In the western world, you can sum it up in one word : Consumerism. There are some great things about Consumerism. But it has seeped into all facets of life, including the church.
What happens to the church when it becomes consumeristic?
Now “consumer” means that everything is tailored around the consumer in order to give it a great product. But how does that play out in the church world?
On one level, the act of consuming is not bad. It means that someone is serving you, and that you are benefiting from it. We are encouraged to consume things : wisdom, knowledge, understanding, fruit, and so forth. The Christian life itself is one of “change”, of growing up in the knowledge of Christ. If a church has absolutely no consumption in church, then that is actually an unhealthy church. The act of consuming from a fellow Christian is an opportunity for you to thank them for their service and equipping you.
Consuming isn’t bad. Consumerism is. That is, the default mode of a Christian is to just consume rather than to contribute.
So how does consumerism play out in the church?
The clergy/laity split creates consumerism
The clergy have the main task of serving and ministering, and the laity are to receive this serving as an act of worship. The clergy have put their time aside to serve the laity well, and just expect the laity to just rock up. Even though the clergy will tell you to prepare yourself for church, in reality, you are the consumer coming to be fed by the clergy.
Consuming isn’t bad. Consumerism is.
In this setup, it is hard to avoid consumerism creeping in. If every person came to contribute rather than consume, then chaos would erupt. To avoid that mess, the clergy primarily take the role of contributors to make it into an orderly church.
The congregation becomes the audience
This is the result of the clergy/laity split. The clergy will be performing for you. As the audience, the laity is to just sit back and watch the show. Even by looking at the design of the church buildings, a stage is set on one end with all chairs facing it. People in the seats will be looking at the back of people’s heads. But alas, we can see all the people on the stage. The lights are there. Some churches even meet in a cinema showing that it really is like watching a movie with popcorn.
Now we do get to sing, but we have to sing what the performers play. We do participate, but only to a certain point. What this does to the congregation is that it makes it “passive”. They are to sit there and be quiet for the sake of the clergy to teach. If someone does try to contribute in a sermon, they are seen as disrupting the peace and order.
It leads to entertainment rather than encouragement
It is inevitable. If you are focused on giving people content, then you will start to make it entertaining. You need to keep people’s attentions. Many churches will have the best music, best lighting, best slideshows. The preacher needs to be funny and use props and dress really well.
What may happen then, in order to keep the audience coming, is that the teaching will become more about you and less about God. Topics like hell and sin will be watered down and self-help talks will rise up. The clergy want to keep the audience coming, and because it can be driven by dollars and an online presence, a church may have to keep putting on a good expensive structured show. They then get stuck in this consumeristic loop.
It can only go too far before people burn out or consumers leave to go to another church that puts on a better show.
It cannot bring you the best growth
Consumerism promotes consumption of content, and it can get you some of that. But it loses out on so many more areas. For example, the sermon can be helpful in illuminating a passage for you. But you, the audience, get the end of the learning process. The preacher got to experience the preparation part which is the most exciting part of the journey. What would be better is if you yourself were part of the of preparation and the participation. Now preachers could preach this way but studies show that if you are part of the process yourself and doing the hard work you will grow at a greater rate. If we are on about making disciples then sermons should not be our go-to diet.
Application of illumination happens best through participation.
Consumerism can feed you, but feeding yourself is greater. People come to church to get spiritually fed, but if that’s the only place you get fed then you will be a skinny person.
It gives you cafeteria food
The content is all the same. Everyone is getting fed the same amount, the same stuff, at the same time. You may have a kids church area, but usually consumeristic churches are giving everyone the same thing.
But the problem is that people are different. Some want more meat, others want less. Disciples grow at different rates and need different attention. But these church will be like a cafeteria, where everyone lines up with an empty tray and everyone gets the same amount. If you try and change the menu or bring your own food that comes across as not being on board with the mission.
One plus side is that people can come empty handed and get some food. But wouldn’t it be better if everyone brought their own food? Like a potluck?
It encourages anonymity
In a large church you can hide in the shadows. You won’t be asked to come forward and do something because everything has been taken care of. Now maybe a consumeristic church brings in a lot of people who don’t want to contribute. You could see that as a good thing, that they can attend and not expect to do anything. Or you can see it as a curse that will eat throughout the whole culture. If they don’t like what they see they can easily slip out and go to another church.
Many consumeristic churches are large, and maybe that is why, because most are there to consume rather than contribute.
If that person went to a smaller church, there may be that chance that they will have to do something, which scares them. So they hide in the big churches.
It breeds order, structure, predictability, and fakeness
This is the reality of it. It has to be done this way. If everyone contributed, it would be chaotic. So we need a small amount contributing so that it is clean, orderly, and professional.
But is church supposed to be like a performance? We talk about the formal and informal part of the service. Why do we even need the formal? What happens is that church always looks the same. Even the sermons start to sound the same. You are never taken by surprise.
It really does feel like the program matters more than the people. And when this happens it breeds fakeness and artificiality. It has to be like that.
As I’ve said, there are some benefits to it but there’s a lot of terrible things that come with it. We, the church, are called to be contributors, to be the body of Christ. All of us.
Couldn’t we make a church meeting so that could happen?