A few months ago, I wrote a post about my thoughts on the church as it is in many places: the Business Church. It’s a church that’s centered around trying to sell Jesus, more focused on bringing numbers in and making the Church appealing and relevant. I thought this model of Church was not only detrimental but seems to be missing the point of what the Church is about and what the Church should be doing in the world. So if that is bad, what is an alternative? A consumer church: one that is focused on supporting people who are searching for God and searching for where God is working.
One of the things I remember hearing a lot from pastors and church people is that we shouldn’t be “consumer Christians.” More specifically, the idea of “church shopping” was looked down upon in many circles I’ve been in. You should find a church and you should stick with it because that is your community. The idea of “shopping” for a church gives the sense that a person is searching for a church for the wrong reasons. They want to find the right type of music, a preacher that is witty or insightful, a community that is fun and outgoing, a building that is attractive and well-kept, and so on and so forth. These aren’t supposed to be the things that influence a decision to attend a church. What we should be discerning about is what the content of a sermon is, what the theology of the worship is, what the demeanor of the community is. We should be more focused on the interior rather than the exterior.
While I agree with that, I think the idea of being a consumer Christian isn’t completely off base. Yes, we shouldn’t be searching for a church the same way we shop for a product or service. But I’m also not sure we should be searching for a church the same way we search for a home. That may sound odd, but often we approach churches as though they are supposed to be a our permanent residence. The prevailing thought is that a particular church is the place we will stay for the rest of our lives, and it’s important that we pick one that we will be able to live with forever. This has been the model for quite some time, but the circumstances also made the “choice” of a church non-existent. Up until the last 100 years or so, most people didn’t travel far beyond the boundaries of their home. During the Reformation, a person would probably never go much beyond the boundaries of their own city. In that case, you didn’t really get to choose what church or what community you were a part of; you simply went to what was available. Now with easier transportation and the means to travel great distances, it is much less common for a person to stay in one place for their entire life (at least in developed countries, the developing world is still similar to what it was like before).
The ability to travel around is an asset that should be taken advantage of and perhaps is a pattern that churches should be expecting. We are called to be a people on the move. We are called to be God’s witnesses and ambassadors in the world, and we are supposed to be open to the movements of the Holy Spirit. We should be moving where the Spirit moves us and open to the places we may be sent, and if the Bible is any indication, that means we will be on the move a lot. We have the ability to cross borders and boundaries like no generation before, and that should be an opportunity to be treasured.
This is not to say that staying at one church for a long time is somehow wrong or undesirable. It is important to be connected to a familiar community where we can be supported and nurtured. But the community of the Church is larger than the individual communities in individual churches. The Church is a global community and we should be able to enter any church and be able to be a part of that community in some capacity because of the common beliefs we share. We come to the table with different interpretations and different perspectives, but we are bound by the shared belief in Jesus Christ, his sacrifice, his resurrection, and his love.
So what is a consumer church? A consumer church is a church that understands that its congregation is on a journey that may take them in and out of the community. It’s a church that understands that it is not a destination but a rest stop. It’s a church that understands that when we are truly following God, God may lead us to a place that is unfamiliar, unknown, and distant. A consumer church is one that is constantly striving to be faithful to the Holy Spirit, to consume and be consumed by what the Spirit is doing. It is one that focuses not on how many people are sitting in the pews but feeding whoever they might find coming through its doors. And we, as consumer Christians, should be searching for where the Spirit is moving and resting where the Spirit rests. That may take us to a single church community, or it may take us to multiple communities. But we should be consumers searching for the Holy Spirit’s movement in the world.
Theological Mishaps 