Are Church Leaders Driven By Cultural Consumerism?
February 1st 2011 20:31
In asking the hard questions, we must be prepared to receive the hard answers – the kind of answers that caused many of Jesus’ followers to turn back and follow Him no more. John 6:60, 66 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?" From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
What does it mean to be driven by cultural consumerism? It means the leadership of the church places a greater emphasis upon attracting cultural consumers than it does upon drawing from the presence of God. Such an emphasis may attract more customers in a shorter period of time, but in the long term will lose customers when the cultural trends change.
Let’s be honest about it – many churches are known more for the goods and services they offer than for the presence and power of God to transform people without Christ into committed followers of Christ. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, who together authored the book God is Back, describe the consumer-focused church as the “Disneyfication of God” or “Christianity Lite”
When we create a church that attracts people through goods and services without the power and presence of God; goods and services will be required to keep people coming back. When another church offers more goods and services, it will attract people from churches with less goods and services. It is in this atmosphere that churches become a competitive marketplace.
The competitive marketplace of the church has served to turn shepherds of the flock into the CEO’s of the corporation. Instead of being at rest through their relationship with God, they are filled with the stress and pressure of feeding the monster they created.
I recently read Wayne Cordeiro’s book entitled Leading on Empty, which is the story of Cordeiro’s debilitating ministry burnout resulting from the pressure of leading a mega-church which appeared outwardly successful with thousands in attendance. For years Cordeiro continued to lead New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii while remaining spiritually and emotionally empty on a personal level. In the book, he wrote, “I was out on a run on that balmy California evening. One minute I was jogging along the sidewalk, and the next minute I was sitting on the curb sobbing uncontrollably. I couldn't stop, and I did not have a clue what was happening to me...For over thirty years, I had invested my life in Christian ministry...But now I wasn’t sure I could keep going.”
The reason why cultural consumerism drains the emotional, spiritual and physical life from church leaders is because it ultimately creates a co-dependent church. More about this in the next post……….
What does it mean to be driven by cultural consumerism? It means the leadership of the church places a greater emphasis upon attracting cultural consumers than it does upon drawing from the presence of God. Such an emphasis may attract more customers in a shorter period of time, but in the long term will lose customers when the cultural trends change.
Let’s be honest about it – many churches are known more for the goods and services they offer than for the presence and power of God to transform people without Christ into committed followers of Christ. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, who together authored the book God is Back, describe the consumer-focused church as the “Disneyfication of God” or “Christianity Lite”
When we create a church that attracts people through goods and services without the power and presence of God; goods and services will be required to keep people coming back. When another church offers more goods and services, it will attract people from churches with less goods and services. It is in this atmosphere that churches become a competitive marketplace.
The competitive marketplace of the church has served to turn shepherds of the flock into the CEO’s of the corporation. Instead of being at rest through their relationship with God, they are filled with the stress and pressure of feeding the monster they created.
I recently read Wayne Cordeiro’s book entitled Leading on Empty, which is the story of Cordeiro’s debilitating ministry burnout resulting from the pressure of leading a mega-church which appeared outwardly successful with thousands in attendance. For years Cordeiro continued to lead New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii while remaining spiritually and emotionally empty on a personal level. In the book, he wrote, “I was out on a run on that balmy California evening. One minute I was jogging along the sidewalk, and the next minute I was sitting on the curb sobbing uncontrollably. I couldn't stop, and I did not have a clue what was happening to me...For over thirty years, I had invested my life in Christian ministry...But now I wasn’t sure I could keep going.”
The reason why cultural consumerism drains the emotional, spiritual and physical life from church leaders is because it ultimately creates a co-dependent church. More about this in the next post……….
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