Few accusations are leveled against the modern church more frequently than that of consumerism.
We are told that Christians have become religious consumers, approaching the church with expectations of what it can provide rather than considering what they can contribute. And to be clear, there is truth in this criticism.
When Christians evaluate a church, or their attendance, based primarily on their personal preference or convenience, they have clearly misunderstood the purpose of the church.
In addition, when a church begins to offer something based on what they perceive that people want, the church has missed the point and purpose as well. (Think Seeker Sensitive Movement)
However, the problem with consumer Christianity is not that Christians come to worship expecting to receive something. I would argue that Christianity is, in a real sense, a religion of consumers.
We are fundamentally recipients before we are respondents, and we come week in and week out to receive what our Father has promised to give.
God Acts First
Our faith, as Christians, rests on divine initiative. Pagans make us think the opposite, but Scripture never presents salvation as man’s attempt to reach God, but rather declares that it is God’s gracious initiative on behalf of sinners. The apostle John captures this when he writes, “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Our love for God is not the condition that brings about His love for us. Rather, our love arises from His prior gracious action, and this same relationship between divine initiative and human response characterizes the whole Christian life.
We believe because God has revealed Himself.
We repent because His Word exposes our sin and summons us to turn from it.
We worship because God has made Himself known and granted us access to Himself through Jesus Christ.
Consequently, Christianity cannot be understood primarily in terms of what human beings contribute to God. Whatever we offer in faith and obedience is simply a response to what we have first received.
Paul’s question to the Corinthians helps to clarify this, as he doesn’t ask what they had done for God; rather, he asks, “what hast thou that thou didst not receive?” (1 Cor 4:7). The Christian life is grounded in reception because grace, by its very nature, is something given rather than earned.
Worship Is First Receptive
This theological priority should fundamentally shape our understanding of corporate worship.
We frequently speak of worship as something Christians offer to God, and Scripture certainly commands us to praise, pray, confess, and give thanks. Yet these activities must be understood within the larger context of God’s gracious ministry to His people.
Christian worship is covenantal and dialogical. God addresses His people through His Word, and His people respond in faith, repentance, thanksgiving, and praise. Our response is essential, but it is never independent of His movement towards us first.
Again, it is the pagan who believes that he must first move God, in order for God to move towards him, but the ordinary means of grace remind us that corporate worship is not fundamentally about us. It is a gracious provision through which Christ ministers to His people.
We come to worship as those who need to receive before we respond.
Consumers, but Not Customers
Of course, there is an important distinction between receiving God’s grace and treating the church like some sort of spiritual flea market. The consumer mentality rightly criticized in contemporary Christianity assumes that the individual determines the value of worship according to personal preferences.
However, Biblical receptivity operates according to an entirely different principle. We do not determine what God must provide, nor do we evaluate His appointed means according to our preferences. Rather, we receive what He has graciously promised to give through the means He has instituted.
The distinction is between approaching worship as customers who demand a particular experience and approaching worship as dependent sinners who need the ministry of Christ.
Moreover, receiving God’s grace never eliminates the necessity of responding in faith and obedience. Grace does not produce indifference, but gratitude, and the gospel does not diminish the believer’s obligation to worship God, but it establishes its proper foundation.
The Church as a People Who Receive
Perhaps our response to consumer Christianity has sometimes emphasized what Christians must contribute without sufficiently explaining what God has promised to provide. The church certainly needs to recover an understanding of worship that rejects entertainment. Yet that recovery cannot come at the expense of the receptive nature of Christian faith.
We gather because God has acted in Christ, because He continues to address His people through His Word, and because we remain dependent upon His grace.
Christianity is not a religion in which we purchase God’s favor or His presence. It is a religion in which God’s gracious provision establishes, sustains, and directs our devotion.
If that makes us consumers in the sense that we are recipients of divine grace, then consumer Christianity is not something we should reject. It is something that we should understand and embrace wholeheartedly.