{"id":21675,"date":"2019-02-21T08:54:07","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T16:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=21675"},"modified":"2019-02-21T08:54:26","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T16:54:26","slug":"consumerison-and-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/consumerison-and-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As a pastor and marketer, I find Vincent Miller\u2019s, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture<\/em>, fascinating on many levels. From the marketing perspective, it challenges the ethics of said industry when it comes to the commodification of religious symbols. Daryl McKee in the journal of marketing writes,<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Miller)<\/em> goes on to argue that this “practice of advertising,” with its emphasis on materiality and possession, contributes to social insecurity. Furthermore, by co-opting cultural symbols (e.g., the cross of Christianity, the yin -yang symbol of Taoism), commercial use diminishes the depth of meaning these forms have in their original context\u201d.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

In a world consumed by the spirit of capitalism with a profit as the end goal[2]<\/a>, those who market and consume the religious need to understand the history without eroding meaning in the commercial aspect.<\/p>\n

From the pastoral\/Christian leader perspective coming to grips with the customer culture and its influence is vital to freeing people from a false sense of fulfillment that can only be found in Christ. Phyllis Zagano in reviewing Miller’s work brings this to light in writing,<\/p>\n

This fourth chapter… presents the horrifying clear concept that the object of consumer desire is the sheer joy of desiring. Miller writes, \u201cConsumer desire is similar in form to traditional religious desires. It resembles more profound longings for transcendence, justice, and self-transformation enough to be able to absorb the concepts, values, and practices of religious traditions into its own forms without apparent conflict\u201d (144)[3]<\/a>, simply put the line between secular and scared has all but washed away. In much of what we call church we have replaced the one to be desired with desire itself. Miller himself notes, “far from being immune to the dynamics of commodification, religion is as susceptible to abstraction and reification as other aspects of culture.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

How does this relate to relational leadership and engaging the next generation with Spirit-led leadership? In his book, Meet Gen Z, <\/em> James Emery White talks about the impact of secularization. \"\"<\/a>He states, \u201cSecularization is the process by which something becomes secular. It is the cultural current making things secular\u201d[5]<\/a> he continues and says,\u00a0 \u201cfamed sociologist Peter Berger defined secularization as the process by which \u201csectors of society and culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols\u201d, this simply means that the church is losing its influence as a shaper of life and thought in the wider social order, and Christianity is losing its place as the dominant worldview.\u201d[6]<\/a> Both Miller and White have recognized that the relational aspect of symbols to the institution when removed lose their meaning and impact. One route that the next generation is taking is to embrace the call to reach culture rather than critique it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Take for example the fashion icon Jerry Lorenzo and his Fear of God company.[7]<\/a> Jerry grew up in a Christian household and graduate from a Christian school. With no formal training in the fashion industry, he was merely trying to fill a void and states, “West had a tremendous impact on Fear of God. \u201cThe best thing Kanye did for me was make \u2018Jesus Walks,\u2019\u201d Lorenzo adds. \u201cFear of God wouldn\u2019t be here if there wasn\u2019t a \u2018Jesus Walks. I was working at Diesel in Chicago at the time, and hearing this dude rap about Jesus, the way that he did, his delivery\u2026 \u2018Jesus Walks\u2019 changed my life.\u201d[8]<\/a> Now, if one were to listen to the song, Jesus Walks, it would not fit into the category of a worship song towards Jesus, but this “commodification” spoke to Jerry who also believes he is also influencing people in a like manner. The space in this blog does not afford the time to develop a theology of scared vs. secular, but I do think as leaders going forward, we need to preach more theological in order to reattach the symbols back to the institution. Can God use anything he wants to invite people to a relationship with him, yes, look no further than Paul at Mars Hill, put that unknown God sculptor was anchored in a theology of God not a commodification of God.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> McKee, Daryl.\u00a0Journal of Marketing<\/em>\u00a069, no. 4 (2005): 264-65. http:\/\/www.jstor.org.georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/stable\/30166569<\/a>. Emphasis added.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Weber, Max. Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus. Florence: Routledge, 2001. Accessed February 13, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central. 108-125.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Zagano, Phyllis. 2005. “Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture.”\u00a0Spiritus<\/em>\u00a05, no. 1: 119-122, https:\/\/georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/login?url=https:\/\/search-proquest-com.georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/docview\/217411359?accountid=11085<\/a>. 121.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Vincent J. Miller,\u00a0Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Continuum International, 2003), 105.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>\u00a0 White, James Emery. Meet Generation Z: Understanding and Reaching the New Post-Christian World (p. 28). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> www.fearofgod.com<\/a><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Sanchez, Karizza. \u201cGod’s Plan: How Jerry Lorenzo Went From Sports to Nightlife to Fashion’s Cult Favorite.\u201d\u00a0Complex. Last modified June 1, 2018. https:\/\/www.complex.com\/style\/2017\/03\/how-jerry-lorenzo-of-fear-of-god-became-fashions-cult-favorite.<\/p>\n

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  As a pastor and marketer, I find Vincent Miller\u2019s, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture, fascinating on many levels. From the marketing perspective, it challenges the ethics of said industry when it comes to the commodification of religious symbols. Daryl McKee in the journal of marketing writes, \u201cHe (Miller) goes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[571,539,551],"tags":[1096,1322,832],"class_list":["post-21675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography-drama-history","category-drama-sci-fi","category-thriller","tag-genz","tag-lgp9","tag-miller-consumer-religion","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21680,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21675\/revisions\/21680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}