Christian Consumerism.
The other day I listened to a podcast by the Christian
author and thinker Tim Keller. In it he identified major areas of concern
within the western church. I was most interested, by one of the areas he
pointed out, that of consumerism. This
got me thinking about why this generation of Christians is so absorbed it its
desire for product, rather than for substance. I believe that Christian
consumerism is wrapped in an attitude of entitlement, which demands an end
product, rather than a process for Christian life, culture and community.
Today we are defined by what we buy or from which
supermarket we buy our goods from. The clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the iPod
or phone we use, are all driven by the dictates of social media, we are more
concerned about what people think about us, than whether we can financially sustain
our appetites.
We enter church with the same supermarket mind-set,
"What can I get out of it.
"There is a picking and a choosing of the
bits of church we like and those we don't like. We like this church because
their doctrine appears to be right. We like that church because they have a
great worship group, smoke machines and there are lots of young people, at the
front of the auditorium, jumping up and down to the beat of the music. The
pastor preaches a better message at the chapel across the road, the church down
the street has more young families. Or, we feel entitled to object to the way
things are done, in a particular church and we leave that church, because in
the end they didn't want to do it our way.
The issue is that nowhere in the bible, nor in the early
church do I see this sort of entitled consumerism. Instead I see a community, I
see a culture of Christians loving and respecting one another, I see Christians
submitting to their leaders and Christians having all things in common. The
attitude was one of what can I bring to the community and to God. They brought
sacrifice and took away blessing. They saw that they were all sinners, saved by
Grace and that God was working in them and through them, in this imperfect
family called the church. I believe the old fashioned word for this process was
called sanctification. There was no instant fashionable end product, but rather
a hope for the future and a new life and culture and community.
Church is about what we bring and contribute, not about what
we take away.
Food for thought worth munching on.
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