Swimming Upstream
I have 4 grandchildren ranging from 21 months to 5 years old. They are the joy of our lives. However, that joy can be brought to a halt with a trip to Target. Now, I do feel that part of a grandparent’s job is to spoil their grandchildren with added gifts and enjoy them with limitless love and acceptance. However, all that grabs for their consumption plays against their parents’ continual struggle to raise them with the underpinnings of gratitude, contentment, and the understanding that they are not entitled to all things. (I must say, my daughter and son-in-law do a wonderful job of experiencing life with joy more than overbuying things to satisfy.)
Furthermore, the ploys of a consumeristic culture are not confined to Target as they may have been in years past. They continue through Alexa, the Disney channel, and the iPad. With every Disney song that is listened to, there are a host of marketing tools to make sure each child is targeted in some way shape, or form with characters that meet their age group. Consumerism. It is the culture of the day. We would like to say that the church is counter-cultural. However, consumerism has seemed to weave its way into the cultural DNA of the church as well.
Vincent J. Miller in his book, “Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture”, takes a deep look into how consumer culture has made its home within our church walls. A summary of his book by Lluis Oviedo gives a clear picture of the players involved:
The process reproduces in the religious realm the same tendencies that belong to the generic consumerist behavior: commodification (or taking religious elements as products to satisfy one’s needs and desires), abstraction (or disentangling religious symbols from their roots in living communities and traditions in order to become shallow and meaningless), and fragmentation (or the loss of coherence of the many signifiers that belong to a religious tradition). As a consequence, religious elements or symbols are perceived as “floating goods”, which become available and desirable, and are subjected to the mechanisms of the market: supply, demand, and publicity promotion.[1]
As Miller asserts, it is so much more than the attachment to things. It is about the endless innate desire to seek and pursue something that cannot be attained.[2] Christianity itself lends itself to the desire to seek after an infinite God. Because of this similarity, Miller sees Christianity as lending itself to a subtle derailment by being inclusive in what it desires as opposed to having a singular focus.[3]
The derailment that Miller talks about makes so much sense. For instance, people shop for churches with lists of what they expect the church should have for them. And we, as ministry leaders, often oblige by marketing ourselves with what we can “offer”. The more we offer, the more needy people seem to become. There has been a shift from “a world in which beliefs held believers to one in which believers hold beliefs.” [4] As Clark notes “Evangelical worship and practices should therefore bring people into a ‘practical-prophetic’ ecclesiology where the mission of God comes into all social realities, and simultaneously orders all those social realities around mission.” [5]
Here lies the hope of why we swim upstream as ministry leaders, as parents, and as grandparents. There is more to be attained than contentment. We desire to make the one thing that matters most the one thing that matters most.
This is emphasized in Hebrews 13:5 which states “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” The final phrases finalize what brings ultimate contentment. God himself. He is with us and for us and enough for us. This is what I want for our church, for our grandchildren, and for all those we reach…
[1] “Catholic Books Review: Vincent J. MILLER: Consuming Religion.,” accessed October 19, 2023, https://catholicbooksreview.org/2004/miller.htm.
[2] Vincent J. Miller, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture (New York, NY: The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc., n.d.).
[3] Vincent J. Miller.
[4] Clark, Jason Paul, “Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship” (Portland, OR, Portland Seminary, 2018). 190.
[5] Clark, Jason Paul. 235.
About the Author
Esther Edwards
Esther has served in ministry leadership for over 35 years. She is an ordained minister, an ICF and CCLC certified coach, and licensed coach trainer. Her and her husband have launched their own coaching practice, Enjoy the Journey Leadership Coaching and seek to train ministry leaders in the powerful skill of coaching. Esther loves hiking, reading, and experiencing new coffee shops with friends and family. She enjoys the journey with her husband, Keith, their four daughters, sons-in-law, and their five beautiful grandchildren.11 responses to “Swimming Upstream”
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MY grandmother once told me as a young adult (who had already become a pastor) that she was praying that I would learn the secret of contentment.
She must have seen in me the relentless desire for more.
But I love that beyond contentment, you suggest the One thing that matters most is the One who will never leave or forsake us.
Thank you for this important reminder, and great blog post!
Hi, Tim,
Sounds like you have had a rich legacy of those who have modeled contentment before you. Ministry is one of those areas where we can easily feel that what we do needs to make up for what is lacking which breeds a sense of discontentment deep within. How do you stay grounded in the thought that God is enough and yet work hard to acoomplish the work of ministry?
Esther,
First, thank you for this reminder, “Here lies the hope of why we swim upstream as ministry leaders, as parents, and as grandparents. There is more to be attained than contentment. We desire to make the one thing that matters most the one thing that matters most.” I have felt, often, like I am swimming against the current.
You touched on something that I also wrote about, the consumer aspect of choosing a Church and the marketing involved in trying to increase attendance. It is sometimes difficult to watch. I appreciate how you described it, you state, “The derailment that Miller talks about makes so much sense. For instance, people shop for churches with lists of what they expect the church should have for them. And we, as ministry leaders, often oblige by marketing ourselves with what we can “offer”.”
Lastly, you ended with an invitation to let scripture guide us as we navigate these waters. Thank you, Esther.
Jonita,
With your heart for the church, I know you feel what your pastor feels. Your church is blessed to have you on their preaching and leadership team. We are also blessed to have such good leaders on our leadership team that help carry the load and continue to hear God’s voice in the midst of a consumeristic culture.
Your post is so beautifully written, Esther. And your message is beautiful as well – finding our ultimate contentment in God alone. I feel like I’m confronted with this tension a thousand times a day. And just when I think I’ve grown a bit in this area, some form of materialism sweeps back over me and I’m right back where I started. Any practical suggestions for reminding ourselves of this important reality?
Kim,
It is a lifelong learning process, isn’t it? I was just reminded by reading Psalm 78 this morning that it is so easy to forget what God has done and live in a present sense of “lack”. Giving verbal remembrance to the God moments in our lives as well as being continually grateful for what we do have does help in a tangible way. Verse 4-6 goes even further in saying how important it is to tell the next generations. We are the connectors of generations the more we age…sharing what God has done so that it is not forgotten.
As I write this, I think of what an amazing mom you are as you pass on your faith to your boys. They are blessed!
Oh yes. Target. The toy aisle (actually ANY isle)! what a great illustration of what we have been talking about this week. I have been struck with the insidiousness of the pull away from “the one thing that matters most.” It can feel a little hopeless.
But.
When I read this: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” I took that phrase as not just encouragement that we are striving for communion with God, but ALSO that He will give us the strength to be steadfast in resisting the siren call of our consumeristic nature. Thanks, Esther!
Before our kids/grandkids moved to Graz, Austria as Foursquare missionaries, they lived in Burbank, CA. Denise (my wife) and I would sometimes go down and stay with the 3 grandkids while their parents were at trainings, vacation, etc.
One day we walked to Target, and each of them were allowed to pick out one thing. I desperately was trying to kill a few hours before bed time. It’s amazing how tiring taking care of kids is! It’s definitely for the YOUNG.
Well…an hour later, those kids kept looking, touching, thinking, musing, picking up, putting back down, every toy, book, thing in all of Target.
I was done.
I said: “Ok, you got 1 more minute to get what you want and we’re out of here! Let’s go!”
They got their thing, brought it home, and within 3 minutes were arguing about what the other kids got, and then 5 minutes later their toys were on the floor and forgotten.
That’s my story. That’s consumerism. And we have “trained up a child in the way they should go!”
Lol…We have been there!
The sad part is, it transfers to how we respond in our spiritual lives with so many options: podcasts, books, webinars, Bible and Spiritual Transformation apps, moving from on thing to another, surfing the internet morning for more teachings, etc… One of my friends, who is a spiritual director, once mentioned we read and experience so many things but we seldom allow them to marinate enough to bring transformation. Ouch to that one.
“Here lies the hope of why we swim upstream as ministry leaders, as parents, and as grandparents. There is more to be attained than contentment. We desire to make the one thing that matters most the one thing that matters most.” This struck me. It does feel like a swim upstream. My husband and I have been through some poverty times and we were talking just yesterday of how far we have come in our careers and economically and how it seems we still have to “hustle”. So this book and your quote hit me well, in the midst of this discussion. We have to take a step back and evaluate where all that money is going and is it going to what matters most (mostly sport and band fees and private education for our special needs child) or are we after the flighty mistress of contentment? Thank you for your observations on raising children in this world where contentment, entitlement and joy all seem to “blend” together, especially in the aisles of Target:)
Jana,
Love the way you worded this: “the mistress of contentment.” So many people at my age live with much regret as they look back and see they majored in the minors. Kudos to you as you parent with intentionality and look to Christ for wisdom and clarity.