Consumer vs. Member
Paul (the Apostle): "From Christ the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."
Randy Frazee: “Consumerism is about consumption – the concentrated effort to consume things in order to meet one’s real and perceived needs and wants. While in its basic form consumption is both necessary and permissible, when it is practiced in an environment where the individual is sovereign, it can easily become an imbalanced obsession that kills community.”
John Calvin: “No member of the body of Christ is endowed with such Perfection as to be able, without the assistance of others, to supply his own necessities.”
J. Hampton Keathley: "Every believer is a joint of supply, a point of contact AND a source of supply through the head, Christ. Paul is saying that every member in his or her contact with other members supplies something the body needs"
John Piper: "You simply can't read the New Testament in search of what church life is supposed to be like and come away thinking that Worship services and classes are the sum total of what church was supposed to be ... The inevitable effect of treating church as worship services and classes is to make the people of God passive and too dependent on ordained experts. And could it not be that this pervasive relational passivity and dependence of millions of Christians—I mean passivity in interpersonal, spiritual ministry—rob us of some of Christ's precious remedies for a hundred problems?"
This chart is not a comprehensive treatment on this subject, but it is a good starting point for us to begin identifying some of our consumer tendencies. There are all sorts of "finer points" and implications, so jump in with comments regarding your experiences.
The chart is small-ish, but you can click on it to see a larger view.
Randy Frazee: “Consumerism is about consumption – the concentrated effort to consume things in order to meet one’s real and perceived needs and wants. While in its basic form consumption is both necessary and permissible, when it is practiced in an environment where the individual is sovereign, it can easily become an imbalanced obsession that kills community.”
John Calvin: “No member of the body of Christ is endowed with such Perfection as to be able, without the assistance of others, to supply his own necessities.”
J. Hampton Keathley: "Every believer is a joint of supply, a point of contact AND a source of supply through the head, Christ. Paul is saying that every member in his or her contact with other members supplies something the body needs"
John Piper: "You simply can't read the New Testament in search of what church life is supposed to be like and come away thinking that Worship services and classes are the sum total of what church was supposed to be ... The inevitable effect of treating church as worship services and classes is to make the people of God passive and too dependent on ordained experts. And could it not be that this pervasive relational passivity and dependence of millions of Christians—I mean passivity in interpersonal, spiritual ministry—rob us of some of Christ's precious remedies for a hundred problems?"
This chart is not a comprehensive treatment on this subject, but it is a good starting point for us to begin identifying some of our consumer tendencies. There are all sorts of "finer points" and implications, so jump in with comments regarding your experiences.
The chart is small-ish, but you can click on it to see a larger view.
posted by Will | 1:45 PM
12 Comments:
Sunday was an interesting time to reflect back on the past couple of years for my wife and I. It was easy to see that both of us grew up in the "American Church." We were married almost two years ago and surrounding that time we both felt a need to get back into the church. For us what that meant was we needed someplace to go on Sunday mornings and feel good about ourselves.
I remember attending a couple of different worship services and walking away asking: "What do I like/not like?", "How did I feel during worship?", "Did I get anything out of the sermon/homily?" You could have labled me a church shopper and that would not have done it justice.
Coram Deo has opened our eyes to what the church truly is. Walking into a building and having good biblical teaching and community, enabled us to see that Christians are called to so much more than just church attendace. We are actually called to be the church. Over time, my wife and I, have began asking different types of questions. Rather than leaving worship talking about the music and teaching, we discuss who we engaged with and what we can do to help others out in the church.
Do not get me wrong, we are far from figuring out what it means to acutally be the church rather than go to church. But, truth be told, our faith has never been stronger and I can honestly say that I have a better picture of Jesus' love for his church and the mission that he calls us to.
Does the 'not needed' bullet under Ministry-Identity mean I think I am not needed for ministry (I'm useless), others are not needed (I'm sufficient), or ministry is not needed?
oh, yeah ... good question. I meant it to indicate a feeling that I am not needed in the sense that ministry is not my job. In other words, I might feel adequate to do something, but just not responsible to do so.
It's not the clearest thing on the chart, but the general idea is that I don't have a conviction that the body needs every part and that I am consequently needed to do whatever it is God has gifted me to do. So there is a lack of dependency on God to figure out what that is and to do it. Instead, I do stuff if I want to, but not because I am needed.
Justin - thanks for giving us a picture of how a gospel-centered missional church can turn church-shoppers into productive members of the body. That's cool. May God do even more of that as we submit ourselves to his Son and his word and his mission.
Bob- sometimes, the voice in my writing reflects the stuff that I'm reading. You sound like the end of an epistle: I can see you holding up your hands benediction-style, dismissing us. But here I am, holding my hand up, too, asking a question when the sermon is over....
Justin, I also appreciate your optimistic response to Will's chart. Right now, you and Tracy have that inspiring glow. I bet it's Jesus, but you are also pretty tall, which I'm sure makes you more confident. It's probably Jesus, though.
My response was not optimistic. Maybe it is because we read left to right or because the Consumerism subheadings are in red, but I definitely looked there first. Even without charts, that is the way I've been defining myself lately: first, I ask myself, where are you screwing it up?
Does that sound like a sob story to you? Maybe it is, but I'm not crying. I'm thinking: what heart idol am I polishing that Lane is going to ask me about when he reads this tomorrow? Consumers don't want to be hasseled, even if they are in public. Would I be so willing to write here if I really had to hatch things out here? No.
So as I vomited out earlier, lately I've been consuming a lot, which give me the feeling of being a general slacker with my faith. My response is to crank up the discipline, which immediately reminds me of the discomfort part of this discussion. I agree the church exists for mission and not for comfort, but what do you do when obedience is just uncomfortable? Talk it out in community? Hang out with Justin?
Evan
This is neither here nor there... I believe the expression is "hash things out", but Evan's version produces a much more amusing mental image.
Justin is pretty tall, but I think that glow he and Tracy have is because they're Millard South grads.
That is of course, if it's not Jesus...which it probably is.
travis, good insight. i do not want to be the type of guy who takes anything away from Jesus, but lets look further into your hypothesis. Both you and your brother are MS grads. Both Clatterbucks are MS grads. Andy Holz and my brother are MS grads. Tracy and I are MS grads.
Next chance we get, lets all stand together and see if as a unified body we can radiate the type of light that is depicted in the movie "The Ten Commandments" when Charlton Heston (spelling???) is standing before the Lord recieving the stone tablets. If we are able to, we may need to mention it to Bob, Will, and JD. If not, it is probably Jesus.
FYI, 6' and 1 1/2" tall. All this mention about height and Walker says there is not way I can be a presence as a post player in the Omaha City Basketball Leagues.
I notice that a sense of inadequacy prevents people from engaging in community. Unless you have something profound to say or an interesting question to ask, then there really isn’t anything that you can contribute. This emphasis on knowledge is revealing; it shows me that the focus of the community is knowledge, and how much of it we can articulate. Moving away from that kind of community to one that is honest about our limitations but eager for growth is challenging, because it requires admitting how broken we are. I haven’t found people are willing to do that. I’m not sure if it is because they don’t want to (shame/fear/pride), or because they can’t (denial/ignorance). In my case, it’s both.
This is good stuff. By now, I hope that we've all heard the admonition that we shouldn't be consumers of religion but investors. It's true. But what about the other side of the coin? It seems like most churches implicity view their members as commodities rather than as people. Church members are seen in terms of what they can contribute. In fact, the outlook is summed up nicely in the ubiquitous (and alliterous) "time, talent, treasure" talk. The organizational structure takes on a life of its own and exerts an unhealthy dominance on the people that are part of the organization. How many churches are there with such true relational interdependence that if someone stopped coming, the church would feel that gaping hole of the personality? And for the people who are not missing, are churches challenging their members to become more valuable commodities, or are they investing in their members as people who are not merely cogs to fit into the church's machinery?
fantastic comment! ... whoever you are. I have been thinking about the same things. How have I (pastor) contributed to consumerism and individualism in the way I view and talk to people in our church? Certainly I am not immune to sin in this area.
I don't have specific conclusions about this yet. Still chewing on it. But just wanted to say, "Good comment."
Any thoughts after chewing on it? I am curious to read your thoughts.
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