Confronting the Bondage of Consumerism

According to the American Banker’s Association, the average family today carries $8,000 in credit card debt. While you may or may not personally carry any debt, such a number exposes the culture of American consumerism in which we live and are influenced by. Unfortunately, this consumer mentality overflows into our marriages, friendships and churches. We view these relationships merely as a means of pleasing ourselves, and when they fail to satisfy, they become disposable, or at least unworthy of our effort. We approach them with the mentality of, “What’s in it for me,” rather than, “What can I give.”

I want to look specifically at how our consumer-driven hearts affect our Sunday mornings experience at New Hope. One of the ugliest fruits of consumerism I see in my own heart is an attitude which is more concerned whether or not the service is pleasing to me, rather than whether or not the service is pleasing to God. While such an attitude is extremely destructive, and indeed an occasion for repentance, I want to focus more on the consumerism that is evident before and after the service.

With one question, I want to briefly examine the fifteen minutes of your life directly after the benediction this past Sunday and see if we can identify any signs of consumerism that you may need to repent of and change. The question is simply this: “Who were you scanning the church for?” There are obviously many answers, but most likely, we would say our friends, or our family, or someone we needed to do business with, or the pastor, or maybe we just jetted for the door so we wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. Why do we all flee to our “comfort zones?” Because we are trained to be consumers and thus we are trained to fulfill our own desires above others’ needs.

I want to encourage you to change your vision before and after church by seeking out those that are new, those that are emotionally and spiritually needy, those that maybe you feel awkward around, those that have been here for three years but you still forget their name. Somebody, please seek out that guy standing by the hangers waiting for his wife to finish her conversation so he can leave. Step out of your “comfort zone,” stick your hand out to them, get to know them, invite them over to your house for a meal and love them as a person who is so precious to God that He would sacrifice His only Son.

Some times we try to excuse ourselves from reaching out to others: “I’m shy;” “I’m an introvert;” “I’m new here;” “I’m the one that should be pursued;” “I’m….;” And while all these things may be true of you, Romans 15:7 commands all of us, “Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” Did you know that Jesus Christ left the ultimate “comfort zone” to pursue you? He traded the worship of angels to be spit on by men because He so passionately loves you and wants to welcome you into His family. Therefore we are commanded to glorify God by doing the same and by welcoming others into this family of Jesus Christ at New Hope.

I had a friend visit New Hope a few weeks back and I asked him, “Did anyone say, ‘Hi’ to you?” He responded very gently, “Only if I was in their way.” I am convinced we should never cease to be a church plant. What I mean is each of us should always feel the responsibility to reach out and to welcome others in order to build up Christ’s church. I’m also convinced that if we were obedient to Romans 15:7, we could eliminate the need for assigned greeters, because all of us would receive visitors “for the glory of God”. And finally, I’m convinced that we must be counter-cultural because we have been freed from the bondage of consumerism by a God who has provided for all our needs. He has done this by first reaching out to us with the most amazing display of love the world has ever seen, the Cross of Jesus Christ.