Consuming the Church
The message is simple: Consume. This is the petition that billions of people receive thousands of times every day from global corporations, and it’s not even subtle anymore. One electronics giant recently released a television that they promised would “change your life.”
Consumerism has become so much apart of our world that one’s ability to amass material possessions is a measure of their success. We long for products, brands, and the latest amenities that act as a status symbol.
This way of thinking and living has largely been created by a partnership between producers (corporations) and consumers (you and me). They tell us what we need and want, and we oblige them by plunking down the cash to satisfy our hunger for more. It is an endless series of transactions that happens everyday.
To an alarming degree, we have traded in our glory as image bearers for a diminished role as simple consumers. Worse yet, many church leaders may be part of helping this happen.
In our world today more pastors and church leaders are soaking in the words, thoughts and philosophies of CEO’s, corporate strategists, and presidents of corporations. I recognize that several of these people are good, kind, and generous and possess certain insights about leading that would help anyone.
Nonetheless, these people are at the helm of large companies whose survival is in direct relation to production and consumption. Products are created, manufactured, marketed, and sold to people who possess an endless appetite for more. All of this boils down to one thing: “the bottom line.” If a company can reap profits, then they go on producing goods that will in turn be consumed.
Pastors and church leaders sit under this teaching of corporate philosophy, and many do a brilliant job of implementing these principals into the organizational life of their church. At the same time I hear many pastors lament about many in their congregations who are “just consumers.” Is it possible that their system is perfectly designed to yield the results they are getting?
The reality is that many who are a part of churches today are consumers. Many attend a church service on a Sunday, grab a cup of coffee, enjoy the show, are entertained, and then leave … until the following Sunday. When one church gets boring, or feels old they move on to consume somewhere else.
This pattern is, no doubt, a reflection of the constant message people receive everyday from corporations to consume more. However, the message within many churches is no different because those who influence the minds of many church leaders are the very ones leading the corporations that influence the minds of the general public.
Maybe it’s time for pastors to stop asking, “What’s wrong with our people?” and begin asking what may be wrong with our message and us. We need to offer our people a different way, and allow them to see what life is like beyond consuming.
This can only begin when we show them what this is like by the way we live our lives. If you're wondering what that life might look like - we should begin with Jesus who was not about consuming, but about giving his life for the healing of the world.