Worship of God vrs. Worship of my Needs

For a long time, I have been frustrated by what I see as a consumer mentality in the church. The main idea in looking for a church is to find one that will meet my needs, as opposed to one that will help me to see, worship and know Jesus Christ better. The idea is simple:

We go "church shopping" until we've found the place where my needs are met, and where God ministers to me. If this church (and I primarily mean the worship service - music, message, artwork, how friendly people are to me) doesn't 'work', then off I go to the next church. I'll do this until I've exhausted several churches (and myself!) in the process, and finally come to the conclusion "the church isn't relevant to my needs!"

True, churches, including the one I pastor need to know and minsiter to the needs of our people. Yet, isn't there something fundamentally wrong with the premises: "I go to church to get my needs met" or "I go to _______church because I like the worship style (or preaching stlye, or children's ministry, etc.)" Fundamentally, isn't the main point and purpose of going to church to enter into a mystical, wonderful, worship relationship with the God of the universe!

I've seen it in my friends, in my generation and in my own church. In fact, I've battled it very severely in my own life, even being the pastor of Hope.

Doug Tappen of Relevant Magazine has just written a great article on this issue. You can click the title of this entry for the entire article or go to

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/article.php?sid=4636

He says:

There’s a larger problem involved, however, and I don’t believe it’s a problem that is uncommon to people (particularly twentysomethings, of which I am one) in the church today. You see, I walk in to the church service, sit down, cross my arms and expect God to do something in me. I expect the worship team to bring me out of my apathy. I wait for something the pastor says to catch my ear. What’s the problem with all this? It’s me. Nothing has changed in my church since the time when I enjoyed coming. I’ve changed. I’ve become more selfish. I’ve become more cynical. In fact, it’s gotten to the point where my girlfriend told me yesterday that maybe she should sit somewhere else during the service because she can sense that I don’t want to be there.

More than all this, I’ve come to expect the church to forge my spiritual development. Instead of working on my own prayer and devotional life, I want the church to do it for me. Please tell me I’m not the only one in the Body of Christ who has this problem. Please tell me there are other lazy people, who come to church on Sunday and expect to be filled up for the week ahead. Meanwhile, they have no expectation of giving anything. (I’m not talking about money either.) We aren’t willing to give of ourselves in worship. We aren’t willing to give of ourselves to each other, to minister to our friends who have hurts too (we’re not the only ones who hurt, even though we’d like to think so sometimes).

I’d like to blame all this on our American culture of selfishness. I’d like to say that I am this way because I’ve been socially conditioned by all the advertising and marketing that I’m encountered with day after day; advertising that says things like “Have it Your Way.” Well, I do want it my way. Don’t we all? Isn’t it true that if we don’t like how things are done at one church we can just go across town (or across the street, for some of us) and find a church that suits our felt needs better? Is that what Jesus intended for His church? Did He want us to forsake our churches just to seek “greener pastures” somewhere else? It’s true that the Church is flawed. No church is exempt from this. But instead of giving up (or becoming total cynics of every last detail) we should be working to change that which is wrong in our churches, but more than that—to change that which is wrong in ourselves. And changing what is wrong in us is probably the harder of the two. Selfishness doesn’t go away easily (trust me, I’ve still got plenty of it). How else can we work to change from selfish people to gracious and generous people other than asking for the help of the Holy Spirit? There is no other way that I know of (and I’m sure I’ve tried many) to deal with sin of every kind.

In the end, I can only blame my own sinful nature that allows me to become like I am. It’s my fault, not my church’s, that I think and act this way. Until I, and those like me, are willing to own up to this, we will continue to be unfulfilled Christians who take up space in the pews on Sunday mornings, but have nothing to contribute to the radical mission that the church is called to.

Holy God,

I am such a consumer. I so often am most concerned with "what's in it for me" when you said 'to lose your life is to find it.' My highest goal in life is to be a pointer to you, to let you be the focus of my life, and my ministry...and yet, I slip into so many of these dangerous patterns as this. Who can rescue me from this? Only you. Rescue me, rescue us, never let us be satisfied with anything other than a life-changing encounter with the living God, regardless of the forms it may come in. Come Holy Spirit, Amen.