Jesus vs. Consumerism, Part 1

If Jesus were on earth today, what would He say about the consumerism so rampant in today’s church? Let us allow our Leader to speak for Himself on this matter: “Whoever will save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose it for my sake will find it” (Matt. 16:25). This is an inexorable law of the Kingdom that is true in every aspect of human life. When a person seeks anything but the glory of God in his life, that person can be assured that he will not find what he is seeking. Safety, security, and comfort cannot be found by seeking them. A simple look at our society shows this to be true: though every attempt is made to pursue these things by the average suburbanite, fear, worry, anxiety, and a stressed out life style are at epidemic proportions today.

On the flip side, however, Christ promises His followers in the above verse that when they seek first God’s glory they will find the fulfillment of their own needs that they neglected in the process. As Jesus said, “seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). What are these things that will be added to us? They are the spiritual and physical needs that each one of us has that take a back seat to pursuing the advancement of God’s kingdom in our lives. When we pursue the coming of God’s kingdom first and foremost, rather than our own needs, Jesus promises that our Father will meet our needs in the end. When we pursue the edifying and service of others instead of concentrating on our own spiritual growth, it is then that our own spiritual growth becomes a reality. However, the person who pursues His own needs first will find neither the deeper life with God nor the fulfillment of those desires that he so desperately sought after.

With this timeless truth in mind, it is beyond argument that the attitude of the Christian should be not, “what can I get out of church?”, but rather, “what can I give to the body?” This precludes attitudes such as “church shopping” and the “feeding trough” mentality so prevalent in churches today. As Bob Hyatt says: “The church is not here for you. You are here for the church, your community, and your community; the church is here for the world. Jesus did not die to make you into a sanctified consumer. He died to bring you alive to God and to a desperately needy world.” It is clear that consumerism in the church flies in the face of the values Christ has espoused to his followers.

But do we really practice what we preach in this area? In our next post, we’ll explore the implications of Jesus’ teaching on this matter in our own lives today.

"Risk Exposure" and the Church, Part 2

In our last post, we discussed the concept of “risk exposure” as it relates to today’s church. Just as for any other living body, the church cannot truly thrive unless it is regularly exposed to risk, inconvenience, and danger. A simple look at either the natural world or the church itself will readily attest to the truth of this concept.

Without exception, as one scans the globe searching for the most vibrant and living examples of the Spirit of God at work, those churches that “live on the edge of chaos” will always be the greatest examples of the Body of Christ in action. It’s a natural fact of life that when human beings are placed in situations of challenge and danger, they bond together in ways that cannot occur under normal circumstances. The greatest examples of true community, then, will not be found in American churches, but will be found in the persecuted church, for it is only when the church is forced to step out of its comfort zone that real community will develop. In a personal sense, challenge in our lives is just as vital; our greatest spiritual growth occurs when we are stretched and placed in situations that build our faith. As the old adage goes, “What does not kill you makes you stronger.”

This concept of the importance of “risk exposure” is a basic concept that all reasonable readers can accept. However, it is ironic that our suburban churches are built on the exact opposite line of thinking. To a large extent, our churches are closed systems, peculiar cultures with little to no interaction with the outside world. These cloistered systems are maintained by cloistered individuals themselves (the clergy), who seek for stability, cleanliness, and convenience in all of the church’s ministries. When challenge comes to their people, however, they often have trouble adapting to these threats and seem to wither away under the pressure. For those who doubt this premise, look no further than the failing of our cloistered children and youth ministries in this country. Study after study shows that of children who are raised in a youth program their entire lives, 88% of them leave the church after their graduation from high school and do not return.

Yet the thinking persists in our suburban Christian culture that if we can protect our children in the safety of children’s church and youth group, they will grow up to be the spiritually sensitive adults we long for them to be. If we can find a high quality, comfortable, clean, and convenient spiritual home that meets our needs and our family’s needs, we think, we and our children will experience the deeper life with God He has created us for. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.

Just as church history shows, it’s only when we experience church life on the fringes, when we relinquish our own desires and needs in a desperate attempt to bring God’s kingdom to earth that we as the church truly encounter God. It is only when we band together with other believers on a dangerous journey to a unknown place that we will experience true community. It’s only when we and our families are willing to risk all we have that we will become all God has intended us to be. As Hirsch says, “we cannot consume our way into discipleship.” For as Jesus said, it is only when we lose our life that we will truly find it.

With the words of Jesus as a backdrop, we will explore a more Biblical view of the church in our next post.

"Risk Exposure" and the Church, Part 1

In our last post, we explored the contradiction between suburban values and the dangerous mission given to the church by our Leader. Clearly, the Lion of Judah never intended for his followers to be identified by suburban, consumeristic ideals such as convenience, comfort, and security.

Just as for any other living body, the church cannot truly thrive unless it is regularly exposed to risk, inconvenience, and danger. A simple look at the natural world shows that any organism must be exposed to such challenges to respond properly and adapt to challenges from outside. A closed, artificial environment that is built on the elimination of these dangers cannot prepare the organism for the challenges that are to come.

Take, for example, the modern medical phenomenon of childhood allergies. The prevalence of allergies has reached over 50% in American children over the last several years. Many hypotheses have been offered, but one of the most compelling arguments is the overimmunization of children. Many allergists argue that if a child’s immune system is never exposed to these illnesses but is always given external immunity, one can expect a high prevalence of allergies in those subjects. An immune system that has not learned to mount its own defenses cannot be expected to function properly. Contrast this phenomenon with children raised on a farm or with pets in the home, who have shown in repeated studies to have far less prevalence of allergy than other children without the same exposures. Similarly, fish that are sequestered in the artificial environment of a fish tank are very sensitive to any changes in their surroundings. If the pH of their tank changes or any contaminants are introduced, the result is predictable: the fish will die. The idea is clear: natural exposure of the immune system to challenges produces an immune system that responds properly. Danger, risk, and exposure are essential elements to any well functioning living system.

Though this argument may sound a bit technical, the point is quite simple: a living system will not deal properly to challenges if it is not exposed to dangers from time to time and learns how to respond appropriately. This is a basic fact of life that is no less true in the spiritual realm than in the biological realm. Church history clearly shows that the church has always been its strongest when its very life was at stake. When the church has faced persecution and hardship, it is only then that the church has lived up to its calling of “changing the landscape” of the surrounding culture. This was true during the Roman persecution of the first century, as well as it is true today for the persecuted church in China and the Islamic Middle East. As Alan Hirsch says, “Christianity is at its very best when it is on the more chaotic fringes. It is when church settles down, and moves away from the edge of chaos, that things go awry.”

In our next post, we will explore the implications of this fundamental concept of “risk exposure” for today’s American church.

Consumer Church Meets Suburban Living

In our recent posts, we have explored the impact of consumerism on today’s American church and its inevitable consequences: passive, immature believers; “church shoppers”, burned out pastors, and a church culture of competition, to name a few. But if consumerism in the church weren’t enough of a problem today, there is the thorny matter of the suburban lifestyle that seems to make any movement away from consumerism well nigh impossible.

As many have noted, middle class, suburban culture values safety and security above all else. These things are primarily valued under the banner of “what’s best for our children.” Christian or non-Christian, pagan or Christ follower, there is no greater guiding principle in suburban culture than determining what is best for our children. Such motives can indeed be noble: what parent does not want their child to experience the best life has to offer, be all they can be, and to be kept away from harm’s way? However, as Alan Hirsch notes, when these 2 core values of safety and security merge with consumerism, comfort and convenience rise in importance alongside them. The result of this amalgamation in the Christian world is consumeristic churches that reflect these values.

This thirsting after comfort and safety runs incredibly deep in American churches today. Churches in our era desperately seek, above all else, to meet the felt needs of every member of the family. Such an approach is so pervasive that for the average suburbanite to imagine a church that does not meet our family’s overarching needs remains unthinkable!

One of the stickiest issues confronting today’s Christian suburbanite is that the middle class values that we hold so dear today are diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus and the values of the Kingdom. The kingdom that Jesus came to preach is one of adventure and of radical living that upsets the natural, complacent course of the world around us. The Christian life as God intended it is based on anything but comfort and certainty. As Jacque Ellul notes, “Christians should be troublemakers, creators of uncertainty, agents of a dimension incompatible with society.”

Yet in contrast to these kingdom values of risk and uncertainty, the American suburbs, in the words of Shane Claiborne, are “the home of the more subtle demonic forces- numbness, complacency, comfort- and it is these that can eat away at our souls.” It is clear that the Lion of Judah never intended for his followers to be identified by values such as ease and comfort. For us to settle into our cushioned pews while an unbelieving world heads for hell is the antithesis of what Christ has envisioned for His church.

Can the church truly fulfill its mission while simultaneously valuing comfort and security? In our next post, we’ll explore the necessity of challenge and risk if we are to truly grow as believers.

"Spiritual Bulemia"

In our last post, we began to explore the implications of the rampant consumerism so present in today’s church. To the extent that the American church has sought to cater to the needs and desires of today’s religious consumer, “church shopping” for the finest product has been the inevitable result. As Bob Hyatt says, “When we allowed American Church to become primarily attractional in nature, it also became competitive in nature. We send out mailers: ‘Come to our church! We have great worship!’ ‘Come to our church! We have Starbucks Coffee and Krispy Kreme Donuts!’ And big churches get bigger as small ones die because the big ones offer more and people flock there until the church down the road offers them something even better. It’s Wal Mart versus smaller stores but with special music and kids programs instead of bigger selections and low, low prices.” As many have noted, if we apply the shopping mall to the church, this sadly will be the end result.

But as Neil Cole says, when people are viewed as consumers, they will most certainly respond as consumers. When attenders are catered to as consumers of religious goods and services, the end result will always be a passive congregation. It’s no wonder that according to a recent survey by the Barna group, only 1 of 4 churched believers go to church expecting God to be the primary beneficiary of their Sunday worship. Rather, more than 50% of those polled believe that they are the primary recipients of a Sunday morning worship service. It’s a known fact that even in the most motivated congregation, only 10% – 20% of attenders are active in ministry. In today’s church, the vast majority come to church “to get fed.” I believe that the emphasis on the attractional quality of the Sunday morning service is largely responsible for this phenomenon, as in the words of Bob Hyatt, it creates “consumers of church primarily and community only incidentally.”

Now make no mistake: it is of vital importance today that the church seeks to make its programs as accessible as possible to unbelievers. For too long, the gospel remained the property of ivory tower theologians and choir robe wearing ministers before the “seeker sensitive” revolution of the late 20th century. At the same time, however, it’s important that we recognize that what we draw people to our churches with is what we draw them to, and that the medium with which we reach the lost does become our message as well. When the focus of our churches becomes lights, cameras, and skill in performance, it is a consumer mentality that is unintentionally communicated to the audience.

When this consumer mentality reaches its zenith in a church, the church is filled on any given Sunday with a crowd eager to be fed or, worse yet, to be entertained. When this becomes the case, the church needs to keep feeding and entertaining them if they want them to come back. This creates a vicious circle, where next week’s service must be better than last week’s service, and where church programs constantly need to be upgraded to keep the masses satisfied and happy. If the quality drops, even for a few weeks, attenders will begin to leave. Staff improvements and building campaigns are the order of the day to “feed the monster of consumerism.” And as Neil Cole, notes, “the monster is always hungry.” What’s left in the wake of the consumer monster is burned out pastors, stale worship, and a selfish audience continuing to thirst for more. Because of the effects of consumerism, our churches today are filled with what Shane Claiborne calls “spiritual bulimics,” believers who gorge ourselves on the Christian industrial complex but spiritually starving to death.

The effects of consumerism in the church, however, are even far reaching than those discussed above. In our next post, we will continue to explore its effects in the context of the middle class suburban culture that so many of us call home.