I can see how that would fit. Rampant consumerism is one of the less desirable traits of our wider culture. Yet as I watch the gatherings of consumers at football grounds, U2 concerts and the audiences of X-Factor what I see is dramatically different to what I witness at gatherings of Christians:
Shared communal enthusiasm
Passionate exuberance.
A freedom of inhibition
Willingness to self express
And of course, excitement verging on (and frequently achieving) hysteria.
Passionate exuberance.
A freedom of inhibition
Willingness to self express
And of course, excitement verging on (and frequently achieving) hysteria.
When the consumers meet to consume this is what we see. When the Christians meet to consume... this is what we don't see. Not usually anyway.
In fact, I don't even agree that consumption is wrong in church:
We like to call 'consumption' other things when we meet together; empowerment; receiving; blessing; anointing; impartation..... you know the type of thing, words that make us feel virtuous.
The problem is not consumption or consumers.
The problem is a lack of consumption.
And a lack of giving.
In fact, it is a lack of engagement in general, perhaps best described as 'apathy'.
I really wouldn't mind if the problem in our church was consumption. People who receive and receive and receive at least get half of what its about - they just need to give more. The people who stand there with their hands in their pockets with their mouths shut wearing the expression of a droopy haddock are not even half the way there.
Oh how I would love to see our church with a consumption problem - receiving and enjoying and engaging - if it were only that then at least we would have some passion to work with, some shared experiences, some willingness to engage.
Alas, the consumer is not the millstone around the neck of the 21st Century church, it is the apathetic, the disinterested and the passive.
When what is 'consumed' is God (rather than a good show and a clever preach) then that 'consumption' compels the 'consumer' to give, to share and to love.
I for one intend to consume as much as I can.
dg
7 comments:
That's challenging Dave, I have to admit. But I totally see where you're coming from. God has given us so much already, and it's only right that we give something in return. Our worship, in whatever form that may be, our lives, our resources.
Everything we have and ever will have, is a gift from God.
And I'm with you on this one. I'm going to consume as much as I can too.
I love this. A great reversal to the old standby answer to ‘why aren’t people engaging?’
Following your argument about the need being for more consumption, not less, here are a couple of other thoughts:
The whole experience of ‘church’ is often not conducive to feasting on God. Restaurants are largely about the food but they’re certainly not only about the food. Good service can make or break a meal, as can the ambience (and the company!) A good menu makes all the dishes available sound fabulous – it’s all about anticipation. In contrast we show a distinct lack of imagination when it comes to talking about the presence of God, and whetting people’s appetites to enjoy him.
I think sadly though, the tougher truth is that we’re simply not all that hungry. We eat to live. I wonder if we are busy enough in bringing in the Kingdom to have worked up much of a hunger?
Amazing post, and so relevant. I also think there is a slight dynamic in how we compare our church consumer nature with the other examples (U2, X Factor etc..).
For me the question is: what is the uniting factor? What brings people to consume? For the U2 gig, people are rampant in their enthusiasm because they all love U2. They sing until their voices break and shout at the top of their lungs. The X factor audience is united by their support for (bad?) singers and the dreams they are trying to follow (ok we can argue about whether it'll all matter in 10 years/seconds/minutes, but that's another debate). At football games fans are united by their love of their club. So we hear songs at the tops of voices, see hands in the air, and watch passion emanate from every pore.
So why not at church? What is the uniting factor? Therein for me lies the change in dynamic - somewhere along the way what united us (the presence of God) got replaced with a focus on self. And ironically, this individuality is where our passion and unity can come from. Where our congregations (and I'm part of the congregation) have treated self above God, unity is gone. So we start talking about church unity, and focus our meetings and committees on how we recapture it. But it is the individual focus on God that can bring the unity back. I think Tozer puts it best:
"Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned...to another standard to which one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship...The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begine to seek a better and higher life."
U2 fans - tuned to the same fork (U2).
Football fans - tuned to the same fork (their team).
Our church goers - to what are we tuned?
I think here is where we came a bit unstuck. We have come to consume something other than the presence of God. What is it though?
good points lads
love these thoughts...
Dave, I think what we might be seeing here is second order consumerism. People have come looking to consume the wrong thing - the sermon, the worship, the coffee - and are now sick and malnourished. They are spiritually dead or dying and so they merely attend, engaging little with the point of all the above, God Himself.
This is classic idolatry - falling in love with the means and missing the end.
I think the problem is consumerism, in the sense that people are consuming and have consumed the wrong things, which if I'm not mistaken is exactly what you're saying. Now they have a bad case of buyers remorse. They don't like what they have bought and they show it by their passivity. We have churches full of passive aggressive people.
The question is what do we do about them/it? I have seen pastors try to whip them into a frenzy. Others have tried to guilt them somewhere they don't want to go. Both approaches re-enforce the problem.
What solutions are we left with? Answers on a post card please...
great thoughts Jonny...
the only idea I have (and it's not really my idea) is to keep on inviting the Holy Spirit....
only He can stir passion and not hype
only He can convict without condemnation
the Passive/Aggressive thing is a really interesting thought- certainly something I've seen and want to think about more...
I guess what I'm trying to get at in the blog is that we don't just blame the church's problems on the consumer culture - the fact that we've offered no genuine, attractive and dangerous alternative is perhaps one of our biggest weakness as the western church...
That's exactly right Dave. I couldn't agree more. One of my biggest frustrations is the lack of willingness to the moving of the Holy Spirit.
The last paragraph in your reply says it all. It's a profound and deeply disturbing insight.
I wonder whether we have even found the right form of church to produce the results we/Jesus wants today. I think we need to continue to experiment with Spirit inspired forms of church in order to create the most possible space for God to move.
This will never solve the problem of course, but it might put enough of a rocket up our buttocks that we realise there is a problem.
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