I remember reading the following, from Eugene Peterson's Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity, somewhere before, a few years ago. When I saw that John Barach had posted it, I copied and pasted it here because it is characteristic of Peterson's incisiveness and wisdom, and his ability to systematically expose the rampant consumerism at work in American evangelicalism. Here he laments the way the pastorate has become just another tool used to satisfy the wants of the consumers in the pew.

For a long time I have been convinced that I could take a person with a high school education, give him or her a six-month trade school training, and provide a pastor who would be satisfactory to any discriminating American congregation. The curriculum would consist of four courses. Course I: Creative Plagiarism. I would put you in touch with a wide range of excellent and inspirational talks, show you how to alter them just enough to obscure their origins, and get you a reputation for wit and wisdom. Course II: Voice Control for Prayer and Counseling. We would develop your own distinct style of Holy Joe intonation, acquiring the skill in resonance and modulation that conveys an unmistakable aura of sanctity. Course III: Efficient Office Management. There is nothing that parishioners admire more in their pastors than the capacity to run a tight ship administratively. If we return all telephone calls within twenty-four hours, answer all letters within a week, distributing enough carbons to key people so that they know we are on top of things, and have just the right amount of clutter on our desks — not too much or we appear inefficient, not too little or we appear underemployed — we quickly get the reputation for efficiency that is far more important than anything that we actually do. Course IV: Image Projection. Here we would master the half-dozen well-known and easily implemented devices that create the impression that we are terrifically busy and widely sought after for counsel by influential people in the community. A one-week refresher course each year would introduce new phrases that would convince our parishioners that we are bold innovators on the cutting edge of the megatrends and at the same time solidly rooted in all the traditional values of our sainted ancestors.

(I have been laughing for several years over this trade school training for pastors with which I plan to make my fortune. Recently, though, the joke has backfired on me. I keep seeing advertisements for institutes and workshops all over the country that invite pastors to sign up for this exact curriculum. The advertised course offerings are not quite as honestly labeled as mine, but the content appears to be identical — a curriculum that trains pastors to satisfy the current consumer tastes in religion. I’m not laughing anymore.) [7-8]

Pastoral ministry is not about giving people what they want. Instead, it is about giving people what they need. While at first we may, with Peterson, laugh a little about this, we too must come to the point where we are not laughing about this anymore. When it is all said and done, this is not just a matter of wants versus needs, or likes versus dislikes. The reality is that this a matter of life and death.

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This post continues a series that will address many of the points on the list compiled by John Muether entitled, "Resisting Modernity: a How-to Guide." You can find the list in full here, and all the posts in this series here.

7. If you cannot [stop watching television], then refuse to use the remote control. Remove its batteries. Remember John's warning against the "lust of the eyes"—he's not referring to pornography.
8. For the same reasons described in #7, do not subscribe to cable television.

Perhaps by now you've noticed a couple of significant themes running through this list that characterize modernity: consumerism and the autonomy of the individual. These two points again directly attack those cultural values. Throughout most of its existence, the television has served as a means to satisfy the "I want it now" mentality of our society. The addition of the remote control, as well as later developments like cable TV, satellite, and TiVo, have only served to bolster this sentiment so well expressed in the lyrics of Nirvana's 1991 smash hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit"—here we are now, entertain us!

Readers will know from the last post that I am not anti-television. But there are boundaries we need to draw, and I think Muether gives us some good suggestions to get started. He references 1 John 2:16, in which John speaks of the lusts or desires of our eyes. The context of that verse is verses 15-17, which read:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Television, in perhaps the most pointed way of all forms of media, makes plain the things of this world. Every time we watch television we are bombarded with the values, ideals, and underlying religious convictions that shape this culture. When we are subjected to that hour upon hour, it in turn begins to shape and mold us. The things of the world become the things we desire. One of the simplest ways to stand against that influence is to restrict the amount of time the television is on, and to limit the ease of access you have to it.

As I have mentioned before, there are good things about television. All I am saying is that we need to be careful how we use it. Instead of simply turning on the television to pass a bit of time (which I am frequently guilty of), pick up a book and read a few chapters. Go for a walk with your spouse and talk with each other. Sit on your front porch and spend some time praying and meditating. Again, when we intentionally limit our access to something like television, we are less wont to use it to fill our time.

In the end, we can look at John's teaching in the passage above in this way: does our use of the television reflect our love for the things of this world, or does it reflect our desire to grow in the wisdom and knowledge of God, to do His will and to seek His glory?

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This post continues a series that will address many of the points on the list compiled by John Muether entitled, "Resisting Modernity: a How-to Guide." You can find the list in full here, and all the posts in this series here.

3. Therefore, don't shop at malls or eat at chains: patronize mom and pop stores wherever possible.
4. Okay, #3 is nearly impossible, especially in Orlando [and other big cities]. But resolve to take smaller steps, like not frequenting "convenience stores" between 8pm and dawn.

We're addressing two points on the list this week, and these two points are closely connected with last week's thought. And here I must confess that I am frequently in violation of Muether's suggestions. I try to excuse it by reminding myself that I am a poor student, which temporarily alleviates my guilt. Also, in my defense, I do live in Orlando and as Muether rightly acknowledges, there is a noticeable lack of mom and pop stores here. Part of that has to do with Orlando's history, but that's another issue. Nonetheless, I know I should do more to support local business.

Why? Well, local businesses play a pivotal role in the cultivation of a local community and culture. Frequently shopping at the so-called "big-box" stores hurts those businesses. Within the realm of suburbia, this is all too common, and in part it accounts for the distorted cultural identity frequently found in suburban areas of big cities. I know among economists, especially those who are strongly free market-oriented, businesses like Walmart commend respect for delivering products at low cost while making huge profits. As I say frequently, I am not an economist. But I do maintain the conviction that when community suffers because of our economic structures, the latter needs to be rethought. A further consideration here, which I won't get into, is how these business models have influenced the American Church. Think about that connection. What has this done to the community of believers?

Muether's point about covenience stores is also helpful. There are a couple of things to consider. First, with many of these stores being open 24-hours, it only helps to feed the consumerist mentality that this culture has. We can get whatever we want whenever we want. There is no restraint imposed upon us, and goods can be had in the blink of an eye. We have no need to stop and think about what we are buying, even though the passing of time often leads us to rethink the purchase of needless items.

Second, this also has a debilitating effect on community, right down to the very foundation of community—the family. Most of us are occupied during the day with our jobs and the various other parts of life, and so we use the evenings to run around to all kinds of stores. However, when we do this, we take precious time away from the cultivation of a healthy family life. If there was no reason to leave the house in the evening, we could take our time with dinner and strengthen the bonds between our loved ones. We could spend time in family worship, or invite friends and neighbors into our homes for an evening of fellowship.

Again, I think this all boils down to the notions of culture and community. Part of the cultivation of a healthy culture and community begins with local businesses. What do you think?

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This is the first post in a series that will address many of the points on a list compiled by John Muether, entitled "Resisting Modernity: a How-to Guide." You can find the list in full here. Each Monday I will select a point from the list and interact with it. You will be able to follow the series here.

1. Don't go to theme parks, and not because of their new age sympathies or their preferential option for gays. Don't go because they are temples of our culture of consumerism.

Temples is an interesting and provocative choice of words here, but helpful. Often an idol is understood in a restricted sense—something made out of wood, stone, or perhaps a precious metal—but idolatry goes so much farther than that. The first commandment in Exodus 20 teaches us that when we worship or serve anything or anyone but the true God, we have made an idol for ourselves.

Consumerism is one of those idols. We live in a culture saturated with a distorted idea of individual rights, one that supposes we should be able to get what we want whenever we want it. That is the driving force behind things like theme parks or shopping malls. At a theme park, you come for the sole purpose of being entertained. You come to these places only to consume what they offer.

Theme parks remove you from the real world. Inside the park you are bombarded the message that inside here, everything is good and fun. Every effort is made to try and squeeze you into a mold, to conform you to an ideology of their own creation; the sad thing is that they are ridiculously effective at doing so, especially when it comes to impressionable young children. Because we conceive of them as "amusement parks" we don't question what is going on; after all, we are just there to be amused. Translated, that means, "I have let all my defenses down. My mind is yours."

Think of the the predictable and recurrent pattern among children—film company makes movie, kid sees movie and wants every imaginable piece of merchandise affiliated with said movie. What is being fostered here is a desire to consume without giving back. Among a host of other problems this creates is the problem of waste, and not just material waste.

The issue here is not so much that theme parks exist, but that we uncritically feed off the idolatry they offer. I'm not going to say that you should never go to theme parks, but when you do that you need to think very clearly about what is going on there. When we conceive of these sorts of things as "harmless fun," we display an ignorance that reveals a gospel-deficiency problem. We fail to see ourselves as pilgrims, and unfaithfully live both in and of the world.

Thoughts, questions, disagreements?

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Here is a stinging (but welcome) critique I read earlier today while browsing around on Jeff Patterson's blog. I had to post it here because it is the best I have read on the subject. Jeff points us to a commentary by Jared Wilson on the subject of the Christian marketplace and the consumerism of the Christian population that drives it; biting words which helpfully point us to the root of the problem and not toward some sort of superficial solution (or justification!). Wilson's words:

I have long held that the problem of the Christian marketplace is a pulpit problem. By this I mean that if we want to be serious about encouraging greater discernment and quality in the Christian’s consumption of art (and further, if we want to gradually squelch the Christian’s ravenous consumerism), we have to begin nurturing this difference on the pastoral and ecclesiological levels.

This is not the problem of the Christian marketplace. The market sells based on demonstrative needs. As I said before, I don’t think the problem of the existence of the Christian marketplace is all that dire or even all that important. The real problem — the one both dire and important — is that Christian consumerism is basically as deep as the shallowest end of mainstream consumerism. And that is not the fault of Testamints or 'God’s Gym' T-shirts or WWJD bracelets, let alone Mercy Me or Michael W. Smith. It is the fault of a gospel-deficient Church and a discipleship culture that has been trained to be both in and of the world.

Be sure to read Wilson's post in its entirety for the greater context to what is posted here.

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