Our economy lives and dies by the consumer mentality - the winners provided the consumers what they want to consume, and the losers somehow failed to. Our politics also depends on a consumer mentality, and for the same reasons - the winners provide the consumers with what they want, and the losers don't. Consumerism is so integral to the modern Western mindset that we have trouble imagining anyone ever thinking differently. It's practically a God-given right! Just listen to how we complain when the cheese isn't melted just the right way on our readily-available burgers.
More than any other culture, more than any other period of time in history, we carry that consumer mentality into the church. The churches that "win" provide the consumers what they want to consume, and the "losers" don't.
The most obvious form of a consumer mentality in the church is "church shopping" - going beyond the normal process of finding the right place to serve and be served into "shopping" mode, finding the best "bargain," and choosing a church that most serves my wants rather than equipping me to serve those who are in want. Find the church with the best "bang for the buck," and you've got a deal! Until a better deal comes along...
A more subtle form is just the attitude carried into a church. There can be a lot of good consideration about finding the right church, but this insidious attitude rides in like a parasite on a host animal. Everything about the church is evaluated based on personal wants rather than mission, vision, integrity, priorities, and authenticity. Yes, it's important to find a church that has what you need in a church, and some churches are a better fit than others. But this parasitic attitude that demands the church fit my way and my wants is found no where in Jesus' teachings about what the church is for.
But the most subtle form of consumerism in the church, I think, actually changes our theology. Because we can pick and choose our potato chips and our politicians, and because we think we can pick and choose our churches in the same way, we can end up with that deep-seated, modern, Western idea that we can pick and choose our theology, too. And it can seem no natural to us that we have trouble imagining anyone ever thinking differently. It's practically a God-given right!
God's truth is revealed to us. It's not a menu. It's not a salad bar. God has no jingle that says, "Have it your way."
We have a responsibility to investigate and determine what we honestly believe what exactly has been revealed, but that responsibility is different than an attitude that presumes to pick the parts we like and leave the rest. If God's Word truly does say, "Love your neighbor" and "Make disciples of all nations," I have no God-given right to follow the one I like and ignore the other.
As modern, Western thinkers, we have a greater tendency than people from other places and other times to adopt this mentality. Most likely, we're unaware of just how much we have that mentality. When we are aware of it, we may not realize how heavily our mindset has been influenced by our culture and times.
We just saw the movie "Wall-E" again. There's an early scene that helps introduce the robotic main character, who finds a diamond ring in a ring box among the discarded trash. He looks at the ring, tosses it aside not understanding its value, but is so fascinated by the box that opens and closes that he tosses it into his lunch box to keep in his collection. Every time we ignore part of God's Word, we are tossing aside a diamond ring, not understanding its value.
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