What are you building?-Consumerism in the Church

By Jeff Purswell

I recently recalled a jarring conversation with some folks whom I barely knew, but who shocked me in their statements about the church. Let me lay it out.

We were discussing a particularly good teacher, and their knowledge of him from his earliest days in their home church. Let's call him Bill. Bill moved across town and became one of the most popular teachers of an adult class in another church -- so much so that the class met in the largest room in that new church he was part of.

These folks tracked with Bill and were glad he was doing well -- and then their pastor, also a great teacher, retired. They had been in the church for twenty years -- what were they to do? They said they began to attend this other church because Bill was such a good teacher. I inquired about someone I knew who was one of the pastors in that church and they said, "Oh, we just went to the Sunday school class, we did not attend the worship or join the church."

So -- they were members of church A for twenty years and were no longer attending there because their favorite teacher had left -- they were now attending a Sunday school class in church B, but not members or participating in the worship of that church. They were under the oversight of elders in one church, attending a class in another church -- and all this without a second thought.

I was stunned -- it took me back to the years I spent in contexts where the church was seen as a vendor providing services. Oh, no one would ever say that -- but because they attended one church (because their friends were there), their teenagers attended another church (because the music was cool), and they were part of a Bible study or AWANA in another church (because it met their needs), that was, in essence, what they were saying. In other words, it was all about their needs.

The power of choice rested with them as consumers and there was no sense of the glory of a local church as a visible expression of the bride of Christ.

It took me to this simple question: what were they building? Christians who function this way are not building anything. They are attenders and consumers, and sadly may not have been instructed in the heart of God for the local church. They have been poorly taught, so poorly that they think nothing of this odd mix of oversight, attendance, and lack of cohesiveness.

I would not ask that question of you about why you eat at a local restaurant. You are not called to build the restaurant's business -- you are a consumer. But the church is not a local business. It is the body of Christ. We are called to invest our gifts and service and love and relationships in one local assembly until such time as that assembly has deviated doctrinally or morally such that I can no longer be edified there. Churches are not personality cults.

Here is a question that came to mind: Are you part of building a church, or are you expecting someone to provide a church for you? The correct biblical answer is that we are all called to be part of building a church -- a church is not a vendor providing "church services" to the consumer -- it is living stones together building a local expression of the body of Christ. Where are you building?