SPIRITUAL CONSUMERISM
In February 27 2009 article from the website “Slate” titled, “Why American churchgoers like to shop around” also caught my attention. That article cited statistics from a Barna Group survey that revealed that one in seven adults changes churches each year, and another one in six attends a handful of churches on a rotating basis. Another survey by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life a few years ago indicated that 44 percent of American adults have left their first religious affiliation for another. But what was most disturbing to me is that the article actually viewed this as a good thing, this is a direct quote from the article: "Even if the American mania for shopping extends to our spiritual lives, church shopping still doesn’t get much respect. But while it may be frequently derided as an example of rampant spiritual consumerism, shopping around can be one of the good things about the way religion is practiced in America." This article attempts to equate the fundamental idea of worshipping our God to the pursuit of finding the right pair of shoes or finding the store with the right price on a certain style of dress.
What I am trying to tell you is that worship to God has become, in our society, no longer a matter of serving God on his terms but it has become a matter of God serving us on our terms. This spiritual consumerism, as referred to in the article quote, has caused many to look for a bargain basement Christianity with a half priced service to satisfy an extravagant top self kind of God.
(From a sermon by Ulysses Mckneely II, Wisdom in Worship, 5/28/2011)