Consumer Christianity

By Rev. Joel M McDuffie Jr.

Recently I saw a snippet of a sermon by Francis Chan, former mega-church pastor and founder of crazylove.org. The point that he made was so spot on, it deserves being repeated. The point was, that we have made the church a consumer driven commodity. We do everything solely to try and meet everybody’s need. Whether it’s the programs, the music, the style of preaching, it is all based to fulfill that consumer mentality. The net result is that people treat it like such. When it doesn’t meet their need, they try a new brand, a cheaper solution. The consumer is always looking for what is best for them and how they can get the most out of it for themselves. The problem is, the church was meant to be an institution that produces servants, who live sacrificial lives. When the church is designed around a model based on the consumer rather than producing a servant, all you have are people switching from one product to the next. The church is to be a training ground for making disciples, who will in turn, go out and make disciples also. The church has lost its focus, clouded its purpose, and filled itself with people who are there to serve themselves in one way or the other, instead of serving others. Until the church gets back into the business of making servants and producing living sacrifices, it will continue to see itself dwindle as the consumer and their habits change over time. Until the focus becomes producing people who live holy, committed, consecrated, selfless lives, that reflect the example that Jesus set before us by His own, there is little chance that the trends we see before us in the church will change.