The danger of a culture of consumerism over disciplemaking in the church today

 

There is no country where the church has the American church's resources. And yet, with all the advantages it has: wealth; technology; training; strategy, and Biblical knowledge, we are not doing well in many congregations. In fact, we inadvertently hurt ourselves by focusing on the wrong things, which causes us to miss the best things. We are often building a culture of consumerism over disciple-making and that is hurting us and God's people.  Here are some examples of how we inadvertently hurt ourselves in some quarters.

In our concern for "market share" (yes, that is a thing), we appeal to the consumer mentality of church members rather than to the Biblical Mandate of making disciples. In the city in which I live, the revolving door among the large churches particularly has been evident for the past several decades. A "cool" church will appear and make a splash, and its weekend experience is impressive, and migration takes place from other churches to the cool church. 

The problem is that we are training congregants to look for "what's in it for me" rather than focusing on helping them become disciples who love Jesus, and when another cool church appears that is cooler than the church I am attending, the migration happens again. If we train consumers, they will act like consumers. If we disciple people to follow Jesus, they will follow Him. The two are not the same. 

This goes to our marketing efforts as well. We develop programs and swag and the best stage presence because that is what will bring people in, and yet we miss the magnetic quality that actually builds a long-term family of believers - a congregation that loves Jesus and each other which is the greatest marketing tool a church could have. 

The consumer mentality of the church impacts our teaching. I am bemused that there are churches that won't even use the word preaching or teaching (two very Biblical words), but they talk on staff about who is doing the "presentation" that week. And the presentation must not be controversial (which Jesus and the Scriptures usually are), must not deal with the hard topics of the Bible (of which there are many), and must be uplifting, relevant, and non-controversial. It is a win, perhaps for market share, but how is it a win for helping people understand God and His Word?

Too often, we want people to love our church and be loyal to our church rather than wanting people to truly love Jesus and be loyal to Him. Think about the Gospels. Jesus did not try to be cool and hip. Rather He was authentic and spoke truth with amazing mercy and grace. He came full of Grace and Truth. 

The early church, likewise, had few of the advantages our contemporary churches do. But what they had was an infectious love for God and one another that was a magnet for those around them. As to the "teach," this is what Paul had to say about his preaching. "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power" (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)." Paul would not be invited to speak in many of our cool, large churches today.

Nor, maybe Jesus because He talked about a "narrow gate" to God. He said that no one comes to the Father except through Him, and He spoke of heaven and, if you can believe it, hell and coming judgment. He did it with grace, but He spoke the truth - truths that we are often fearful of speaking ourselves. For those who want to be cool, Jesus said some very inconvenient things. 

And one last thing. Jesus championed humility over pride and ego. Yet many of our congregations today who live in the consumer space are driven by leaders with egos who have an agenda to grow their brand. Why do we brand? Because we are building a brand that is ours and that will set us apart from the rest. But Jesus talked about championing the Father, and Paul build a brand not around personalities (see 1 Corinthians) but around Jesus and the cross and following Him.

These are all contrasts between consumerism and discipleship. Which are you building in the church you attend? It is worth thinking about. 

Come to the Feast!

 

In the wake of Covid, many people have left the church and decided that they don’t need it anymore. Not because of their fear of Covid but because they figure that it doesn’t matter. They will do their spirituality on their own. In their way. On their terms. I suspect that it will result in a diminished personal and spiritual life but we are a nation that does it's own thing.

What they don’t know is that they are missing the party. You heard me right. The party. In Nehemiah 7 and 8, after the completion of the wall that Nehemiah helped organize, we read this: “When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, all the people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.

They built him a platform and “on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law."

Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground….They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.

As the people heard the Word of God they were sad and grieved because they realized they were not following God as they should. But the Levites calmed the people down and said “Be still for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve.” Instead they threw a party. We read, “Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.”

I know a group called the Light of Jesus Family that has a weekly meeting called the Feast. They feast on God’s word, on worship, prayer, and food together each week. Feasts are times of joy and fellowship and that is how they see their worship and how we ought to see our worship as well. This is how we ought to view our weekly worship. A feast around God's word with people we love to give us what we need for the upcoming week. Worship and fellowship go together. And so does rejoicing and music and laughter. Oh, food helps as well!

We ought to throw more parties around God’s word, good food, laughter, and joy. They all go together and they feed the mind, body, and soul. Worship should be seen not as an obligation but as a feast, each time you meet and open the Word. Next week, come to the feast!

Worship leadership calls for worshipers, not spectators

An insightful article on worship

Do You Hear The People Sing?

Reclaiming corporate prayer

It is interesting that for all the talk about the necessity of prayer in our ministries and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the time devoted to prayer in most weekend services is minimal and sometimes almost non existent. In addition, it is often obvious that when there is prayer it has not been thought through and yet it is meant to represent the whole congregation. Corporate prayer is often an afterthought in our worship experiences. 


Here is an interesting question. Where do people learn how to pray? I am not talking about praying for personal needs, as we are all pretty good at that, human nature being what it is. But where do we learn to pray for the work of God in our lives, for the expansion of the gospel, for confession of personal and corporate sin, for our communities to be touched with God's grace, or to thank him for the amazing grace He has showered on our lives? 


Think of the prayers of the Old Testament or the New and ask yourself, "When do I hear prayer like that in church?" If not modeled in our services, where will it be modeled? If that kind of prayer was important to the prophets, Jesus or the Apostles, why is it not equally important to us? Often we are left with an anemic idea of what prayer is about when it is central to all we will become as Christ followers. 


Those who come from a tradition of liturgy know the value of well thought out prayer. Sure, it can become rote, as any worship can, but the value of carefully crafted prayer that reflects the priorities of God (not always the same as ours) and lifts up the majesty and greatness of God is powerful. Whether prayers of the people, prayers of blessing, of confession or praise, how we lead people in corporate prayer says much about our own value of prayer and about what we are teaching our people in this regard. The very language we use in leading people in corporate prayer either lifts Him up or "dumbs" him down to those we lead. 


We ought to put the same time, preparation and effort into corporate prayer as we do for all other parts of our services. It is a holy moment when together we lift our hearts to God's throne and corporately confess, praise or ask for His intervention for the sick and hurting. I suspect that off the cuff prayer is treated as such by the congregation while seriously thought out prayer is treated with equal seriousness by those who should be silently (or sometimes verbally) participating. 


Take time to look up the great prayers in Scripture and think about the concerns that were lifted up to the Father. And, encourage the practice of well thought out corporate prayer in your congregation.

Don't rob people of the joy of worship

One of the temptations, particularly as churches grow, is to professionalize worship to a place where it is about the "excellence" of the performance on stage, perfect timing, awesome acoustics and providing an " unforgettable experience" each week. I know pastors who actually become angry or anxious at any "imperfections" in the service. Appearances and performance can start to mean everything.


What easily gets lost in all this is that worship is not about a performance but about helping people express their love, appreciation and commitment to the Lord of Lords who is holy, righteous, loving, merciful and faithful. It is both an individual and corporate expression of worship of the Almighty God. It is deeply personal and by nature must be participatory. It is not about who is on stage, but about the hearts of the congregation as they lift their voices and prayer and thoughts to their Heavenly Father. In fact, anything that happens up front that detracts from the congregation joining in personal, corporate and authentic worship is counter to the purpose of worship.


Good worship leaders both plan the service carefully and are sensitive to the Holy Spirit when He breaks in and changes the plan. Worship that never deviates from the plan is worship that is not sensitive to what the Holy Spirit might be doing in the service and among His people. After all, why should He not respond to the worship of His people? And what if He desires that the service go more than the allotted number of minutes? God cannot be boxed in and when He is, we are the ones who suffer.


And what about simplicity on occasion? A simple hymn, a quiet meditation, the scriptural and theological integrity of good liturgy where we recite Scripture and truth to God as they did in the early church, reminding ourselves of the basics of our faith. Or times when we are still and silent before God echoing the Psalmist who said "Be still and know that I am God."


My observation is that many of us have a deep hunger to worship God rather than to attend a performance about God. Our hearts are often parched from the stresses of the week and they need the living water of His truth, the encouragement of His promises and the opportunity to freely sing and pray to the One who is our ultimate Hope and greatest joy. Anything that distracts from that opportunity gets in the way of our hearts being refilled for the week ahead. Never rob people of the joy of worship. It is about God, not about us, it is about the congregation lifting God up, not about those who are in front. Their job is to make it easy for the rest to spend time in His presence. 

Costly Devotion

Guest writer

Anna Blanc

Worship leader at the International House of Prayer in Kansas

City

I have a confession: I am terribly distracted while worship leading when I notice older saints connecting with the Lord in the room.  It is not as though I can avert my eyes and move on; I am taken with the sight.  Tears traveling down wrinkled faces, weathered hands lifted toward Heaven.  There is something awe-inspiring in the testimony of a man or woman having lived through years, decades, of turmoil, pleasure, the mundane, pressure and sorrow, and her confession through it all, openly displayed through her worship, is that He is worth it.

I am grateful that the Lord values and enjoys even the first declarations of love from the youngest believer.  To Him, a yes is a yes, and He receives it as His treasure.  Even still, there is a sweetness that comes when there is a cost to love.  When things are not going well; when there is loss at stake.  When the believer must turn his back upon all other pleasures, treasures, desires, face the God of whom he actually knows very little, and say in truth, “I choose You”.  When the One who holds in His hand our very breath allows difficulty, pain, and loss in our lives, the choice to love Him is often made in anguish and tears.  And yet in that pain-riddled declaration of love, there is a weightiness that plumb lines inexplicable joy into the depths of the spirit of the one who proclaims it.  In finally surrendering our self-perceived rights to comfort, ease and well-being, we tear down the idol that has kept us from walking in the way of true joy and peace.

God allows pain in this life.  We can hide from this reality, but in doing so we adopt a microscopic view of the great I Am, declaring Him impotent and unable.  God allows loss.  Look at Paul.  Look at Job.  Look at Jesus.  But if God is able, all-knowing, and all-powerful, then the wrestle of the human heart in the midst of trial becomes… why?  It is in the midst of this struggle, as the eyes of the believer are blinded to its answer on this side of time that the painful depths of love are plummeted.  Yes, it’s a real fight of the heart; God is a big God with big shoulders, and He can take all the overflowing, confused emotions we can dish out.  But eventually we lean, more like crumple, into Sovereignty.  Denying offence and refusing self-pity, it is enough that God knows, and that He can be trusted.

The struggle of the heart through the testing of sorrow is in sustaining a tender spirit.  How we care for the deep wound of the heart caused by loss is pertinent to how our spirits emerge from a season of pain.  Through neglect and denial, our hearts can harden, becoming dull and unfeeling, not unlike a scar on the body.  But as we wrestle for righteousness and simple faith, surrendering our own understanding in light of His unchanging kindness, we allow the tearing in our heart to become a riverbed for the Holy Spirit.  He gains access to new depths in our devotion to Him, and we gain a fresh infilling of His peace and presence.

A young girl in my twenties, how much do I really know about living through pain and suffering?  Not much.  But I see the woman in her eighties on row twelve, fully engaged in loving Jesus, declaring, “Great is Thy faithfulness”.  And I know that I want to join her, day after day, year after year, till my confession carries the weight and beauty of a love proven by time.

Secular or Sacred Worship?

My wife recently attended a worship service where the message was shaped around a popular country western song (rather than the text used) and then the secular song was the last set by the worship band. She left deeply disheartened.

The service raised an interesting question. Does the sacred influence the secular or does the secular influence the sacred? Now without a doubt there was some truth in the song. But why use a secular source to try to communicate eternal truth when it is the word of God that is the source of all truth? Maybe to illustrate but not as the source. There are many good illustrative stories from the secular world, but the source of all truth about God is found in His word.

In addition, how can a secular song as a worship set raise our hearts to the throne of God? Again, does the sacred influence the secular or does the secular lead us to the sacred?

What was more interesting was that many loved the song. Actually I like the song. But I question the discernment of those who believe that the secular can lead us to the sacred as an act of worship. In our effort to be relevant we often forget that the Word itself is the source of all relevance and that word, empowered by the Holy Spirit has amazing power to change lives.

Perhaps our drive for relevance is an indication that we don't always think the truth of the Word is enough. Paul did. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith' " (Romans 1:16-17).

Worship Music: For Christ Followers or Seekers?

As my own church has tried but failed to articulate a philosophy of music and worship for the past ten years - they are still trying - I have reflected on the purpose of worship in the church.

Fundamentally worship is for those who follow Jesus. That may seem obvious but I believe that it is not clear in many congregations that are trying to attract seekers. I believe that much worship direction is focused more on those who the congregation is trying to attract than it is on those who actually know Christ.

If so, that is an amazing shift from what I believe Scripture would say about worship. Only those who know that God of the universe can truly worship the God of the Universe and whether in the Old Testament or New the purpose of worship is to honor, praise and connect with the One whom we love and serve.

This leads me to a second observation. Different believers connect with God and worship him through different types of worship. Thus when we do not honor those different styles and offer different styles we are essentially excluding those whose style is not represented.

It seems to me that we are so concerned about "attracting" new people to our congregations that in many cases that focus overshadows the central focus of worship which is to help Christ followers within the church worship the God of the universe in ways that work for them. When that happens we have shifted the true focus of worship to an improper focus of worship and it is the worship of God's people that gets lost in the refocus.

The reveal study has made it abundantly clear that our lack of focus on the needs of God's people to grow and mature is the cause of many leaving the church today. Is it possible that our obsession with bringing new people into our church actually forces Christ followers to leave the church?

This is complicated when church leaders focus on one demographic to the exclusion of other demographics. In many churches the focus on reaching seekers through their style of worship has a detrimental affect on existing believers in the church who don't connect with that particular style.

I believe that that seekers are attracted to the genuine love, unity and heart worship of those they see around them. The more genuine and real the worship of God's people, the more that seekers will be attracted. But, this is the distinction, the focus is not on seekers but on believers - they are the only ones who can truly worship God.

We have complicated what should be simple. Worship is for believers and believers need options today in worship styles. Seekers will be attracted to Christ not because they hear their style of music but because they encounter God in the people, love, unity of God's people and the truth they hear from His word.