Faith & Spirit Quote by Jerry B. Jenkins

Jenkins frames faith less as inheritance than as a personal contract you have to sign in your own name. The word choice is doing quiet but deliberate work: “raised as a Christian” acknowledges the powerful social machinery of family, church, and culture, while “the transaction” insists that none of that machinery can close the deal for you. It’s a distinctly American evangelical sensibility rendered in businesslike language, the kind that fits a novelist best known for mass-market religious storytelling: belief isn’t a vibe or a tradition, it’s a decisive, individual act.

“Transaction” is the loaded term. It suggests agency, consent, and accountability, but also implies terms and consequences. That gives the line its edge: it’s welcoming (you can choose) and warning (you must choose). The subtext is a gentle demotion of “cultural Christianity” - the idea that proximity to religion counts as religion. In one move, Jenkins separates belonging from believing, community identity from spiritual commitment.

Context matters, too. Coming from a popular novelist steeped in conversion narratives, this reads like an elevator-pitch theology of the altar call: your parents can hand you the language and the rituals, but they can’t do the decisive moment for you. It also conveniently insulates the tradition from criticism about indoctrination: yes, you were raised in it, but the authentic thing only happens when you personally assent. The sentence turns faith into a coming-of-age plot point, and that’s why it lands.