{"id":33955,"date":"2023-11-06T19:30:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T03:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33955"},"modified":"2023-11-06T19:26:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T03:26:00","slug":"how-to-avoid-becoming-a-religious-shopkeeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/how-to-avoid-becoming-a-religious-shopkeeper\/","title":{"rendered":"How to avoid becoming a religious shopkeeper"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the start of Jason Clark\u2019s dissertation is a question from Dan Kimball, referenced again in Clark\u2019s fifth chapter. Kimbal asks the question, \u201cHave we, over time and with good intentions and pure motivations, turned our churches into vendors of religious services and goods?\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the jumping off point for Clark\u2019s research, and the exploration quickly takes the reader into deep waters such as the symbiotic connection between Evangelicalism and free market enterprise (Bebbington), the \u201cchicken-egg\u201d question of Protestantism and capitalism (Weber), and the history, ubiquity, and ultimate potential tragedy of the economic culture the church currently swims in (Polanyi). But, regardless of how deep (or murky) the water of this research got, my thoughts kept drifting back to that first question, and now after getting a high-level view of the \u201cmaps\u201d that provided its context, I was happy to return to the question itself.<\/p>\n

That question did not appear in Vincent Miller\u2019s book \u201cConsuming Religion\u201d, but the book seemed to be pointing me back to it again and again. Soon after I started to read Miller\u2019s book, I got the sense that there was a double meaning involved in the title, and that both meanings underscored Kimball\u2019s inquiry:<\/p>\n

The first meaning is that the current state of the church often reflects a religion that becomes consumed as commodification\u2014that congregants are consuming their religion<\/em>. This reminds me of Eugene Peterson\u2019s frequent theme (found expanded in his books Working the Angles, The Pastor, <\/em>and others) that pastors must be careful to avoid becoming religious shopkeepers who \u201ckeep the budget growing, the building improving, and the congregation busy.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Being a dispenser of religious goods and services is easy to do[3]<\/a>, Peterson suggests, because we \u201cswim\u201d in a culture where people expect to get what they want or need out of their church experience to add to their lives, without considering the call to surrender their will, sacrifice their desires, and have transformed lives that are found in Christ alone.<\/p>\n

But if Christians have turned religion into a cafeteria where they choose what they want to eat, and leave the rest, the inverse is also true. The second meaning of the title Consuming Religion is that the religion<\/em> (church) itself has come to consume the congregants<\/em>, who have been turned into commodities.<\/p>\n

And while it\u2019s easy to use \u201creligion\u201d as a catch all, I\u2019m really pointing my finger at pastors, of which I am one.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve often decried the fact that social media companies have turned me<\/strong> into a commodity: The app (Facebook, Instagram, tic-toc) is not the product, my attention is the product that the apps are selling. This didn\u2019t start with social media. The retail\/marketing machine has long been vying for our attention, interest, money, and influence.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I have sometimes, unknowingly (hopefully \u201cwith good intentions and pure motivations\u201d) done the same thing with the people I shepherd, and those who are yet to join our church.<\/p>\n