CONSUMERISM
Today, we live in a world where “the customer is always right”.
Consumers’ interests are fiercely promoted and the highest priority is given to
customer satisfaction. We have allowed consumer principles to impose on and shape
our very own cultural values.
CONSUMERISM
IN CHURCH
The consumer society emerged in the 17th century and has
been greatly reinforced thereafter, so much so that even the Church has not
been spared from the its pervasive influence. Church attenders are part of the
crowd that has been conditioned to pursue what generates pleasure and to steer
clear of discomfort. This attitude is clearly revealed in a survey where 1000 Christians
were posed with the question “Why does the church exists?” 9 in 10 stated that
the church’s purpose is to serve their spiritual needs while a mere 1 in 10
believed it was to win the world for God. In response to this shift in mindset,
churches have increasingly pandered to their congregation’s every whim. There
has been a significant advancement of consumer dynamics within church life
where churches are evolving into companies. Church workers (service providers)
go all out to promote what the church has to offer – the gospel, worship
service, etc. (products) to the congregants (customers).
ASPECTS –
Consumption, Competition, Counting
(I write of scenarios where consumerism is prevalent in
churches, not representative of the general church situation)
Consumption. The weekly service is by far the most marketable “product”. People
enter places of worship, some ready to be entertained by well-rehearsed musicians
in a time of passive engagement, others expecting to be brought through a
whirlwind of emotions as they sing along and lose themselves in the music. We
have been very much influenced by pop culture, striving for entertainment
value. Often, we too closely relate our ability to worship meaningfully with
the mastery of the music displayed and how uplifting it makes us feel. The seeker-sensitive
sermon content centers on what people want to hear, that they will be blessed
beyond measure and by grace we are saved from our sins. It is geared towards
enticing non-believers to convert. There is too heavy an emphasis on God’s grace
and no talk about our own efforts.
Competition. Churches leverage on the consumerist model to outreach. In an
attempt to bolster church membership rolls, they survey the surrounding
community and strategically structure their services to address the felt-needs
uncovered. Intrusive marketing techniques are used to distinguish themselves as
“the best church in town” that best suits your “needs”. Churches grow at the
expense of each other, poaching each other’s members.
Counting. We have inadvertently fallen into an obsession with numbers. The congregation size has become the most
commonly accepted performance metric used to assess how well a church is doing.
The amount of offering collected is taken as the indication of how committed
church members are. As such, tremendous efforts are directed towards boosting
these numbers. Apart from catering to preferences and desires to draw people to
its service as aforementioned, churches harp on the Prosperity Gospel. The
doctrine proposes that God will ensure our security and prosperity as long as
we have faith in Him. Quoting verses such as Malachi 3:10, ("Bring to the storehouse a full tenth of what you
earn so there will be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord
All-Powerful. “I will open the windows of heaven for you and pour out all the
blessings you need") church leaders promote “seed faith” and urge their
members to donate so as to receive rich rewards from God.
CAUSE FOR CONCERN - Confusion, Ceaseless, Compromise, Collapse
Confusion. Consumerism’s marketing ploy intentionally blurs the line between
needs and wants with the over-emphasis on meeting customer demands. Christians
forget the purpose of a church’s existence. We become “church-shoppers”, picking
our churches based on whether they satisfy our individual preferences, our
“felt-needs”. Do I enjoy the music? Is the sermon engaging enough? Does the
church décor suit my taste? We mistake our wishes for convictions and neglect
the more essential aspects of a church. Does the church preach doctrinal truth?
Do I have service opportunities? That does not suggest that we ignore the needs
of the congregation. However, Christ never confused felt-needs with real needs
in His ministry. He appealed to people’s deepest needs, not indulged in their
desires.
I myself was swept into this wave of self-centeredness. My focus
turned towards what the church could do for me and how I could benefit from it.
As I saw my friends leaving church, all the more did I question and criticize. What
was my church was doing wrong? Oh yes… the sermons are not engaging enough, the
music does not minister to me, there aren’t enough members my age, the church
NEEDS a lift… I started feeling disoriented, disconnected from my church and used
the excuse of a lack of spiritual growth to go around exploring “better”
churches.
Ceaseless cycle. My mum saw what was happening and expressed her concerns. She said
that people who church hop often hop right back into their own church because
they find that no church is the perfect church that caters to their every
demand. Ultimately, your spiritual journey is a personal one, one that takes
conscious effort to build and should not be based on external factors such as
your church setting. Indeed, churches are finding themselves trapped in a cycle
of insatiable and inexhaustible wants. If it took fulfilling a felt-need to
attract people to church, how much further must we go to keep them rooted? “You
need this and we can offer it!” Wouldn’t we need to generate more make-believe
needs just so we can satisfy them?
Compromise. When church efforts and resources are disproportionately channeled
towards meeting these felt needs, the church neglects its key mission, to (a)
proclaim the gospel, (b) serve as a community of worship and fellowship, (c)
help believers mature in their faith and prepare them for ministry, (d)
influence society with Christian values.
(a) Churches fail to preach holistic theology. The overemphasis on
certain concepts leads to a skewed understanding of the gospel and the truth.
The focus on seeker-sensitive messages also contributes to biblical illiteracy
as the congregation is exposed to a limited scope of the word.
(b) *see below*
(c) Knowledge of the word helps us justify our belief and hence builds
up our faith, which means conviction and a commitment to act in accordance to
the truth. When a church does not put the word (in its fullness) at the center
of its teachings, the congregation will have misconceptions about faith. For
instance, proclaiming pure grace (the Hypergrace movement) denies other key
aspects of the truth, particularly undermining sanctification. It dwells too much on what God can do for us
humans as opposed to man’s duty toward God, leading to spiritual laziness.
(d) Many believers approach Christianity as a separate compartment of
their life, not as a lifestyle and “born-again Christians” act no differently
than their non-Christians counterparts. They do not bear witness of the gospel
in society.
Collapse of community. (b)
Consumerism promotes individuality and free will over commitment and
community. When people believe that their own satisfaction is of utmost
importance, they leave their churches without much hesitation, there is a
sagging of church commitment. How then, can quality relationships between
church members that need time and patience to grow be built? How can believers
have a reliable church community that is so crucial to one’s spiritual journey?
When churches compete for membership, have disputes over practices and
doctrinal truths, how can churches be of support to each other in the church’s
mission?
OUR
RESPONSE – Connect, Concentrate, Characterize
Consumption is not inherently bad. Consume to live but do not live
to consume. There is a need for us to reevaluate our attitudes and actions and
revitalize the church’s core mission.
Connect as a Community. The church should be seen as a community, not a company. An
organism, not an organization. Within a church, members ought to seek to serve
each other, have fellowship with each other and be accountable for each other. This
entails rootedness to and responsibility for the church. Faith is personal but
is not private; we should commit to sharing a rich community life that supports
our growth in faith. Amongst churches, we should seek to be distinctive, yet
not divisive. Instead of competing with each other we ought to embrace
diversity, cooperate with each other and share the same desire to bring people
to the Lord. The collective church should reflect the Body of Christ and
indeed, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”
Psalm 133:1.
Concentrate. As challenging as it may be, we need to stand firm in our own
beliefs and not be swayed by consumerist values. We need to come to a
realization that the church will never win the entertainment game, hence we
should direct our attention away from artificial needs towards meeting real
spiritual needs. Instead of putting up as spectacular and pleasurable a worship
experience as possible, we should work towards an environment that promotes
growth in the knowledge (by “going back to the origin”, preaching the word
holistically in all its truth) and love of God and love for those around us.
It finally occurred to me that my attitude towards church and
worship was one of self-centeredness when Tan Tiong Ann spoke to us about the
theology of worship. He reminded us that the act of worship is simply to come
before God. It has to be God centered and we should constantly ask ourselves:
Who is God? What has He done for us? How should we respond? Worship should not be
validated by whether the worshipper is touched or inspired. Worship that is not
shiok to me is not necessarily bad
worship.
Psalm 95 (Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud
to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and
extol him with music and song) reminds us to turn our attention toward God and
come with humility, gratitude and reverence.
Characterize. Even as we utilize consumer models, we should redeem them within a
Christian framework. As Christians, our ultimate purpose in life is not to
glorify ourselves but to glorify Him. Hence, even as we are in the world, we
are not to be of the world. We need to live out our faith in all aspects of our
lives, to be the salt and light of the world, set apart as a shining testimony
of Christ.
I still hold that the customer is always right, but who really
is the customer?
SOURCES:
Disillusionment is a form of unmasking. Thanks for a thoughtful sharing. May the Lord guide and stregthen you in your deepening walk with Him.
ReplyDeleteBe of good cheer.