This is Part 2 of 3 in a series of posts. To read “How has God shown me a world outside my individualism?” (Part 1 of 3) click here.
I’ve got a lot more to learn about *isms. But, these three seem especially pertinent to me: Individualism, Consumerism, and Rationalism.
I don’t want to assume by even knowing these things exist that I am some how immune from them. Recently I’ve learned a lot about how other worldviews have affected my own. I’m trying to replay some of the stories and unpack how these *isms have affected me and those around me, especially as we ask our questions and have conversations.
When something is ‘normal’ and feels expected we don’t question it much. It doesn’t strike us as odd or out of place. This is where our culture and the worldviews around us can sometimes create blind spots. I’ve learned a lot about my blindspots from my Pastor Dustin Freeman (priest at our family’s Anglican Church). He’s helped me see the cultural norms around me and how they might be influencing my thinking. I’m just scratching the surface on all that Dustin can teach me. But essentially he’s taught me that there are many ‘isms’ that highly influence us without knowing it. As I mentioned, 3 in particular seemed to be at play in my dialogue with my friend: Individualism, Consumerism and Rationalism.
Individualism asks the question: “What is the best thing for me?”
Consumerism asks the question: “What are all the options out there to choose the best thing for me?”
It’s funny really. I haven’t known anything about the *isms consciously. But, when I hear the labels and basic descriptions they made so much sense. I guess that’s the whole point with *isms. They are so deeply ingrained in an experience that you don’t really see them. It’s like explaining water to fish.
Here’s the ocean I have been swimming in my whole life as it relates to consumerism.
As I reflect on my experiences in the past I’m reminded of what it’s like to be a consumer in the audience. One of my favorite experiences is a Broadway play. The experience is often run by a team of professionals and each aspect is often kept in check with timers and spreadsheets and many people managing moving parts. While some of these elements are partially hidden by curtains, or other decor, it didn’t take much to notice the “backstage crew.” As I have been to more shows these elements seem to be easier to spot. What’s a tough reality to swallow is that many of my church going experiences are very similar. The only difference is that these production elements have only come more and more into the foreground.
While traveling to visit my adult kids, I visited a very well known and respected church by people in our social network. I took my place in the front row as the frost song was started by the band leader. I closed my eyes for a moment as I began to sing along. When I open my eyes to see the words on the screen again it couldn’t help but notice two people manning handheld cameras stand directly in front of the band. I came later to find out they were broadcasting online. The camera crew often moved back-and-forth in front of the people singing to get different camera angles. At one point they just caught a frame of the keyboard players hands. They never even seem to know I was there in the front row or that what they are doing is extremely distracting.
My temptations to be a consumer continued after about 10 minutes and a couple of songs. I was presented with announcements about upcoming ‘ministry events.’ There’s the potluck picnic at the park, the men’s group to help me be a better dad, the “Mother’s Day Out” with free babysitting opportunity, the additional worship night for prayer, the camp coming up for my kids. Over the years, the events seem to get more sophisticated and highly produced. And so did the announcements. It started with one staff member and a microphone and then transitioned to well crafted videos with animation. I honestly couldn’t differentiate many of these advertisements between an average commercial I would see on TV. They were certainly better than a local car dealership commercial. 🙂
Gut check. I’m a total hypocrite describing this experience. Years agoI worked on a staff at a large church. I remember vividly challenging each other to do everything “with excellence” and to boost attendance by measurable percentages. These expectations certainly translated over to our pastoral staff who prepared 45-minutes sermons each week (for the whole congregation, youth groups, etc.). I’m guessing we all felt the pressure of being excellent orators compared to our counterparts across town. We were expected to carefully choose the topics, the supporting texts, and create multi-week sermon series that would often be marketed weeks in advance. When the topic or sermon “performance” was not agreeable many would skip multiple Sundays to drive across town (even an hour) to hear another, more renowned pastor speak. I viewed their choices as understandable, even zealous, not selfish. I have to admit this is convenient for me to complain about now. I am not an excellent orator. So, perhaps the reason I have an aversion to consumerism today is because of my inability to satisfy consumers in the past.
Still I worked harder and harder to make our church more appealing. We were all under the same assumption that ultimately the church grows or shrinks, based on the affinity to the teaching, the energy of the worship music, and the quality of the student ministry. It was expected that every church would have professional childcare equipped with the latest best practices in child safety. Our pastor’s primary responsibility was to take God’s word, explain it to us, translate some Greek words along the way, and then make it “practical and applicable” with lots of advice on how to be a better Christian. The main injustice would be to bore the congregation or to drive us away others with harsh words. Even in the old days we had a clock right in front of the pulpit to make sure the pastor didn’t go over time. People (like me) would often ride home from church, giving editorial reviews of the sermon, and whether or not we felt “fed” by the experience.
Fast forward 20 years in my life and I seem to have gone way back in time as mass. After waiting in a full, silent room a bell goes off initiating a processional, opening hymn, and confession of our sins (wait? we confess our sins every week?!?) everyone sits down. Someone walks slowly to the front where there’s a huge crucifix over a massive long marble table. They bow to the cross and then walk to a podium off to the right. The congregant takes his or her time thumbing to a page in front of them and the reads a passage from the Old Testament. Entire families are sitting together in different pews. Babies cry and no one seems to care. The woman, somewhat slowly begins, as if meditating on the Scripture and reading at the same time. After completing the reading, she slowly walks down, turns and bows again, and then sits. More deafening, awkward silence (at least for me).
Someone else leads us to recite a Psalm out loud with a part for the leader and one for the whole congregation. Then another congregant walks to the front and reads a New Testament passage. I came to learn that passages from Scripture were chosen centuries ago and are read in every Catholic Church worldwide. Then, after another pause, another man in vestments starts singing “Alleluia” acapella. Everyone stands up and repeats after him. He walks over with another huge book holding it up over his head. Before this reading there seems to be a more significant preamble. He proclaims loudly, “The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” to which everyone responds, “Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ!” He reads like the others at a slow, meditative pace. After the reading he proclaims, “The Gospel of the Lord!” And everyone proclaims, “Glory to You Lord Jesus Christ!”
After another moment of silence (it feels like 10 minutes, but it’s probably only 30 seconds!) a concise 7-min ‘homily’ is shared by a priest to reflect on the Gospel reading. After this, there is an even longer period of silence (feels like hours) as everyone sits there for a moment to reflect (my cultural ADHD is triggered at this point). Another man in vestments then stands to offer prayers, starting at the highest and global level, and working his way down to the most intimate and personal. After each petition the congregation agrees loudly with a simply plea, “Lord, hear our prayer!” Many of the prayers reference the faithful saints in centuries past, loved ones that we have lost, and sick and dying in the congregation. By the time we get to my ‘stuff’ to pray for I’m kind of lost in the global nature of the prayers. My conscience says, “You seem to be more focused than I am in prayer so I’m happy to agree with yours as I figure out mine.”
The irony, with consumerism is that when were treated as consumers we are really satisfied. It only seems to fuel our hunger for “more and better.” My experience in the Catholic Church has help me to peel back the layers of consumerism in my life. The more I’m reminded that life is not about me, there’s a much bigger picture out there, and going to church is not about what I can get, the more I seem to benefit and be formed until likeness of Christ.
To read “How has God shown me a world outside my rationalism ? (Part 3 of 3) click here.