{"id":25826,"date":"2020-02-10T16:07:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T00:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=25826"},"modified":"2020-02-10T16:07:04","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T00:07:04","slug":"in-the-market-for-a-new-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/in-the-market-for-a-new-church\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Market for a New Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of his dissertation, Evangelicalism and Capitalism,<\/em> Dr. Jason Clark asks this question: \u201cHas my church, and my Evangelical kin, become captive to a mode of \u2018dispensing religious goods and services\u2019 to consuming participants?\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Recently I have had several conversations with my housemates about what we have been studying in regards to capitalism and Evangelicalism.\u00a0 While on the train with one of them, we began to discuss the consumeristic nature we have seen within the church.\u00a0 Both of us have struggled in the last several years to find a church that we feel like we truly belong to, but have settled on the respective churches we attend (for better or worse; almost as if it\u2019s the best of a group of not so good options).\u00a0 However, it is how we arrived at our respective churches that has caused me to reflect on how we choose a church.<\/p>\n

Whether we realize it or not, the church tries to sell Jesus.\u00a0 If the church is often run as a business \u2013with the pastor as the CEO \u2013 Jesus is the product it is selling.\u00a0 We do this through programs, through outreaches, etc.\u00a0 Different denominations\/people try to market Jesus in different ways: Jesus as Lord, Jesus as the ticket to heaven, Jesus as your friend, Jesus would smoke weed with you, etc.\u00a0 The question I ask is whether or not our \u201cmarket Jesus\u201d is true to the accounts of Jesus within Scripture.\u00a0 Do we make or portray Jesus in our <\/em>image?\u00a0 Or do we echo Jesus\u2019 words in John 1:39: \u201cCome and you will see?\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps one of the biggest metaphors we hear within the Christian context is the notion of \u201cchurch shopping.\u201d\u00a0 By \u201cchurch shopping,\u201d I am talking about the process by which people will visit various churches in order to find one that suits their needs\/wants\/desires.\u00a0 What I find interesting is how the church itself has become a commodity.\u00a0 We want the next best thing when it comes to our churches.\u00a0 Have an old, tired out pastor?\u00a0 \u201cWell, if we get some fiery young blood behind the pulpit, we\u2019ll increase our attendance!\u201d\u00a0 This church just has an old pipe organ.\u00a0 \u201cWell, the church next door has a fog machine, strobe lights, and full band!\u201d\u00a0 What we tend to find is that there are bits and pieces of different churches that we like and those that we dislike.\u00a0 More often than not, we choose a church based on what we perceive we need or<\/em> where we feel we may not be noticed and can consume what is being offered there.<\/p>\n

For myself, when I first moved to Hong Kong I was attending Church A (I\u2019ll remit the names of the various churches).\u00a0 I attended Church A because, at the time, my housemates all attended this church, so it made sense to go there as well.\u00a0 Here I found a strong community among the young adults and was quickly brought into the fold.\u00a0 However, the church itself had many issues that would ultimately lead the small group I attended to migrate to Church B.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 At Church B, I still had a strong community and the music was great, but in regards to preaching I found it did not stimulate me.\u00a0 After discussing this with my mentor, he suggested a third church.\u00a0 As Church B met on Saturday nights, it wasn\u2019t an issue to attend Church C on Sunday mornings, where I found the preaching to be something that spoke to my soul.\u00a0 Add to this that I was still serving with the youth group at Church A once a month, I had a full church rotation.<\/p>\n

To summarize, there were specific things each church produced that I was picking and choosing for the \u201cbest church experience\u201d:<\/p>\n