I am reading with great relish Skye Jethani's The Divine Commodity. I am reading it with relish and a consumptive attitude even though the subtitle is "Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity." The irony of it all!
And I find it a great and wonderful read, not because it challenges me, not because it confounds me and not because it causes me to think. Mainly I am enthralled by it because it affirms all that I know and believe about the mystery and wonder of the Church.
And my lament over where we find ourselves today.
One of the quotes that I keep reading over and over:
The influence of consumerism has led us to confuse institutions for people, means for mission, and programs for the Spirit's power. (p.103)
(I should have written that! Or maybe I did somewhere else. Or what I said was really close!)
I am so concerned about the whole reification process in the church over the last 50+ years. The church rather than being mysteriously a united body of different parts joined spiritually to the Head - Christ Himself - has become a lumbering institution of programs and attractional strategies that somehow are supposed to induce spirituality.
"Come. Sit. Watch. Listen. Give. It will make you spiritual."
But then if skipping hell "making heaven our home" and getting our great Care-giver in the sky to meet out needs (read that "wants")becomes the goal, what else can we expect?
Forgive me. But read the book.
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