Consumer Christians: Bad Bottom Lines

By Jeff Faull

We used to call them “church shoppers.” It was often a pejorative term, intended to characterize those who were always looking to be served rather than to serve, to get rather than to give, and to consume rather than to contribute.

Ironically, we often end up structuring the church in ways that encourage and cater to that consumer mind-set and behavior. In so doing we run the risk of reducing spiritual things to mere commodities. We dilute the gospel to palatable niceties. We obscure the concept of sacrifice and service. We run the risk of being people-centered rather than God-centered, and we unconsciously alter the very nature and essence of the church.

Christian churches aren”t the only ones modifying their message to attract a crowd. Like many, I have read with great interest reports about the new “atheist churches” referred to as “Sunday gatherings.” These assemblies are being launched all over the world and are attended by people who want the benefits of a “church” without the theological trappings or moral imperatives. The organizers of this movement have come to realize they are “missing out on something,” and they believe these “Sunday gatherings,” minus God, can provide what they desire.

Katie Engelhart, covering the story for Salon magazine, quotes Ian Dodd, one of the atheist church chapter organizers. “The church model has worked really well for a couple of thousand years,” he said. “What we”re trying to do is hold on to the bath water while throwing out the baby Jesus.”1

That is both fascinating and disturbing at the same time. But the most interesting development, in my estimation, is that some of these leaders are already backing off their initial hard-core, atheist message or agenda because they are realizing an aggressive anti-God stance is not palatable for some of their target audience. In other words, instead of remaining true to their original purpose and the core values of atheism, they are soft-pedaling their message of nonbelief for a more tolerant consumerist approach.

Engelhart writes, “I wonder if the Assembly risks diluting its brand if it continues to shed its muscular non-belief. Might it become McAtheism: a Secular Lite version of its former self? The Sunday Assembly refusing the “˜atheist” label seems akin to Ms. Magazine deciding that “˜feminist” is a bad word after all.”2

She has a point. Evidently consumerism can weaken the message and sabotage the mission for secularists or saints! And “Christian consumerism” holds even more peril.

Quite honestly, I”m tired of it! Or perhaps I should say I”m weary. I”m weary of consumer Christianity””of market-driven spirituality.

I”m weary of the tendency to replace time-tested doctrines and teachings with new hermeneutics in order to take the hard edges off sound teaching and the offense of the gospel.

I”m weary of chasing the cutting-edge, the latest terminology, the most recent paradigm, the trending topics, and the preferred titles and vocabulary.

I”m weary of recasting our activities and pursuits with a New Testament spin in order to claim the primitive high ground.

I”m weary of the incessant barrage of bandwagon initiatives and emphases cast and recast as the primary task of God”s people.

I”m weary of justifying the deficiencies of modern church life.

I”m weary of attempting to override the fathomless mind of God with our feeble intellectual protests and insights.

I”m weary of reconciling the power and purpose of Christ”s church as it is presented in Scripture with the impotence of modern church life.

I”m weary of the jockeying, posturing, image-conscious, platform-building scramble of leaders and would-be influencers.

I”m weary of the jettisoning of truth and redefining of essentials in the name of synergy and unity.

I”m weary of a sterile, legalistic, unhealthy brand of patternism that reduces following Jesus to a consumer, contractual arrangement.

I”m weary of abandoning seasoned veteran believers and leaders in the rush to “relevant” influencers with entrepreneurial savvy

I”m weary of reinventing and revisioning the church in order to manufacture interest and momentum.

Bottom line? I”m weary of serving the wrong bottom line.

Perhaps the customer is always right. But the people we are trying to reach are not customers. To view people as customers is incorrect and dangerous. Ministry is not marketing. Christianity is not consumerism. Evangelism is not entrepreneurialism.

Jesus himself demonstrated this when he called for full surrender, but he also made full disclosure.

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23, 24).

Nobody could accuse Jesus of obscuring the fine print. He didn”t hook his followers with some attractive gimmick or sales talk, only to reveal the call for sacrifice later. He wanted any would-be follower to know the score and count the cost. Gordon MacDonald puts it this way:

When the crowd got too large, (Jesus) would inevitably sharpen the blade of his teaching. He would make it clearer that there was a dramatic cost to discipleship. It was almost as if he were saying the size of this crowd suggests that you haven”t heard me plainly enough or some of you wouldn”t be here; so let me give it to you another way. And when he finished restating his message, many would then leave because they finally understood that no one can remain in the presence of Christ and be merely a very nice person.3

Jesus wasn”t a recruiter who emphasized only the benefits and never mentioned the sacrifices or the possibility of danger and combat. Although it is true that full disclosure showcases the benefits and rewards of discipleship, Jesus called for full surrender at the same time.

Thom Rainer blogged about the indisputable national decline in church attendance:

Stated simply, the number one reason for the decline in church attendance is that members attend with less frequency than they did just a few years ago. Allow me to explain. If the frequency of attendance changes, then attendance will respond accordingly. For example, if 200 members attend every week the average attendance is, obviously, 200. But if one-half of those members miss only one out of four weeks, the attendance drops to 175. Did you catch that? No members left the church. Everyone is still relatively active in the church. But attendance declined over 12 percent because half the members changed their attendance behavior slightly.”4

Here”s the point: every member matters, and members must be more than consumers of optional spiritual goods and services. Our people desperately need to understand this simple maxim: the kind of member you are directly affects the kind of church we are.

The antidote to consumer Christianity is to “be consumed.”

We should be consumed with following and pleasing Jesus, consumed with an appetite for Scripture and prayer, consumed with what it means to be the church, consumed with making authentic disciples, consumed with attaining to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, consumed with a desire for holiness, consumed with serving, consumed with zeal for the kingdom, and consumed with pleasing Christ.

May we never grow weary of that!

________

1www.salon.com/2013/09/22/atheism_starts_its_megachurch_is_it_a_religion_now.

2Ibid.

3Gordon MacDonald, Renewing Your Spiritual Passion (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997), 81.

4Thom Rainer, “The Number One Reason for the Decline in Church Attendance and Five Ways to Address It,” http://thomrainer.com/2013/08/19/the-number-one-reason-for-the-decline-in-church-attendance-and-five-ways-to-address-it/.

 

Jeff Faull serves as minister with Mount Gilead Church, Mooresville, Indiana, and also as a CHRISTIAN STANDARD contributing editor.