Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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I tend to come up with a lot of ideas.  In fact, some people say that it’s a
gift I have.  I’m not entirely sure
that I’m buying into that compliment yet, but I’ll accept it nonetheless.  The reason I mention this is because I
have an idea that I think I might really look into.
 
I went to “Family Christian Bookstore” yesterday
afternoon.  I have nothing against
bookstores, trust me.  I could live
in Barnes & Noble.  It’s my
favorite store on the planet.  But
there’s something about Christian
bookstores that really gets under my skin.
 
I know what you’re thinking, but Matt… you’re a Christian. 
You should like stores like that.  Really?  Should
I?  Because I don’t think so.  I get really tense anytime that I walk into a Christian
bookstore.  Yesterday right before
I went inside of Family Christian I stopped, took a deep breath and said out
loud, “God, please help me,” and then I proceeded inside.
 
I can’t stand the ‘spirit’ of Christian bookstores.  It’s very… fake… and I mean that in the kindest way possible.  I don’t like the cheesy Christianese
trinkets hanging all over the place, sitting up around the cash register, or
even t-shirts.  In fact, the
t-shirts really get under my skin. 
Don’t even get me started on the weak paintings of Jesus holding lambs
and looking gentle…
 
But the best part is the staff.  I’ve never been to a Christian bookstore where at one point
in my venture inside that I haven’t heard the staff grumbling or complaining
about something.  And yesterday, I
heard the cashier getting snippy with a customer (who was not getting snippy
with them). 
 
This is the best part though: they didn’t have any good books.  Well, yes, they had THE Good Book, but
nothing else.  The Christian
bookstore didn’t have the ‘Christian’ book I was looking for.
 
And so I stood there. 
I stood there frustrated.  I
stood there and said to myself, “I’m going to open my own bookstore!”  Then I walked out.
 
I was driving home, still in quite the huff and I got to
thinking… no… I think I really might consider opening my own bookstore… with good books… even non-Christian books! 
How scandalous, I know.  We’ll
carry whatever the heck we want to carry!
 
So I get home and tell the girls about my idea about opening a bookstore that’s not really a “Christian” bookstore, but full of people that love Jesus anyway.  They’re on board with it and gave me more brilliant ideas.
 
I’m going to open it in Ann Arbor, a college town because it’s
going to appeal more to that crowd. 
I’ll attach a coffee bar to one side of it so that people can sit down
and get a drink (maybe even something with more of an ‘edge’), study, and hang
out. 
 
We’ll be open until 2:00am because nothing seems to be open that late in Michigan.

I’ll have good books everywhere… and if we don’t have the
book, we’ll order it (unless it’s on witchcraft, which then we’ll take you in
the back and pray for you). 

We’ll introduce Kim Daniels’ new t-shirt line, which will
have shirts that are also not
Christian-oriented.  We’ll also
sell Sound of Hope merchandise, and Corridor of Hope items.  A portion of our sales will go to
non-profits and fighting things like human trafficking.

We’ll sell pictures of Jesus not holding lambs, but pictures
of Jesus drenched in blood with a sword in his hand having just slaughtering a
legion of demons. 

The staff will be friendly, down to earth, and not afraid to
speak their mind.  They’ll be Spirit-filled and break the mold of what people think Christians are supposed to be like.  And there will
be a tattoo parlor in the back.

There are a lot of other things to it, but this is the gist. 

I just have to figure out how to start a business now.  My dad always wanted me to open a coffee
shop.  Maybe this is a fulfillment
of that dream for him… who knows.

Does anybody know how to start a business like this?  I have no idea… but I have the idea.