Read Any Good Christian T-Shirts Lately?
You’ve seen them before and maybe you have a few in your closet. Are they effective ways of communicating the gospel message or do they turn people off?
Our own Stu Epperson went on a search for “faith-based” t-shirts and he didn’t have to go far.
Vic Kennett is a “believer” in Christian t-shirts and other faith based-merchandise. He founded Kerrusso in 1987 when he was 23. By 2008 he had shipped his 10 millionth t-shirt. Effective? According to Impressions Magazine, a graphic t-shirt will be read as many as 3,000 times.
“Even if one of of our shirts is read by only 100 people each, Kennett says, “then we’ve helped preach the gospel nearly a billion times.”
E-mail us your ideas for Christian t-shirts to:
Put the word “t-shirt” in the subject line. Randomly selected e-mail winners will receive a “Fearless” t-shirt based on Max Lucado’s new book and a copy of Alex McFarlands book “Stand –Core Truths You Must Know For An Unshakable Faith”
7 Comments on “Read Any Good Christian T-Shirts Lately?”
I think that Christian t-shirts are a great idea. But like you said on the show – you better walk the walk! I wear them all the time, I live here in Utah where only 2% of the population claims evangelical Christianity. There is a real vacuum here for the real truth so I usually wear t-shirts that have actual scripture on them that will inspire conversation. My most commented t-shirt is the one with ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life- John 14:6′. Keep up the good work – btw – the funniest I have ever seen said – “They will know we are Christians by our T-Shirts”. Going to have go back and buy that one!
Keep up the good work!
I have a great Tshirt that is white with black letters that read ” Got Jesus? Its Hell Without Him”,people have stopped me and says yes I have him or people would say what a wonderful testimony and at a hospital emergancy room lobby, it was rainning bad with heavy winds and when I walked in they looked and a few stated that they like my shirt and as we watched the weather they quoted revelation about how the winds and rains would be and earthquakes.i have been a christian since 2007 and I want the world to know how great our Lord is so every T shirt I have is christian like the ten commandments shirt that say “take two tablets and call me in the morning , God”,I walk the walk and proudly talk the talk
In general, I like Christian T-shirts. My only grudge — and it’s not against the shirts, really, not in any sense — is when people treat some pithy T-shirt or bumper sticker slogan as the end of the conversation rather than the beginning, as if the words are there to shut up the opposition rather than invite them to talk and share so that they can see that Christ is more to you than a way to distance yourself from people with whom you disagree.
To be fair, Christians aren’t the only ones to use T-shirts or bumper stickers this way — not by a long shot. But, curiously, it’s especially painful when Christians do it; somehow, I can’t picture Christ trying to shut out people who might have different ideas with slogans.
I think the person who may or may not wear the shirt has more influence and impact than the shirt itself. For a faithful person, the t-shirt will likely add little to what they are able to do without it. But for the person who wears it without sincerity, it’s hardly more than Christian graffiti.
I used to work with migrant laborers moving irrigation pipes in the fields. One of them would wear a sweatshirt promoting the pop group, “New Kids on the Block.” We all laughed at it but of course he didn’t really care what the shirt had on it that he used to move muddy irrigation pipes.
When you see people in countries that are poor, in the “third world” nations, you see they wear all kinds of refuse from US pop culture. They wear anything the Americans don’t want, are done with, or won’t pay for. I doubt they have the same mind toward the brand names, cultural icons, and symbols that people in the US do.
For people in the US, “Hannah Montana” carries a lot of cultural baggage. For a lot of people in Cambodia or Liberia, it’s just a new shirt with fewer stains and tears than the one they’ve been wearing. Is Christ and his gospel just another American pop icon or do they mean something to these people? Is that meaning really conveyed by our discarded shirts? If it is just another shirt with some work of the graphic arts and a religious slogan, then I think it’s just some more merchandise, probably made in a Bengali, Chinese, or Pakistani sweat shop who won’t actually see the banal slogans that get printed on there for consumers in the US.
There was a great Christian t-shirt for young outdoorsmen out about ten years ago, in a warm brown, with white lettering on the front saying, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” — Genesis 1:1, with a small silouette of a kayaker. On the back are the words, “Thank You.” Does anyone know where to find one of these.
Hello and welcome to the site, Polly K.[smile].
I found a number of good looking shirts upon the website Christianoutdoorsman.com.
Didn’t find the one you asked for though…sorry. But this website had quite a good selection so perhaps you can find something there that is close to it.
Sorry, make that http://www.christianoutdoorsman.com.