WOW!

I was perusing a book today given to me by our Children’s Ed coordinator entitled: First Impressions: Creating Wow Experiences in Your Church. The author is Mark L. Waltz, Pastor of Connections at Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana. Reading the title, I initially thought, “Here we go. Another book that encourages the church to offer the commodity ‘Jesus’ the same way other businesses offer their wares.” I’ve been reading books like this right now as I study ways to develop a welcoming/outreach ministry at our church. But the first chapter, entitled “Reflections of a Consumer” intrigued me. Waltz states, “The church is not called to be the catering, whim-granting marketplace of the twenty-first century” (10). Right on, I thought. But he continues on to say that since consumerism is the stew that people are swimming in, that’s where we have to begin. The church, he says, is competing with other businesses for the attention of people. We want to offer them Jesus. So we need to do it in a way that blows these other businesses out of the water. “There are winners and losers,” Waltz writes. “If your church is going to be effective, then you must beat the competition, pure and simple. You must find out who the competition is, what it is doing, and how to win its consumers to your church” (17). To offer biblical reinforcement, Waltz turns to Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 (Mark 6:34-44). Even though the people were coming out of a consumer desire—to have their spiritual and physical needs met—Jesus lavished good gifts on them. “He didn’t seem to worries that their motives where self-serving” (16).

Doesn’t this water down the Gospel? “Is it possible,” he writes, “that the church will somehow communicate a value system of consumerism that merely reflects the self-focused interests of our culture? Perhaps, but I believe it is worth the risk” (17). Why does Waltz believe this is a risk worth taking? Why is he willing to put the church into the consumer game? “Because in time, our guests’ value will get sorted out inside a personal relationship with God. As this relationship develops, the materialistic consumerism that poses a threat to personal holiness and integrity will begin to melt away” (17).

I appreciate Waltz’s sensitivity to the problems of consumerism. I’m so glad that he acknowledges that the church and consumerism are strange bedfellows. So far, however, I’m not convinced that a “personal relationship with God” will conquer consumerism. I’m not questioning the power God; I’m questioning the power of a church whose methods are dictated by the rapaciousness of consumer culture. The issue here is not the faith and dedication of Christians who agree with Waltz’s methodology—I have little doubt he is sincere and full of Christ’s love. I admire and applaud his willingness to share the love of Christ with others. I checked out his blog, which is nobly titled, "Because people matter."

The issue is this: how can a church front-loaded with consumerism lead people into self-giving discipleship? How can such a church help people move beyond their personal relationship with Christ and into a communal, ecclesial relationship with Christ—one that attends to the whole, global church? I’d be interested to hear Waltz’s response to this. I’m not sure that fits into the scope of his book.

Let’s take another context: Nazi Germany. The driving narrative here is German Nationalism. That’s the stew people are swimming in. I realize this is a different context than our current American consumer culture, but consider my rephrasing of Waltz's statement above: “The church is not called to be the nationalistic, Aryan pep rally of mid-twentieth century Germany...Is it possible that the church will somehow communicate a value system of white supremacy and nationalism that merely reflects the ideological interests of the Third Reich? Perhaps, but I believe it is worth the risk...in time, our guests’ values will get sorted out inside a personal relationship with God. As this relationship develops, the nationalistic racism that poses a threat to personal holiness and integrity will begin to melt away.”

Does comparing Nazism with consumer culture seem too extreme? Perhaps. But is not consumerism just as destructive—though more seductive and deceptive—as Aryanism, Nazism, or the Holocaust? Both are demonic forces aimed at controlling people and distracting them from the truth of Jesus Christ. Both are aimed at dividing allegiances. Both are aimed at creating worlds without Christ as Lord of all.

I’m sure the Nuremberg rallies were real wow experiences.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer encouraged the church in Germany to see through the Nazi ideologies and see that following Jesus means following Jesus, not Jesus and a State bent on genocide, totalitarianism, imperialism, and warmongering. Predictably, Bonhoeffer was largely ignored by his brothers and sisters, and was eventually martyred by the Nazi regime.

It would seem that we as a church continue to require more reflection on what the Bible means, who Jesus Christ was and is, and what it means to be the church. How else will we be able to offer an alternative to the self-destructive, self-consuming forces of this world?

Waltz is obviously correct: consumerism is the stew we're swimming in. And if we are to be truly Incarnational people, taking cues from John 1 and moving into our neighborhoods--like the Word becoming flesh--we must meet people where they're at. But we must not confuse worship and mission. Both are formational, but their contexts are different. Worship is for God and God's people. It will be odd and confusing to people who are not Christians. Mission is the manifestation of God's people in the world. Since we are so inward-focused, we spend all our time thinking about how we can be a better welcoming community while spending little time thinking about what we choose to do on Sunday morning.

It has been said that when you seek to share your faith with individuals, you need to "earn the right to be heard." I take this to mean that you have to be involved in someone's life at a very human level--on their level. You have to start sharing Christ with them by actions before you can start sharing Christ with words. If they know how much you care, if they see Christ's light shining through you, they will be attracted. If you are walking alongside them, you can help them get over the strangeness of a Christian worship service, coach them along the way, be their spiritual mentor, sponsor them when they are baptized. Both of you will be more deeply formed by a life-giving narrative--the story of Jesus--and will be better able to withstand the competing narratives around us: consumerism, nationalism, militarism, racism, sexism, and other "isms." This to me seems to be a better way, a more prophetic way. But it's definitely not seeker-sensitive.