Consumer Christianity

We do live in a consumer society. If I want a pair of jeans, I can choose to go to one of a number of different shops and can choose how much I want to pay, which brand I would like and what colour they should be. I can choose a £10 pair of blue jeans from Asda or I can go for the £100+ designer option, from Kendals or one of the posh shops on King Street (Manchester) or any variation in between. I believe that I have the right to buy whichever pair I can afford, and whichever I choose on the basis of fit, colour, style and even label.

I will concede that there is danger inherent in such a society, that we expect such abundant choice in everything but that choice might be harmful to us or detrimental to others - should we be able to choose how much tax we pay for services or which laws we should obey?

The Mission Shaped Church book has a section about consumer culture (p9-11) , equating consumerism with choice and calling it the dominant idolatry of capitalist societies. The report does say that the poor are unable to be consumers because they are unable to buy things. (I do wonder just how many poor people those who wrote the report know. The poor people I know are the ones most sold out to consumer culture! The ones who most earnestly desire designer labels, cable TV and holidays).

When consumerism is defined as the desire to accumulate possessions, to be seen to be as cutting edge as possible and a fixation on fashion then I would agree that it is destructive. However, when consumerism is described simply as choice (as it so often is) then I think we have to be very careful about demonising it or we will miss something very important by equating our ability to make choices with idolatry.

For those of us who are Christians, at one point (or several) we made a choice to follow Christ rather than our own paths. We made a choice to accept his sacrifice and offer of free forgiveness. Whether that was a conscious decision or one made gradually over the course of years, we did make that choice.

For those of us who are churchgoers, at one point, or several, we have made decisions about which church we will attend, what denomination we will belong to, which theology makes most sense to us, even which service we will regularly attend. We choose churches on the basis of music, preaching, liturgy, accessibility, childcare provision, traveling distance, our own family tradition and upbringing, friend's recommendation, number of people in the right age bracket, and a whole host of other reasons. Even if we were born and brought up in one church, we have at some point made the decision to stay where we are. We have all made choices, that does not mean we are all idolaters.

I'd like to apply a little more caution to an out and out denunciation of consumer culture. I think there are many positives as well as negatives that arise out of this culture we live in. I like to be able to choose which pair of jeans I will buy, rather than having to wear a one-size-fits-all pair. I also like to be able to choose the church in which I will worship.

I'd better go, I've chosen to go to the evening service tonight and if I don't leave now I will be late.

About me

I've been interested in the whole emerging church thing but one thing I need to work out is whether I am a real participant or someone standing at the edges looking in. The problem is I'm not sure. Depending on what your definition of emerging church is, I may be a fully paid up member or a total stranger. I'll tackle the definition of emergent soon but first I'll do justice to a definition of myself.

Currently, I am 29. I am a rather mature student doing a degree in theology at a small, friendly, conservative evangelical theological college. This is my second degree, my first was in maths.

I am also a Christian, a useful attribute for a theology student. I was brought up in the methodist church and, even though I've tried to leave a couple of times in my life, I never quite made it out of the door. I'm quite happy about being a methodist now even though the unending bureaucracy and inflexibility really gets me down.

I am a preacher, I have a certificate to prove it. That puts me in the position of being seen as a church leader without any of the having to visit sick people in hospital (I never know what to say in those situations). It certainly has the unexpected (to me) effect of people giving my opinions more weight. I'm not sure that's a good thing at all, I don't want any special treatment but it does mean that I have to take full responsibility for anything I say - I know it will be listened to.

So far this all puts me firmly in the camp of the traditional modern church, not the fun and funky, free-flowing, postmodern emerging church, so you may well ask why I think I have anything at all to say about it.

About this time last year, I went to hear Jonny Baker talk about what he and his colleagues do at grace and about alt.worship and the emerging church. I realised that there were many points of contact with what we do at my church in worship. Once every few months, we do something called No Compromise which is team planned and led, uses music, video and all sorts of other media with the aim of connecting people with God in a new way. More frequently, we also have cafe church. In my mind, cafe church would be more effective if it were actually held in a cafe rather than the church coffee lounge. Nevertheless, for a methodist church it is quite radical to have a monthly service with no music and no sermon.

My church does dabble in alt.worship in these ways and both expressions of worship are accepted, appreciated and welcomed. They do not make my church into an emerging church though. It appears that to be accepted as an emerging community, an alt.worship congregation should distance itself from the background that nurtured it. My church, as is, wouldn't be an 'emerging church' unless some people broke away, started meeting in a darkened warehouse and called themselves 'fr3sh' or 'ambient' or something. Perhaps that is what needs to happen, I don't know, but I am interested in ventures that emerge from within the church, not necessarily just alongside it.

My other interest is in the internet. I've worked as a website developer for quite a few years. One of the projects I've been involved in is generation cross, a website that aims to provide community and support for Gen X christians. Over the year it's been open, I've come to the realisation that, at its best, such a community is as legitamate an expression of church as any other. We do need to work out the finer details, how to encourage real world links as well as virtual ones and how to worship corporately online, but it's a start and it's one I'm very excited about.

There are probably more factors that are relevant to my journey but I think these are the most pertinent.

On balance, I think my position is not one of being firmly entrenched in the emerging church camp, but I'm not so far away that I can't relate to it.

I came across this article (What (again) is emerging church?) yesterday when I was looking for another definition of emerging church. Here's a snippet:

Many, of course, feel that they are not so much emerging as barely escaping with their lives, with the chariots and horsemen of Egypt hot on their heels. Others are cautiously venturing through the gaps that have opened up in the rusting border fence that has confined them for so long. Some are coming empty-handed and desperate. Others are bringing much of their past with them, loaded on to handcarts, and it remains to be seen how much will survive the journey.

I thought that in this context, I'm one looking at all the people in front of me who are already so far away, but I'm not willing to rush off and leave the people I am journeying with behind me.

Missile Shaped Church

I have found a purpose for this blog I created. I was thinking it would be good to have a place where I can comment on what I'm thinking and writing about emerging church without boring my usual blog readers silly.

I also harbour vague ambitions that, open source style, I can get comments, feedback and thoughts that I can loop back into my thinking and take it forward. Sounds a bit like getting help with your homework though so I don't know if anyone will oblige!

I will begin by telling you that I've been reading "Mission Shaped Church". So far it's pretty good, but, being an Anglican report, it does dissapear off into a particularly Anglican world at times. I have some thoughts about the report's outright rejection of a consumerist mentality, then a few pages later saying how important it is that variety is maintained in theology and practice to cater for all the different niches of society. Sounds more than a little contradictory to me.

I think this is a topic for a larger post because I have certain views on the demonisation of consumer christianity that is so popular at the minute. I'll leave you waiting with bated breath for more on that later.

Hmmm this blogging thing just goes on and on!

Well I wanted to post a comment on someone's blog and I couldn't. I needed a blogger account of my own. So now I've got one, but don't read this, if I post anything here I expect it to be random gibberish. Go look at my proper blog at http://www.silkworm.org.uk/blog/ that's much better.