Yes, it was a very good article. My reflection on why many churches in our day have turned towards a consumeristic approach is because that’s what a lot of people in the society are really looking for, unfortunately.
At our church, we’ve heard several stories recently about people leaving because they aren’t “satisfied” with what we’re “offering” them, however you want to say that. As far as I understand it, the church is a community, which is designed for everyone to bring offerings that bless each other and those outside in a welcoming manner, not a place that we come to receive something from (although that will happen as a by-product).
We actually get a lot of flack and jokes about insisting on calling it a “community” rather than a “church”, but we do it to try to hammer home the point that what we are a part of is / should be more accurately described by the former term (”community”), rather than the latter (”church”), since the unfortunate public perception of the term “church” has become what is described in this article.
It seems to me that a lot of people are just looking for somewhere they can go once a week and sit and consume. That mentality / desire runs the gamut from looking for big, spectacular programs / presentations to people just wanting to simply go and sit quietly, sing some songs and hear someone preach at/to them, do Bible studies, etc. I think both extremes are just as lifeless. Regardless of how much flare (or lack thereof) a message is presented with, if it isn’t challenging us to go beyond how we are living now, then what is the point?
Part of the purpose of gathering as a community is to encourage and push each other towards the challenges of actually living the gospel. In isolation, we will naturally shy away from this kind of discomforting pressure, because our human nature wants to avoid it. But together we can call each other towards better things, and we can work together (with Christ AND each other) to accomplish things that we could never do by ourselves.
If people are looking for the same old Bible studies, etc. that they’ve been going to all their lives, (with perhaps a fancier presentation style as described in this article, or just a more basic approach), I must ask the question “why”? For what purpose? How many times do we need to read about how to live before we say that it’s time to actually start living that way?
Don’t get me wrong, I think that these kinds of studies can be very valuable, but if they are not done in the context of actually changing the way we live our lives, then what’s the point? Maybe this did happen and it just wasn’t recorded, but I don’t see Jesus leading the disciples and others through a book-by-book study of the old testament scriptures that were available to them at that time. Of course, he quoted them frequently, but it was always in the context of talking to them about very specific issues and messages that were applicable to how they lived their lives, and often very user-unfriendly challenges calling for drastic change.
When people actually say things like “stop talking about the poor so much” (although Jesus talked about them constantly), “stop talking about global issues so much”, “it’s uncomfortable to deal with some of the things we talk about”, etc., it’s just kind of unbelievable to me.
I think the only real answer to that kind of complaint is just to say (which we actually have said in church on several occasions) that there are plenty of churches around that don’t broach those kinds of subjects, if that’s what you’re looking for, but for those of us who believe with strong conviction that God calls us to live with each other in ways that encourage each other to follow the leading and example of Christ, we must do it, regardless of whatever difficult and challenging places that may take us.
