Southerners tend to be pretty proud of their churches, but not always for the right reasons. I remember one friend gushing about his church. He said, “Man, I love my church! It’s just like Walmart.”

I was surprised that he would consider this a compliment. Perhaps I could imagine that maybe my church is like Target, or Trader Joes, or Whole Foods — but Walmart? Every time I go into Walmart it depresses me. Walmart man? Really?

“Yeah, my church is like Walmart because I can go in, no talks to me, no one bothers me, I get my Jesus time, and then I’m out.”

Okay. Walmart. Gotcha.

Yet my friend’s explanation of his church, as awkward as it may have been, perfectly illustrates one of the major problems with the Church today. Consumerism has so thoroughly saturated American culture, that it has affected nearly every American church in some way. Consumerism has affected American churches to the point that people would describe their church in the same way they describe where they shop for low priced, crappy stuff.

So what exactly is consumerism and why is it a problem for the Church? Are we just talking about having too many Walmarts? A good working definition of consumerism has been put forth by pastor Austin Fischer as this:

Consumerism is “an ideology that sees personal freedom as the highest human good, and that freedom is realized in a person’s ability to take and throw away, whatever, whoever, however, and whenever he/she wants." Based on this definition, consumerism is far more Walmarts, or Amazon Prime, or endless ads scrolling across your computer screen.

Christianity teaches that the best world, the best way to live, is to choose to Christ alone and His Kingdom. Consumerism holds us that the best world, the best way to live, is to maximize the choices you have. Consumerism teaches more choices you have, the happier you will be. Consumerism puts its faith, not in God, but in humanity’s ability to satisfy our need for meaning and purpose through a transactional purchasing customized goods and services.

Now on the surface, this seems like a pretty shallow philosophy. Who genuinely believes my need for meaning and purpose is partially satisfied by being able to pick from 20 different flavors of yogurt? Do I really need avocado yogurt?

(The answer is no. I tried it, it’s kind of gross).

But even if we might intellectually say consumerism leads to absurd extremes, consumerism’s strategy is to dangle so many shiny lures that we keep lunging for one after another.

There are the obvious lures of course. Oh, I would be so happy if I just got this car, or this new outfit, or the newest version the iPhone. Materialist consumerism is easy to spot. There’s also consumerism in entertainment. The amount of time, money, and energy we put into simply in experiences that help to escape our mundane reality.

It’s even relationships. Research has shown that dating apps in large urban areas have wrecked dating. Why? Because of the next upgrade, the next better guy or girl is only a swipe away. A smart consumer doesn’t keep a low-quality relationship when a better one is available. Sound shallow? It’s what we’ve implicitly been taught though in a consumeristic culture. If I want to be happy, I need to keep upgrading. Consumerism teaches us to always expand our choices of things, experiences, and yes, even people.

Consumerism’s philosophy for happiness is ultimately dehumanizing. We could sum it up as this: Take, break, upgrade.

Yet there are a lot of shiny lures, right? We have all chased a few of them at some point or another. So is it any surprise then this mentality of consuming has taken over in the churches? Since church attendance and membership is no longer a given in society, even in the American South, churches now feel like they have to compete for people.

Why do churches feel like they have to compete? Because people are applying a consumeristic framework to even their faith. Like anything else in my consumer lifestyle, I’m thinking about church in terms of what I can get out of it. The shiniest church gets my presence.

Do you see where that leads us? Some churches might be growing in numbers and money, but consumerism does nothing to ensure they are spiritually healthy and faithful to the gospel.

Still, why should we wholeheartedly reject consumer spirituality? Some people might say, “Look, appealing to consumer mentality may not be ideal, but how else is the church going to appeal the masses? It’s necessary if the Church wants to survive.”

However, appealing to the masses seems to be of very little interest to Jesus. Let’s listen to what Jesus says and does in Luke 12:29.

When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.”

Notice what happens when the crowds start to grow. Instead of Jesus saying, “Well, this is working well. I should write a book on church growth.” He actually ramps up the harshness of his message in order to dissuade the crowd from following him. Jesus, I’m sorry, but that is not seeker sensitive. How can you ever become a celebrity prophet if you say stuff like that?

Does this mean Jesus doesn’t want people to be saved? Of course not. Jesus talks at length about how the new heaven and the new earth is going the most diverse gathering people in human history. Jesus wants people to be saved and follow God, but Jesus wants to follow God for the right reasons so that their salvation is secure.

A lot of people wanted to follow Jesus, but for all the wrong reasons. Jesus points out that people just wanted to see miraculous signs. Other people wanted Jesus to overthrow the Roman occupation. They all were following God, but not for reasons that would not put them into a saving relationship with God, not for reasons that would allow them to reveal the Kingdom of God to the world.

A healthy Christian community doesn’t exist just have people showing up, a healthy Christian community doesn’t even exist to get as many people to believe in Jesus so they can go to heaven when they die. A healthy Christian community is meant to be the launching point for the God’s mission of mercy, justice, and healing for the broken world. Yet the more you’re focused on meeting people’s consumer needs, the harder it is to focus on God’s mission.

Let’s get practical though. It’s easy to be idealistic and say, “We’re going to be different! We’re not going to be a consumer church.” But what does it mean to do it differently? It’s also easy to be judgmental and say, “If a church does this one cool thing, then it must be a consumer church!” How do we avoid falling into these two mistakes?

First, in one sense, churches shouldn’t ignore consumerism. We shouldn’t pretend that it doesn’t exist. Jesus was always aware the social and ideological dynamics that were swirling around him. We need to aware of the social and ideological dynamics of consumerism swirling around us. Second, the opposite of a consumer church that’s really huge, entertaining, trendy, and with therapeutic preaching is not a church that’s boring, lame, and with hour-long sermons that put the 10 people who attend to sleep.

So what practical benchmarks can we evaluate our church communities with? Allow me to offer three simple things a church should focus on, which we try to practice in the collegiate worshiping community I serve at the College of Charleston and the Citadel.

#1 Repentance from sin in order to turn God’s mercy, justice, and healing.

#2 Denial of one own want in order to meet the needs of others.

#3 Rejecting an individualized faith in order to follow Jesus out into the world.

They’re really not that fancy, are they? However, I believe that if a Christian community focuses on those three things, it will difficult for a consumer mindset of taking, break, and upgrade to set in. Repentance, denial of self, and following Jesus out into the world function as a faithful check against the false religion of consumerism, while allowing a church to still pursue excellence in what they do. Yet it will not be a pursuit of excellence just to get more people to show up or to have bigger budgets, but rather a pursuit of excellence to help more people encounter Jesus’ mission to the world.