The commodification of church
I live in a world of religious commodification and it has birthed the fruit of abstraction and ultimately spawned fragmentation. In my world, ‘community’ has become ‘community groups’, following Jesus has become ‘service projects’ and knowing God has become an hour on Sunday. It’s as though some malevolent force said, “Let’s rethink church” that thriving Jesus movement; that living organism – the church; let’s deconstruct it and remake it. Let’s make it more of an organization so we can manipulate it, manage it and, of course, market it; let’s make it less of a living organism, that’s too unmanageable. In Acts 2, we see a simple church with teaching and prayer; fellowship and service. But let’s ‘rethink church’ anyway.[1]
America has a culture of consumption; we’ve built our economy around it. The philosophy and principles of our consumer system enter into our everyday thinking and, therefore, show up in our practices and behaviors. Vincent Miller’s book “Consuming Religion: Religious Belief And Practice In A Consumer Culture” is about how religious belief and practice is influenced by consumer capitalism, or said more bluntly, how “consumer culture transforms religious belief.”[2] Commodification, for example, is transforming goods, services, as well as, ideas that may not be considered goods into a commodity.[3] Miller would argue that commodification is further facilitated by abstraction. Abstraction is “disentangling religious symbols from their roots in living communities and traditions”[4] this effectively makes them less meaningful but easier for the masses to appropriate and consume. Mother Theresa, for example is a great inspiration of Christian service to the world’s poorest people. Her popularity has been exploited into a commodity. Her image gets reproduced en masse on tee shirts worn by young Americans inspired by her life.[5] They appeal to her work and denounce ‘American materialistic lifestyles’ as they drink their Starbucks while listening to music on their iPhones. This may not seem too bad, until we recognize that with Mother Theresa’s commodification also comes the abstraction. These young advocates aren’t necessarily committed to the sacrificial service Mother Theresa actually advanced. Few would live as simply as the poor in India, without clean running water, without air conditioning in the midst of sweltering heat. Few would sacrifice even the convenience of their laundry machines or their lattes, as the sisters of charity do. They like the idea of her sacrificial service, not necessarily the reality of it. These young fans grasp onto an ‘abstraction’ effectively holding a lie, fragmentation occurs, it’s no longer rooted in the biblical tradition of Christ washing his disciples’ feet, giving us an example to follow, nor the recent example of sacrificial service by the sisters of charity.
I don’t want to think about this! It hits too close to home. For example, our church, like others, promotes ‘genuine relationships’ as a primary dynamic of what it means to be like Jesus. From a Trinitarian view we see community in the Godhead, we remind folks that Jesus summarizes the entire law in the Great Commandment, which is our relational calling to love God supremely and to love others.[6] Yet hasn’t community become a commodity at church? Haven’t we, knowing all-too-well that relationships are important but messy, troublesome and hard to manage; haven’t we created a small group culture where people can select their ‘community group’ like a product off the shelf? “Oh for this go around I’ll pick a group near my house, or a topic that helps me be a better parent”. By the way, if for any reason your community group doesn’t work for you, “no worries” just pick another one next time. We’ve made genuine, loving relationship with other brothers and sisters in Christ into a commodity. Because we’ve made it into a product, we’ve added the abstraction that these groups are supposed do something for you (consumer satisfaction) and if it’s not what you want – just buy another. The commodification of community, as well as the abstraction of it into a product designed to ‘meet your needs’, results in the loss, or the fragmentation, of the very thing we long for in the first place: genuine loving relationships.
Where do we go from here? The dynamics of commodification are about believing a twist. When it comes to the church, the enemy takes good, God-given desires like ‘loving relationships’ and ‘sacrificial service’ and he twists them. He deconstructs the life out of it and offers up a lifeless version for us to busy ourselves with. At least part of the answer has to do with my own brokenness, my own humility. The things of the Lord (like worship, genuine relationships and service) won’t become a commodity for my use or a product to consume if I genuinely believe that neither God nor His people are for my use, my purposes or for my consumption. When they become this, it is nothing less than idolatry.
[1] Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)
[2] Vincent J. Miller, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2005), 15.
[3] This includes money itself, human beings, and the natural environment, which are not goods or services, let alone commodities. See Karl Polanyi, “The Self-Regulating Market”, page 40 in Economics as a Social Science, 2nd edn, 2004.
[4] Lluís Oviedo, review of Consuming Religion, by Vincent J. Miller, Catholic Book Review: 1, accessed March 15, 2015, http://catholicbooksreview.org/2004/miller.htm.
[5] David Taylor, “Review of Vincent Miller’s *consuming Religion*,” Diary of an Arts Pastor (blog), March 27, 2010, accessed March 15, 2015, http://artspastor.blogspot.com/2010/03/review-of-vincent-millers-consuming.html.
[6] Matt. 22:34-40 (NIV)
About the Author
Dave Young
husband, dad, friend, student of culture and a pastor.7 responses to “The commodification of church”
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Dave, you had so many great observations, it’s hard to drill down into just one but I will try… Your observation that our institutional attempts at re (re, re, re, re)-thinking and recreating “community” was cuttingly insightful. We know what we need — authentic relationship — yet in our attempts to access it, we turn it into a commodity, thereby effectively rejecting the authentic relationship we so deeply desire. I can’t truly claim “Community” if my end goal is really just to extract FROM you. Your comments about community “not working for you” so just shop for another one are alarming. Alarming, but undeniably true, and sobering. In a macro sense, this is also the general perspective of western Christians when it comes to their church of choice.
Step up to the counter, survey the menu, make your selection, pay on your way out…
j
Dave,
Thats a good point. And there are a lot of churches who have a Masters Degree in doing things that are not genuine just to get more members. I know of a church who will do anything in front of people just to make them think they are one way and they are not. They will twist things to make people happy and not question their motives when their real intentions are not real at all. We live in this time and its up to God given people who are not up to tricks to get members and followers!
Dave, Really great, painfully convicting post. Your community group example is all too familiar in my circles and I will be pondering your last line for awhile. “The things of the Lord (like worship, genuine relationships and service) won’t become a commodity for my use or a product to consume if I genuinely believe that neither God nor His people are for my use, my purposes or for my consumption. When they become this, it is nothing less than idolatry.” Truth…good stuff.
I wish we understood more about the Acts 2 church. I’m not sure it’s was as simple as we think it was but we have a lot to learn from that first church.
Great post Dave. Even though we recognize commodification in our churches, it is so hard to address it and correct it. It seems we have created a monster. Many people came to the church during the “seeker-sensitive” movement. Church experience was designed around what they wanted; from music to preaching, from parking to seating, and everything in-between, it was all about them and their desires. Now we are trying to tell them that it should not be all about them and their preferences. It’s like the old bait-and-switch, but they’re not biting. When we market the church to consumers, we end up with a consumer church. Go figure!
“The things of the Lord (like worship, genuine relationships and service) won’t become a commodity for my use or a product to consume if I genuinely believe that neither God nor His people are for my use, my purposes or for my consumption.” Your word “genuinely” served as a trigger for me – I’m not sure I ever know if I’m genuinely believing. But I do know that I am asked to confess before God when these things become an idol, as you say. For now, as we continue to wade through this teasing apart of consumerism and the church, I know I’ve been doing a lot of confession. And interestingly enough, I find more integration rather than fragmentation (as you mentioned initially in your post).
You definitely call it out – a prophet shepherd.
Dave, I appreciate your insights this week. My thoughts have focused on the impact that commodification has had on people and the environment, and how it has changed the church. Your post took me in another direction, to the concept of place and experience.
The identity and definition of community has certainly shifted over the course of my own lifetime. It seems people seek relationships with the expectation of something in return. When their expectations aren’t met, they simply move on. Expectations are often based on false ideas propagated within our consumer driven society. They don’t easily trust a community, and then have very high expectations of value they expect to gain in return for participation.
My parent’s generation has been more likely to stay in one place, and some have even attended one or two churches over their lifetime. They have established groups of friends who endure year over year. They have an established place where relationships are grown and nurtured. Even the majority of their neighbors have been in the same home 30+ years. My own generation tends to wander, without a place and often without an established wide network of close friends who are always nearby and ready to support.
Dave, “I don’t want to think about this!” I am with you. Consumerism and commodification are so pervasive in our world today. It is mind boggling and I am with you on the feeling guilty for my contribution. Part of me is wondering if some part of our desire for more is of God. Obviously wanting and desiring more of God is the Sunday school answer, but what about the fruits of the spirit and like the fruits of ministry, even contentment. What if we experience a little contentment and suddenly want more of that. I know that desire and wanting cross a line in us on a regular basis, but where is that line. Is it really only God and God alone that we can want more of? If it is, what does that look like? Good post. Deep thinking.