Mike Breen on the culture of consumerism in the church:

This idea is backed up by this rationale: You’re worth it. You deserve to have what you want, how you want it, when you want it. For the most part, the church plays this exact same game. We do the best we can to provide as comfortable an experience as humanly possible, using every means at our disposal to attract people in and then keep them in. We tailor what we do around the consumer’s wants and desires. That’s Marketing 101, right? 

The problem is that, at the end of the day, the only thing that Jesus is counting is disciples. That’s it. He doesn’t seem to care too much about converts, attendance, budgets, or buildings. It’s about disciples. And, by nature, disciples are producers, not consumers. Yet most of our churches are built around feeding consumers. I’d argue that 90 percent of the church’s time, energy, and resources are linked to feeding consumers.

But there’s a huge issue with this: The means you use to attract people to you are usually the means you must use to keep them. In other words, if you use consumerism to attract people to your church, you most likely must continue using it to keep them, or else they will find another church that will meet their needs. That consumer mentality is antithetical to the Gospel and to the call of discipleship.

Think about the culture you are shaping as a leader. In what ways is your church community using consumerism as the means to draw people to a Gospel that is, in and of itself, anti-consumerism?

Mike Breen, Multiplying Missional Leaders,  Kindle Location 954