Consumers have bought over an estimated 20 million iPhones since they went on sale in 2007. Consumers could not have bought 20 million iPhones unless Apple had first designed, manufactured, and marketed the 20 million iPhones. Before a product may be bought, a product must be for sale.
Pastors often preach from the stage against the consumerist mentality that is bred among those who attend their weekend services. They explain that the buying and selling of goods-and-services in our culture has caused individuals to think only of what they can take away from church, not what they can give back; because of our ungodly capitalist culture, we are left with congregations full of consumers, not givers. And we all know consumers don’t make it into the Book of Life.
What are some more characteristics of your everyday consumerist church-goer? Well, they complain about the music. And they complain about who’s preaching. They pick apart the volume of the guitars, the song selection, the passage for the day, and the sermon. They don’t take time to serve in a ministry. They don’t give money. They go from church to church and attend service after service, but don’t commit. There’s the consumerist Christian, receiving goods-and-services but never giving back; what a heretic.
Well, before a product may be bought, a product must be sold. And it all does seem awful produced. I mean the congregational meeting is called a “service”–the paid pastor’s gift to you, the layperson. And an awful lot of planning goes on to make sure the band sounds pitch-perfect, and the sermon is life-changing, and the greeters make you feel at home. It all seems rather intentional that our church meeting be the best product it can be–so that you consume it.
I find it no surprise that the church is full of consumers–we taught them to be that way. Services are set up to be both compelling and entertaining. The music, the graphics, the sermon. It is a show, a performance. After all, that is why there’s a stage.
Music pastors are applauded if they can get the crowd to participate, and if they provide an immersive experience. Teaching pastors are praised if they get a big response from their sermon, and if they’re funny enough to keep everyone’s attention. Our service hinges upon these two elements–the teaching, and the music. Both positions, leading music and teaching, are positions of talent.
It’s all about the product. It needs to grip people, to excite them, and to wake them out of their routine. All in one hour or less (baptisms will be held in the afternoon on the third Sunday of every month).
Is it really all that bad that it’s set up for consumerism? I mean, we have good intentions behind trying to create the best product we can. If the people consume, and enjoy, and come back again, then we can teach them to be like Christ along the way. Aren’t we fishers of men? Isn’t it our job to capture the attention of people, to get them to come to our service, to sing our songs, to hear our sermons. If they do all that, then a window opens up where the Gospel can be communicated to them.
Yes, that may be true. We are fishers of men for the Gospel of Christ. But it’s all in the bait we’re using to get people there.
How do we fish for men? Well, we’ve already covered that–with lights and sounds; with refined public speakers; with rehearsed performances; with creative and artistic illustrations. And when a man bites, he receives them all. Weekly.
Well, how does God fish for men? Is it with the promise of immediate wealth and happiness? Is it with high production values? No. I suppose He could do that, right? He might have a lot more followers. But God must know there’s a connection between the kind of bait you use, and the kind of fish you catch.
So how does He fish for men? With the simple promise of His love, and a life reconciled in Him. And when a man bites, he receives it. Eternally.
It’s really less about God selling His love, and more about Him embodying His love in Jesus. Now we have an opportunity to follow suit; instead of spending our time creating products that bait people into hearing about God’s love, we ought to be people who live-out God’s love. That ought to be our method of attraction. If we held to that simple policy, then there wouldn’t be any more consumers–there’s nothing there to consume! There’s only room to receive, and that doesn’t sound so bad.
We’re using the wrong bait to fish for men. We taught the church to be consumers, we fished for them, and now we have baskets and pews and seats full of them. It’s mutual dependance. We need them to come consume, and they need us to supply the product.
You know what’s funny, and not really funny at all? If people stopped being consumers, churches of our current paradigm wouldn’t even know what to do with them. If everyone wanted to volunteer, there would be no place to volunteer. We already have all our greeters and our ushers. Honestly, can your church accommodate 100% of its attendees volunteering in some capacity, especially in a position that doesn’t simply aid the weekend performance in some way?
Churches haven’t been built to function like the Church, they’ve been built for consumers. If the Church is full of consumers, it’s no surprise. We taught them to be that way, we built it to be that way, we fished that way to fill the seats. We condemn consumption with our words, but nurture it with our actions.
I think we ought to catch-and-release some who are in our churches today, and change our methods for how we fish. Let’s cease our condemnation of consumers when they are simply buying what we sell; let’s point men to God with the simple truth of the Gospel embodied in our lives.
Consumers have bought over an estimated 20 million iPhones since they went on sale in 2007. Consumers could not have bought 20 million iPhones unless Apple had first designed, manufactured, and marketed the 20 million iPhones. Before a product may be bought, a product must be for sale.
Pastors often preach from the stage against the consumerist mentality that is bred among those who attend their weekend services. They explain that the buying and selling of goods-and-services in our culture has caused individuals to think only of what they can take away from church, not what they can give back; our ungodly capitalist culture has left us with congregations full of consumers, not givers. And we all know consumers don’t make it into the Book of Life.
What are some characteristics of your everyday consumerist church-goer? Well, they complain about the music. And they complain about who’s preaching. They pick apart the volume of the guitars, the song selection, the passage for the day, and the sermon. They don’t take time to serve in a ministry. They don’t give money. They go from church to church and attend service after service, but don’t commit. There’s the consumerist Christian–receiving goods-and-services, but never giving back; what a heretic.
Well, before a product may be bought, a product must be for sale. And if we take a look at our average church service, it does all seem awful produced. I mean the congregational meeting is called a service–the paid pastor’s gift to you, the layperson. And an awful lot of planning goes on to make sure the band sounds pitch-perfect, and the sermon is life-changing, and the greeters make you feel at home. It all seems rather intentional that our church meeting is the best product it can be… so that you consume it.
I find it no surprise that the church is full of consumers–we taught them to be that way. Services are set up to be both compelling and entertaining. The music, the graphics, the sermon. It’s a show, a performance. After all, that is why there’s a stage.
Music pastors are applauded if they can get the crowd to participate, and if they provide an immersive experience. Teaching pastors are praised if they get a big response from their sermon, and if they’re funny enough to keep everyone’s attention. Our service hinges upon these two elements–the teaching, and the music. Both positions, leading music and teaching, are positions of talent.
It’s all about the product. It needs to grip people, to excite them, and to wake them out of their routine. All in one hour or less (baptisms will be held in the afternoon on the third Sunday of every month).
Is it really all that bad that it’s set up for consumerism? I mean, we have good intentions behind trying to create the best product we can. If the people consume, and enjoy, and come back again, then we can teach them to be like Christ along the way. Aren’t we fishers of men? Isn’t it our job to capture the attention of people, to get them to come to our service, to sing our songs, to hear our sermons. If they do all that, then a window opens up where the Gospel can be communicated to them!
Yes, that may be true. We are fishers of men for the Gospel of Christ. But it’s all in the bait we’re using to get people there.
How do we fish for men? Well, we’ve already covered that–with lights and sounds; with refined public speakers; with rehearsed performances; with creative and artistic illustrations; with a comfortable setting. And when a man bites, he receives them all. Weekly.
Well, how did/does God fish for men? Is it with all these high production values? Does He light up the sky every night with a demonstration of His power? No. I suppose He could do that, right? He might have a lot more followers. But God must know there’s a connection between the kind of bait you use, and the kind of fish you catch.
So how did/does God fish for men? Well in the past, it was through a group of unimportant, and frankly, untalented Jews, bearing the simple promise of His love, and a life reconciled in Him. And when a man would bite, he received that love. Eternally.
It’s really less about God selling His love, and more about Him embodying His love in Jesus. Now we have an opportunity to follow suit; instead of spending our time creating products that bait people into hearing about God’s love, we ought to be people who simply live-out God’s love as ambassadors. That ought to be our method of attraction. If we held to that simple policy, then there wouldn’t be any more consumers–there’s nothing there to consume!
We’re using the wrong bait to fish for men. We taught the church to be consumers, we fished for them, and now we have baskets and pews and seats full of them. It’s mutual dependance. We need them to come consume, and they need us to supply the product. So we end up condemning consumption with our words, but as leaders, we nurture it with our actions.
I think we ought to catch-and-release some of those who are in our churches today, and change our methods for how we fish. Let’s cease our condemnation of consumers when they are simply buying what we sell; let’s point men to God with the simple truth of the Gospel embodied in our lives.
If we fish that way, I believe God will break our nets with the overflowing catch to come.
Further reading: Luke 5:3-11; 1 Cor 1:17-2:10