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Bulletin 102 Date : 27th Jun 2007
Consumer Church

What would we do if they closed ASDA in West Bridgford? Where would we do our shopping? Where could we go to ensure that we get the wide selection of food? Where could we go to ensure we don’t have to pay more money for our weekly shopping? Where could we go for the cheapest petrol?

Well, the answer is simple – we’d go to Morrisons in Gamston. The truth is we go to ASDA, not because it’s ASDA, but because they are cost-effective and have all we want. There are some occasions however when they have run out of some of our favourite items – particularly those yummy Leibniz dark chocolate biscuits. Not to worry because the COOP always stock those!

In other words, it’s all about consumerism. These large stores will survive, not because of who they are, but because of what they provide to the consumer, plus the convenience of having everything under one roof. Another factor in all of this is that the smaller shops, especially in villages, are unable to survive. Post Offices will inevitably close because they have no unique selling point any more.

Is church going this way? Have British Christians become consumers in terms of church-going? Are we seeing smaller churches struggling to survive, just like the smaller shops, because of competition from their larger neighbours? Has the competitive, consumerist attitude of retailing taken a hold in our churches?

Let’s flip the coin over and approach it from the other side. All shops are now having to take seriously the issue of Trade Justice and are falling over each other to be the ‘greenest’ and ‘fairest’ around. It’s no coincidence, in my view, that ASDA’s façade is so green. What this means, however, is that shops are becoming more aware of their responsibilities to those less fortunate than people like me. That’s good! Consumers are also far more discerning about what they buy and they look out for the ‘Fair Trade’ symbol or the ‘Tractor’ on the milk. We’re slowly learning that in a fiercely competitive and consumer-driven world, someone else pays the price – it’s either someone who lives on the other side of the world who is paid a pittance or someone nearby who does things on a smaller scale but with equal conviction.

The church needs always to take its lead from Jesus and in Luke 4:18-19 (quoting from Isaiah), when he laid out his manifesto, Jesus put as a priority those who were disadvantaged, not those who had influence, spending power and perfect health. The New Century Version translates part of this as, “God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly”.

Much of my work involves supporting church leaders who are not only battered by the secularisation of society, the deep cynicism towards religion and the diminishing finances of their church but who are struggling to hold on to their best leaders after spending years nurturing them. The late Donald English, speaking at the first ever Easter People 20 years ago was speaking about the death of Jesus. He said that Jesus demonstrated how to “exert power powerlessly”.

Long live the church that says ‘no’ to consumerism. Long live the church that affirms and supports the weak and disadvantaged and which has a mission statement similar to that of Luke 4:18-19.