Is a Great Commission Resurgence Possible? Making Disciples in a Consumer's Paradise

How do you call people to forsake all and follow Christ when they are preprogrammed to focus on getting their own perceived needs met? In calling the church to be missional and engage in a Great Commission Resurgence, we are facing some huge obstacles. We, by and large, are not dealing with disciples of Christ that are willing to follow Jesus if just given some motivation, training, and leadership. Rather, we are dealing with Christians that have plunged their roots deep into the soil of consumerism. Choice. Preference. Freedom. Desire. Pleasure. Comfort. Ease. All of this is mixed up together in one big stew and served hot off the stove of the American Church. We call it "Grace" and the "Love of God" and people are eating it up. Instead of being a justified sinner who seeks to be conformed to the image of Christ through taking up our cross and following Jesus, we are causing people to think that their lifestyle, whatever it may be, is justified because God loves them. Change is not necessary because I am loved just like I am. Well, that is true, in a sense, but the real truth is that God loves us too much to leave us like we are. He has better plans for us.

Are we self-focused or Christ-focused?  I think that makes all the difference. If self-focused, then we are only going to do what gives us pleasure and satisfies us. We will seek God so that He will meet our needs. If Christ-focused, then we will follow Jesus because we want to know Him - we have nowhere else to go - and we will be conformed to His image no matter the cost. We seek God because He is worthy and glorious and because He requires our allegiance.

It is difficult to make disciples in a culture where most people's view of spirituality focuses more on self-actualization than self-denial.  Where we, as Christians, have capitulated to that thinking, we are in shape to effectively call people to a missional lifestyle. They have to know the real Jesus for that, not the plastic one.

Skye Jethani in the latest issue of Leadership (Spring '09) says this in his article "Stranded in Neverland": 

Given the extent to which American Christianity has adopted the methodology of consumerism by appealing to and rewarding desires, euphemistically referred to as "felt needs," we shouldn't be surprised at the spiritual immaturity evident in the church. To believe that employing consumer values in the church will produce spiritually mature Christians is delusional thinking akin to expecting a dog to hatch from a chicken's egg.

The problem is that by focusing first and foremost on self, we aim too low and miss God completely. If we try and satisfy ourself, we are limited in our ability to do anything for ourself - it all falls apart. But, if we focus on God, bow before Him, and serve Him alone, then the other things that we put aside to seek Him get taken care of. God does meet our needs, but only as we seek Him first. He is supreme, not us.

Jethani goes on to refer to C.S. Lewis' famous "mud pie in a slum" analogy from The Weight of Glory when he says,

The dilemma posed by consumerism, including the Christian variety, is not the endless manufacturing of deisres, but the temptation to settle for desires far below what we were created for. The forces of marketing have captured our imaginations and convinced us to desire mud pies and sneer at the possibility that even greater pleasures exist. We have been re-programmed to desire immediate satisfaction rather than infinite satisfaction. We do not desire too much, but too little.

Only God can satisfy. He alone is good. When we look to Him for everything, all of our deepest needs are met. When we walk with Him, bondages are loosed, addictions are removed, chains are broken. We become whole and begin to live the way that God intended. As we look to Him day by day and moment by moment, we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and we encounter far more in Christ than we could ever imagine. Consumerism tells us that our deepest pleasures are to be found in this world and in our own ability to acquire them ourselves.  Hmmm. Sounds like Adam and Eve in the Garden, doesn't it? Blaise Pascal talked about the folly of diversion and how we seek to numb the ache of the emptiness of our soul by engaging in trivial diversions to take our minds off things. But, Christ is real. He steps into our hurt, pain, loneliness, and everyone one of our needs and does His work of restoration. That is what the Cross is all about. Healing doesn't always happen the way we want. We have to lay our lives down to experience Him in a meaningful way. But, He is so much better than what this world offers.

A consumer approach to Christianity doesn't work. The problem is, so much of our discipleship models and so many of our churches are based on this fallacy because we went running after the world. If we really call for a Great Commission Resurgence, then how much of the false structure will have to come down?  How much will have to be uprooted and replaced with a simple devotion to Christ?

This will be interesting. Many doubt that it is possible. The only way that it can happen is if we start making disciples again. Or, if we first become a disciple of Christ ourselves.

"Wherever He leads I'll go . . . "

Comments

[Chris Gilliam]

You've been reading my prayer journal.

[Mich]

Terrific post--but how DO we get beyond Consumerism and out the other side? How can we teach/preach this Christian maturity in a PostModern World?

Isn't one of the root causes that we over emphasize getting saved at the expense of our walk with Christ--pick up your Cross and follow Him?

[Alan Cross]

Mich,

I'm sure that you won't see this comment, but I thought I'd leave it anyway. You have been asking some interesting questions about our understanding of salvation. I have been thinking along the same lines. Salvation is much more than just praying a prayer. I think that we have a lot of confusion in the American church on this point and it is killing us.