town where everyone speaks the same language and they end up preaching to the choir. Other Christians continue to try and import their faith into the world but quickly find the cultural tariffs too high a price to pay, so instead they move their faith factories to the secular state and manufacture a Christianity that meets worldly production standards. They offer a Build-a-Bear Jesus where the consumer gets to construct the Savior they want and accessorize Him to meet their own selfish needs. They dress Him for success and offer a prosperity Gospel that does nothing but take another generation for a spin on the cycle of spiritual poverty.

Frustrated by our failed attempts to import Jesus into the world we let our guard down and allow the cultural goods (and bads) to cross the border and flood our Christian market creating a severe trade deficit. Our mainline churches then begin to look more like street vendors selling costume jewelry than respectable tradesmen selling pearls of great price.

Many of our friends and neighbors have bought the lie but it appears that we haven’t given them any reason to return it for a truth refund. We seem to think they want to save money, but I suspect they would drain their spiritual bank account to buy an entire field if we just offered them real treasure. The Good News is that Jesus already paid the high price of importing salvation into the world and made it available to everyone regardless of his or her ability to pay. Jesus is the real deal so we need to spend more time introducing people to Him rather than just trying to be His pitchmen. Jesus speaks for Himself so we need to stop trying to muzzle the Lion of Judah and let Him roar.