CONSUMER CHRISTIANITY

“It should be noted that this book is not some sort of dig at Roman Catholicism, as the title might seem to imply. Indeed, it is really a dig at the Evangelical Protestant church which is floundering, losing its way, reckless about truth, driven by consumerism and marketing, and lacking in biblical understanding and teaching.”

This quote is from David Wells book “The Courage to be Protestant.” A classic example that plays out this truth is the rise of the Hillsong type music which is meant to appeal to young people. When I was a teenager, this type of music did not exist. We had the hymns that had been around for hundreds of years.

Did that stop me from going to meetings? No, of course not because we went to them not to satisfy my needs but to connect with God and be a disciple of Jesus.

In fact, when we sang the old hymns, there were more people attending church meetings than now when we have the latest in modern music. Of course we are told that we need the latest style of music to attract young people to the church. But that is not our job as Jesus said he would build his church, he didn’t ask us to.

Our ministry is to attract people to Jesus and he said if he was lifted up, he would draw all men to him. This begs the question, “what is the church lifting up today?” slick services with all the latest gadgetry; big name preachers who entertain; flash buildings with lots of amenities; programmes that entertain and occupy people; a gospel that does not demand anything of its followers?

There is a big difference between preaching and teaching. Most churches offer preaching which is given by someone who has a good knowledge of what the denomination teaches but very little knowledge of what the scripture teaches.

Teaching, on the other hand is a rare commodity. It expounds the truths of scripture regardless of whether it lines up with denominational tradition. That is why we don’t have many teachers as the denomination believes that their take on things has more authority than the word of God so people who don’t toe the line are not welcome.

It is another way of saying “God we don’t want you here unless you agree with everything we say and do.”

This produces the failure that evangelicalism faces because there is no commitment to the risen Christ, only to the local church and its programmes. As a result, people talk about what a wonderful pastor they have, not about a wonderful saviour.