Listening to Public Radio International’s business journal Marketplace last week, I heard a brief commentary that challenged me on a seemingly harmless practice that many of us have adopted as a normal part of our daily lives–drinking bottled water. The commentator, Benjamin Barber, says capitalism is fine and good when it effectively combines altruistic service to others with self-interested entrepreneurialism (i.e., meeting a real need and making a buck while doing it). But in recent times, he suggests, our capitalism has become more about creating new markets by manufacturing artificial needs. And one of these “manufactured needs,” he contends, is the $10 billion bottled water industry. Sadly, hardly any of that money makes its way to Third World countries that don’t have the luxury of unpolluted water out of a faucet. He uses Starbucks’s Ethos water (sold at $2 per bottle) as a sobering example of how backward things have gotten. I encourage you to check out his commentary.
Barber got me to thinking about the ways we have allowed our consumerist culture to lure us into unnecessary purchases by convincing us that they’re an essential part of our lives today. In his new book, Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole, he argues that consumer culture has turned adult citizens into children by catering to our narcissistic desires and conditioning us to passionately embrace certain brands and products as a necessary part of our lifestyles.
The consumerization of the church has been talked about ad nauseam, but Barber’s thesis challenged me to think about it from a fresh angle. I wonder, what kinds of unnecessary products and practices in our contemporary Christian culture have we embraced as a necessary part of our spiritual lives? And how might these things be hindering us from seeing—and then responding to—the more urgent needs around us? What’s more, how might these things be blocking us from pursuing true reconciliation in the body of Christ?
I heard a similar piece on Water Day about businesses stopping their bottled water consumption and restaurants halting their sales of bottled water.
You pose a great question for me to wrestle seriously with!
My first thought is that having a church building is seen by many as essential to their spiritual lives. I was on staff at a young church plant and I can’t tell you how many people asked when we were going to build a building as though we weren’t a church until we did. I’ve also heard and experienced some of the distraction and hinderences to being outward focused that comes with a buiilding that has made me wonder if we would be better off renting schools and using local theater’s as many churches do for their first years (though that comes with its own set of distractions and hinderences).
Honestly, I think small groups — which are the primary focus/engine of many evangelical churches today — is a huge distraction from the bigger issues the Church should be grappling with. Most small groups are artificially created, and yet the pressure to be a “productive member” of one is highly valued in most churches. And most small groups in most churches are remarkably homogenous. Where’s the diversity and reconciliation? In nice, friendly, comfortable, artifically-generated, homogenous small groups there’s just not much motivation and impetus for pursuing reconciliation or social justice.
Steve–
That’s an interesting comment about small groups. I agree that we have created these hermetically sealed homogenous groups that are safe, comfortable and hinder our ability to have an impact on the “real” world. I hope that the small group isn’t the problem; we need to be outward in our focus for real reconciliation to occur.
I think that the Church as a whole has propagated a message that God exists merely to bless us and meet our desires (needs?) and that has hindered the real work that God wants to do in and through our lives. Someone once said that all error begins with misunderstanding the character of God; if we truly knew the heart of God, we would realize that our obsession with prosperity, materialism and blessings, we would see the power of God to exercise justice and reconciliation in a dying world.
Grace & Peace,
Ed C
I remember reading a Christian Century article a few weeks back about Christians who were taking on the issue of bottled water as a social justice issue, that instead of buying bottled water Christians should be working for clean water in communities around the world. Makes me think about all the styrofoam coffee cups that get used in thousands of churches every Sunday, or all the plasticware and plates used at every potluck . . . it would be nice to recover the practice of breaking bread together and mealmaking rather than mere commodity consumption.
I agree that the root is our understanding (or misunderstanding) of the character of God and His heart. Great point!
I can’t help but think that the purpose of small groups and the church is to point people to God and an a deeper knowledge of His heart and then to live out that heart in the world. Sadly as Steve pointed out in many churches the focus in small groups is merely inward. And, sadly many churches even struggle to do a good job at that!
Makes me ask the quesitons – in what ways can we nourish deep relationship, reconciliation, and outward focus other than in small groups? If we do have small groups how can we make them a place where this happens? Would love to hear any thoughts!
How about all the retreats, seminars, growth books, Christian concerts, t-shirts, ties, etc.?
I disagree with the small group issue; the intent of small groups is discipleship, and then community and becoming missional, but discipleship only happens one-on-one or in those intimate settings.
I actually think the regurgitated theology and leadership issues put forth in today’s “Christian” books and devotionals is laughable. Most are rebadged and seem only to be intended to pad the earnings of the authors. I often feel there is no intent towards discipleship or growth.
I’ve been reading Sacred Rhythms, and though I really LOVE it, I have to say that I had a similar reaction at the beginning… it struck me that sometimes the whole “reach towards God thing” is just another way to consume. I wondered if being deeply engaged in vital, non-consumer living might fill us in unexpected ways, resulting in a more seamless relationship with our Creator.