I am chewing on some excellent food from Alan Hirsch’s book, Forgotten Ways. He asserts that we have cultivated a consumerist approach to Christianity and that our typical church models feed this consumer mentality.
Sound harsh? Didn’t church-growth proponents explicitly teach us to mimic the shopping mall and apply it to the church? In this they were sincere, but they must have been unaware of the ramifications of this approach, because in the end the medium always becomes the message. They were unaware of the latent virus in the model itself—that of consumerism and the sins of the middle class. Much of what can be tagged “consumerist middle class” is built on the ideals of comfort and convenience (consumerism), and of safety and security (middle class).
Hirsch goes on to present three diagrams, displaying different church shapes, and the ramifications of these shapes.
The most traditional church looks like this:
Obviously, as Hirsch points out in the diagram, there is physical space for no more that 5% of the church to be active in the gathering. He goes on to point out that "the vast majority of the church is passive in the equation. They are in a receptive mode and basically receive the services offered. That is, they are basically consumptive. They come to ‘get fed.’”
As church-growth models encouraged a more contemporary approach with inspiring music and excellent preaching, churches were built looking like this:
Even so, 90% of the church is on the receiving end. The church is still a “service provider, a vendor of religious goods and services.”
Hirsch, offering his own confession, did his best to move his church away from monological sermons to dialogical discussions. They put couches in semicircles and pop art over the walls. “But in the end all we had succeeded in doing was making 20 percent of the community active in ministry, while leaving about 80 percent passive and consumptive. The result is this diagram:
Hirsch reflects on the need for the church to move out of its institutional forms in order to involve and engage every member. But reader take note! This book does far more than simply challenge that we simplify church or make church more organic and interactive. Hirsch is convinced that we are missing the mark if we are not becoming truly missional people and truly missional communities:
The absolutely vital issue for newer emerging churches will be their capacity to become genuinely missional. If they fail to make this shift, then they too will be another readjustment of Christendom. A mere fad.
We have often asserted that house church / simple church is far more than simplifying structures, rather it is the re-awareness of what it means to be the church—dynamic followers of Jesus in every moment and situation of life. In keeping with this, Hirsch offers a very rich description of what it means to live fully in God’s missional adventure.
More to come…
Comments
5 responses to “Hirsch: From Consumerism to Missional Adventure”
roger,
You have written about Consumerism and Church in your post. Consumerism has changed everything – our Culture, Lifestyle, Religion, Faith and Spirituality. Religion, Faith and Spirituality require Simplicity and Slowness – They cannot exist in a Fast, Consumerist World. In this context I want to post a part from my article which examines the impact of speed, overstimulation, consumerism and industrialization on our minds and environment. Please read.
The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.
The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature.
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.
Subject : In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
Subject : A thinking mind cannot feel.
Subject : Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys the planet.
Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.
If there are no gaps there is no emotion.
Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.
When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.
There comes a time when there are almost no gaps.
People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.
Emotion ends.
Man becomes machine.
A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.
Fast visuals/ words make slow emotions extinct.
Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys emotional circuits.
A fast (large) society cannot feel pain / remorse / empathy.
A fast (large) society will always be cruel to Animals/ Trees/ Air/ Water/ Land and to Itself.
To read the complete article please follow any of these links :
http://www.planetsave.com/ps_mambo/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=75&func=view&id=68&catid=6
http://www.ephilosopher.com/bb-topic-244.html
sushil_yadav
Roger–Thank you for your thoughtful posts on these subjects that so many of us are struggling with. I think it’s true that the church has adopted a consumerist mindset. In fact, I don’t think most American Christians can even conceive of any other way to think or behave. A missional lifestyle may sound good but I’m not sure many Christians (myself included) have a really good idea about what that means.
I’m finding that many of us who are involved in house churches still have this mindset. As a result, a house church meeting can become a lot like a typical church service, with a few people leading and everyone else enjoying the show.
Thankfully, God has been graciously changing me and a lot of people. It will take a real work of the Holy Spirit to change the mindset of the church…
Richard
Interesting. . .
I strongly believe that God is/has/is going to use all models of the church. There are those that can only be reached in the audience. There is a place for all of the diverse styles. Do I think that overall, “big church” is a shallow machine that feeds the shallow masses? Yes. But I also know that it is a starting place for many who would otherwise not be reached.
I think in the end (times, that is), “big church” will fail as society becomes more hostile toward the faith. I see tax exempt statuses being yanked one day, which would almost immediately cause the mega church movement to be a thing of the past.
I just don’t want to see anyone thinking they have “the” answer. God is big and smarter than we are. He’s doing things in this time that matter…and He’s doing them in lots of places that don’t matter to any of us.
What an excellent diagram. Good food for thought.
It is possible to get more participation from chair instead of the traditional pews?
Great post, I enjoy the site. I too have been working through the Hirsch book with a group of folks for the past couple of months.