OUNT UNION, Pa. - By the third day of Creation East, the granddaddy of Christian rock festivals, Dave Lula could pick a winner among the merchandise he was selling. It was a $12 T-shirt of his own design that said "I Mosh for Jesus." The crowd was young, Mr. Lula figured, and this appealed to their sense of humor and independence.
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Since the summer began, Mr. Lula has lived a nomadic existence, sleeping mainly in his van, part of a new mobile tribe of bootstrap entrepreneurs that has grown up along with the proliferation of Christian rock festivals, mixing creative capitalism with novel expressions of faith.
At booths all around his at the festival last month, 91 other vendors spread their wares, mostly Christian CD's, T-shirts and hats (the ones reading "I Love Christian Boys" seemed to be the most popular), in a sprawling bazaar that was part mall, part invitation to witness. The tents cleared only for twice-daily sermons.
"It's kind of a business-slash-ministry," said Mr. Lula, 36, who lives in Los Angeles when he is not on the road. In a summer, he said, he can sell 3,000 shirts.
"I travel to all the festivals, dozens of them, all summer long, then I do smaller events in California during winter," Mr. Lula said, standing over T-shirts that read, "Hardcore Christian," "Hetero-Boy" and "Religion Is Dead. Jesus Is Not." He said he was not simply selling concert souvenirs. "I feel I'm getting the word of God out," he said.
Before the rise of the live Christian rock circuit, such overtly Christian merchandise was largely limited to Christian bookstores, which in 2002 did $2.4 billion in business, according to the CBA, formerly the Christian Booksellers Association. But as festivals and tours have multiplied, drawing younger evangelicals who express their faith through alternative music, tattoos and skateboards, they have opened a market for products that do not fit easily into more decorous Christian bookstores.
Only items that "have really stood the test of time" sell in Christian stores, said Bill Anderson, president of the CBA. "Whereas at an event, it could tend towards the impulse side" - more flashy, less wary of giving offense, he said.
At this year's festival, which drew 50,000 people over four days, at $73 for a four-day ticket, families, youth ministries and church groups camped on the hilly grounds; skateboarders thrashed over ramps; teenagers offered hugs to anyone who passed by.
Amid the loud music and mohawks, there were occasional reminders that the rebellion being cultivated was specifically Christian and came with its own standards of comportment: when a teenager took off his wet shirt after being baptized in the pond, a staff member made him put it back on.
As the festivals have become their own world, and as young Christians have been attracted to more extreme expressions of their faith, the merchandise has followed suit.
T-shirts screamed or punned for attention. One shirt declared, "Body Piercing Saved My Life," and showed a hand with a nail through it. Other brisk-sellers said "Jesus Freak" or mimicked the Mountain Dew advertising logo, tweaking the slogan to read, "Do the Jew,'' meaning to emulate Jesus. Booths promoted Christian colleges, foreign missions and a DVD player that skips over racy material in movies.
Irreverent and trend-driven, the goods reflect what is happening in Protestant churches, where people are leaving formal, tradition-steeped denominations in favor of independent, informal but theologically conservative churches. As many young Christians are pursuing faith outside the church, in rock bands or free-floating ministries, they are also seeking wares outside established Christian markets.
"I was never comfortable with the shirts in Christian bookstores," said Jeremy Limpic, 28, who is selling his own line of punk-themed T-shirts and hats at about 10 Christian festivals this summer. Having come to Christianity from punk rock, he found the goods in Christian bookstores too tame or pious. So he started his own company, One Truth, and began selling his designs at concerts and over the Internet.
