By Corey
Consumerism not only leads to covetous desires among Christians, consumerism also plays a different role in the church. The American church has always seen itself as a hub to send Christians out of. Thus, the church sees itself as the senders rather than the sent. This idea has in part helped to ‘consumerize’ the church. Many Christians view church as a store to pick up services from the church. This way of thinking has led to the term, ‘church shopping’. Chris Rule in his article, “How to go Church Shopping” compares finding a church to buying a pair of Chuck Taylors. Through this way of thinking, Christians become consumers of the church and it creates a mentality based on searching. Because of this the church, whether it wants to or not, has to compete with other churches to get people through the doors. Alan Hirsch presents, “The problem for the church in this situation is that it is now forced to compete with all the other ideologies and –isms” (The Forgotten Ways, pg. 109).
One can see that church has become a marketplace. Christians and non-Christians alike in America can browse through churches evaluating them and their practices based off of personal preferences. But why do Americans tend to view churches this way? Hirsch seems to believe that modern day Christians behave this way because it is natural for them in their culture (pg. 109). If this is the case, then the American culture needs to be changed. The idea of living missionally has never been more relevant. Clearly, culture is negatively influencing the church and I believe it is Christians’ job to engage the American culture to benefit the advancement of the Gospel.
