Tuesday morning's ICRS General Session was supposed to stay focused on “Connecting the Future,” giving retailers insight into “Church, Store and Digital Initiatives.” Instead, Executive Director of LifeWay Research Ed Stetzer, who moderated a panel, and Life Without Limbs founder and author Nick Vujiic, who was a panelist, got into a brief battle over statistics about Christians leaving the church.

“I think you need to be careful,” Vujicic cautioned Stetzer after Stetzer gave a keynote speech that contradicted some widely reported claims that Christianity and the church in America are dying. Stetzer gave no ground, and after a few minutes of heated argument, the two agreed to discuss it further backstage after their presentation.

“I love you; give me a hug. Let’s hug it out,” Vujicic then suggested, and Stetzer awkwardly reached across to embrace the motivational speaker who was born without arms and legs, but who is known for giving hugs.

The panel followed Vujicic’s opening cry for revival and charge to the crowd to “be the church” to orphans, the homeless and the lost.

“We need to plead for more of the Holy Spirit,” Vujicic said. “We should be leading the charge for revival.”

Stetzer then gave the keynote, which focused on discrediting the gloom-and-doom statistics widely believed about the American church.

“Christians love to believe bad statistics,” Stetzer said. “And it is true that mainline denominations are hemorrhaging.”

But Stetzer said it’s not because people are leaving the faith, but that they are now calling themselves "nondenominational."

After Stetzer’s keynote, he joined Vujicic and third-generation retailer Zach Wallington from Christian Supply of Spartanburg, South Carolina, for the panel discussion. Wallington steered clear of the heated exchange, and the three then turned the focus to ways stores can better connect digitally with customers.

“With social media, you can build a group of people with certain ideals, but the computer can also be an escape,” Wallington said. “There is definitely some community there, but can it replace face-to-face interaction? I don’t think so.”

Vujicic also commented on best ways to use technology in retail.

“What if you had the best of both worlds, like 800 stores simulcasting an interview with Tim Tebow or a Christian artist trying to put an album out?” Vujicic suggested. “And you might connect people in the store by finding 10 or 15 seniors who might volunteer to come in and pray for people.”

“You can’t ignore the online world,” Wallington said. “You have to be in that space.”

The panelists all agreed they use social media a lot, especially Twitter. But marrying social media communities to physical spaces like retail stores is key.

“Real community requires names and faces,” Stetzer said, “not just electrons and avatars.”

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