Saturday, July 09, 2005
CHURCH HOPPING
One of the troubling realities confronting Christians in our time is the prevalence of self-centered consumer Christianity. We choose churches, for example, in much the same way we choose television programs and fast food restaurants.
When things do not go according to our liking at one church, we uproot and seek another church more in line with our personal preferences, rather than work through significant life issues with the people God has placed in our lives. In an excellent article in Christianity Today ("Suburban Spirituality," July 2003), David Goetz points out: "What I perceive to be my needs ... may not correspond to my true spiritual needs.... Thinking that I know my true spiritual needs is arrogant and narcissistic. Staying put as a life practice allows God's grace to work on the unsanded surfaces of my inner life." In similar fashion, a Methodist pastor writes: "Often God calls us to do things that are very far from what we would choose to do for ourselves. As a pastor, I have been very impressed with those people in the parishes I have served who informed me that they were not in the church because they liked it, but because God called them to be there. Given their choice they would have gone somewhere much more in line with their particular taste in music or worship style or even pastoral leadership. Instead, they prized faithfulness to God's call above bowing to the despotism of their 'felt needs.' And, as a result, they were supernaturally blessed and fulfilled beyond what following their own desires could ever achieve" (Benjamin S. Sharpe, Jr., "Overcoming Consumer Christianity," Orthovox: An Online Journal of Classic Ecumenical Christianity, June 2003, 8).
In an era when consumer Christianity rules the day and church hopping is commonplace, we do well to recover the Trinity as our model for church life. Loving fellowship and commitment characterize the Persons of the Godhead--Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Loving fellowship and commitment should also characterize the people of God.
