Tell HIS story with your T-shirt.

It is a tool for Christians to use as a conversation starter about Jesus. T-shirts with Scripture puts God’s Word out there and many people get a chance to read the message whether it’s waiting in line at the store or wherever. It’s also a way for Christians who aren’t so bold to talk to a stranger about Jesus to have His Word out there in public. Most people will never pick up a Bible or hear a verse quoted, but they will read a t-shirt.

According to Impressions magazine, a graphic T‐shirt will be read as many as 3,000 times in its existence.

One of the companies that has been spreading the gospel through apparel for the past 24 years is Kerusso Inc. Vic Kennett founded Kerusso in 1987 when he was just 23 years old. Starting with a family loan of $1,000 and only three designs, the Kennett home soon became a factory, printing T‐shirts using a four-color tabletop press and a homemade dryer set up in a spare room. In 1998 Kerusso began introducing other products such as jewelry, gifts and accessories. Today the Kerusso campus occupies 10 acres and is home to over 65,000 square feet of manufacturing, shipping and office space. With more than 1.6 million total finished garments and more than 2 million total impressions in 2007, Kerusso’s 33% growth rate also put them in the top ten fastest‐growing companies on Impression Magazine’s prestigious, annual top‐50 list. Its products have received awards for artistic and technical merit; garnering attention from Inc. 5000.

“Even if every one of our shirts were seen and read by only 100 people each,” Vic says, “then we’ve helped to preach the gospel nearly a billion times.” You can check out the Kerusso website (www.kerusso.com) to know more about the company and also contact me as I am a registered distributor of Kerusso products in Nigeria.

Another company is C28 marketing the “Not of this world” apparel brand. NOTW is an alternative lifestyle brand that goes beyond the norm. It is an identity set apart, to save and to empower lives. It is a phrase distilled from Colossians 2:8: "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. This is the proclamation by Aurelio F Barreto III, the founder of C28 (an overtly evangelical mall-based retail chain that markets the NOTW branded apparel). Aurelio is a California entrepreneur who made millions, found wealth bankrupt, considered suicide, got saved, then found he wanted to do something with his money besides lounge on exotic beaches sipping umbrella drinks. After giving his life to the Lord Jesus, he began changing and wanting to glorify Him. He began praying about serving Him. At first he thought he would be a pastor, but that was only until he realized that God wanted him to do everything as unto the Lord. He realized that his gifts and talents were in business and that he could truly glorify Him through business. Check out more about NOTW and C28 at www.notw.com and www.c28.com

It is expected that Tshirts expose people to God's Word. Shirts are read by people who otherwise would never step into a store with a Christian theme. As Christians, we assume that everyone knows about Jesus and the unfortunate reality is that the majority of people have no idea or know very little about who Jesus is and what He has done for us.