Marketing, the Church, and Christ

This is a fascinating book: Brand Jesus: Christianity in a Consumerist Age by Tyler Stevenson.  If I remember correctly, one of our readers recommended it several months ago.  Anyway, I just finished it this morning.  I’m not going to give a full review here, but I do want to say that it is a worth-while read.  I have a few minor critiques (i.e. I disagree with a few points of his interpretation of Romans, the book seemed to ramble at times, and it could have been a bit shorter) but overall I believe the book is a good one for serious Christians to consider.

In this book, Stevenson basically describes how and why Christianity in America has been watered down by consumerism.  Stevenson talks about idolatry, money, marketing, trends, politics, t-shirts, and other such things that have to do with consumerism and Christianity.  In part 1, he discusses the history of consumerism.  In part 2, he goes through Romans 1:18-32 and parallels Greco-Roman culture and ours.  In part 3, Stevenson focuses on the church and its failures.  Part 4 is full of details about consumerism and Christianity.  The final part is an encouragement for Christians/churches to stand against consumerism.  I appreciated how Stevenson did not call us to conquer culture or redeem it, but instead live solid lives of discipleship.

Here are some quotes that captured my attention.

“Like it or not, in our society, we are what we buy.  Savvy stores do not sell products, but self-image.  The racks brimming with a dizzying variety of clothes do not offer a variety of products nearly as much as they offer varieties of potential me’s” (p. 19).

“To live in a consumerist world means that who we understand ourselves to be is deeply and significantly related to what we buy/consume” (p. 27).

“The problem with idols and brands is not that they are ineffectual, but that they cannot effect what we want them to effect.  They cannot give back according to the measure of transcendent devotion we give to them” (p. 105).

“What does it mean to be an evangelical in America today? …The reality, unfortunately, is that American evangelicalism has become primarily a marketing demographic” (p. 132).

“The NOTW consumer aspires to be ‘not of this world,’ even though there is hardly anything more of this world than proclaiming one’s identity through the clothing one buys” (p. 153).

“…When secular retailers are forced by Christian interests to bend the knee (i.e. in the Christmas war), they do not bow to honor the name of Christ, but the dollars of his self-proclaimed followers.  They are willing to change their marketing tactics in order to get Christian business.  Does this bring any honor to Christ’s name?  The very thought that it might is theologically bankrupt” (p. 161).

One more – and this one is brilliant.  Don’t miss it.

“…Now that the market has discovered evangelicals as a target audience, we should expect that the Christian marketing effort will start playing a significant role in defining how and who evangelicals believe themselves to be” (p. 163).

This book will certainly make you think.  I especially liked the sections on how marketing is very much related to Christian clothing, Christian politics, and the plethora of individualized Bibles for sale.  There are some hard-hitting parts of this book!  If you’re interested in this topic – Christianity and consumerism – you’ll certainly appreciate the book Brand Jesus: Christianity in a Consumerist Age.

shane lems

The Idol of Relevance

Once again, I very much appreciate the work of Os Guinness – this time in his 2003 work, Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to The Idol of Relevance.  One of Guinness’ major themes of this short book is the following provocative phrase: “Never have Christians pursued relevance more strenuously; never have Christians been more irrelevant” (p. 12).  Essentially, Guinness says that most “Christian” attempts at relevance end up being trivial, trite, and transient.  This relevance is not based on truth but popularity, and thus Christianity today is largely irrelevant in the United States.  How many non-Christians listen to Christian radio or watch Christian movies because they are so relevant to the deep and fundamental issues of life?

Here’s a synopsis of the book in Guinness’ own terms.

“By our uncritical pursuit of relevance we have actually courted irrelevance; by our breathless chase after relevance without a matching commitment to faithfulness, we have become not only unfaithful but irrelevant; by our determined efforts to redefine ourselves in ways that are more compelling to the modern world than are faithful to Christ, we have lost not only our identity but our authority and relevance.  Our crying need is to be faithful as well as relevant” (p. 15).

Those of you who are pastors or elders in churches that haven’t followed the winds of “pop” culture will want to get this book.  It will encourage you to continue to pursue faithfulness and preach truth in a culture that values the fad and worships the trend.  Or, if you are in a church that tries way too hard to be relevant, get this book for your pastor and elders/leaders.  Finally, I’d recommend this book for any Christian who wonders how Christianity and culture should interact.  It’s a great critique of evangelicalism’s idolatry of relevance, but it’s also a constructive way forward in faithfulness to the truth of the Word.  As Guinness says, “Is the culture decisive and the audience sovereign for the Christian church?  Not for one moment” (p. 66).

I’ll come back to this book, Prophetic Untimeliness, again later.  For now let me say that it is one of my top 10 books for 2012.  At the time of this post, you can get a used hardcover copy for well under $10.

shane lems

Democracy, Culture, Christianity

 Here’s a provocative section from Don Carson’s 2008 book, Christ and Culture Revisited.

“…Democracy, as a valuable form of government as it can be, must never be confused with the Christian vision of the good….  [A] democratic culture cannot be aligned isomorphically with a Christian culture.  Christians will cheer on democracy, believing that, by and large, it benefits the greatest number of people, provides mechanisms for limiting human power (and for ensuring that power can change hands without bloodshed), and usually provides more freedoms than other forms of government.  These freedoms almost inevitably allow many things to foster (I almost wrote ‘fester’) that Christians will dislike, but the same freedoms protect freedom of worship, freedom to bear witness, freedom to change one’s faith without government reprisals, and much more.  Nevertheless, all notions of freedom invoke, implicitly or explicitly, subsidiary notions of freedom from and freedom to or for.”

“The democratic tradition in the West has fostered a great deal of freedom from Scripture, God, tradition, and assorted moral constraints; it encourages freedom toward doing your own thing, hedonism, self-centeredness, and consumerism.  By contrast, the Bible encourages freedom from self-centeredness, idolatry, greed, and all sin and freedom toward living our lives as those who bear God’s image and who have been transformed by his grace, such that our greatest joy becomes doing his will.”

I appreciate how Carson notes that though democracy has its benefits, there still is a relatively sharp clash between Christianity and democracy (especially democracy as it has morphed in the West).  We can be thankful for democracy.  However, we have to always resist the democratization of Christianity and the church.

The above quote was taken from pages 138-9 of Christ and Culture Revisited by D. A. Carson.

shane lems

sunnyside wa

Bored, Boring, Boredom

 Richard Winter’s book Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment is a great book that asks and answers this question from an intelligent, biblical point of view: Why are so many Americans bored when there are a billion things for us to do?  Another way to think about this topic is that Americans are “distracted from distraction by distraction.”   In this book Winter examines the social, biological, historical, spiritual, and philosophical aspects of boredom.  I was fascinated to learn how boredom, postmodernity, anxiety, and even addiction (among other things) are related.  This book is worth studying if you want a readable account of boredom in Western culture.

One section I found helpful was how Winter showed the way out of boredom.  Passion, wonder, leisure, ordinary pleasures, delight in the good, and a longing for the new creation are some examples of combating boredom and all the emotions and attitudes that go with it.  To be sure, this isn’t a biblical survey of boredom, but Winter does apply the general aspects of Christianity to boredom.

Here’s another angle of the book that is worth quoting and discussing.

“When stimulation comes at us from every side, we reach a point where we cannot respond with much depth to anything.  Bombarded with so much that is exciting and demands our attention, we tend to become unable to discriminate and choose from among the many options.  The result is that we shut down our attention to everything.  The boredom that we feel today is probably more likely to come from overload than underload.  When we are surrounded by so much information, we find it hard to sort out what is relevant and important and to find meaning in anything” (p. 37).

How does this relate to Christian worship?  Indeed, there is such a think as dry, lifeless, legalistic worship in churches where there is little love and laughter.  “At the end of the spectrum, others have found churches with plenty of excitement, entertainment, and emotion where there is little good teaching but everyone has a great time” (p. 133).  Winters even pointed out that he noticed one church called “Exciting First Baptist.”

“Of course our emotions should be involved in worship, but too often we want peace and happiness like an emotional fix.  We want instant pain relief and entertainment.  When God does not come through like that, we manufacture techniques and teaching to give us the excitement and experience we crave.  Worship has to be ever more entertaining and thrilling.  At first everything is wonderful, but after a time there is an ever-increasing desire for something more – another gift of the Spirit, another healing miracle, more dramatic experiences in worship” (ibid.).

Winters then says that the Bible doesn’t promise health, wealth, and unending excitement in this life.  There is such a thing as sin and brokenness; we’re called to be patient pilgrims longing for the new creation.  “God does indeed offer something deeper and more fulfilling now and in the future, but these are not often associated with the instant thrills and excitement promised by the culture of advertising and entertainment.    Sensation seekers and the instant-fix generation often have a hard time with that, and they may end up disappointed and bored with God” (p. 134).

This is something worth thinking about.  If our view of Christianity and our worship services have everything do with a band, positive CCM lite-Christian music, and uplifting atmosphere, what happens when these things no longer excite us or make us feel good?  What about our kids?  If children grow up in this entertaining church atmosphere, what do they do when it bores them?  What comes after Veggie Tales?  It’s pretty easy in our culture to push the delete button or download a new app.

I suppose this has to do with Andrew’s post yesterday.  Winters certainly helps us cut through this addiction to entertainment and its resulting boredom.  Get the book, study it, pray through it, and think about it from a mature Christian perspective.  By doing so, you’ll be able to avoid boredom and enjoy the life God has given us in an intelligent, mature, and enjoyable Christian way.

shane lems

Missions in North America: The Hard Post-Christian Soil

 In many ways, Lesslie Newbigin has helped me think through the implications of the gospel in Western culture.  He well noted that Christianity in the West has, for the most part, been domesticated into one religion among many – a private religion a person can “use” if it helps him through life.  What’s the outcome of this privatized pluralism?

“The result is not, as we once imagined, a secular society.  It is a pagan society, and its paganism, having been born out of the rejection of Christianity, is far more resistant to the gospel than the pre-Christian paganism with which cross-cultural missions have been familiar.  Here, surely, is the most challenging missionary frontier of our time.”

This is an utterly brilliant statement.  The post-Christian paganism of Western culture is harder soil than the pre-Christian paganism in which foreign missionaries ordinarily work.  In the United States, for example, Christianity used to dominate the religious landscape but now it does not.  Furthermore, in our land of pragmatism, individualism, materialism, and consumerism historic Christianity is being abandoned by many because it is completely opposite of these “isms.”  On top of this problem, many churches are catering to the departing masses (in order to keep the pews full) by giving in to many of these “isms,” with the disastrous result that Christianity is being watered down in ways too numerous to mention here.  Solid evangelism is almost impossible because most people will not listen if it isn’t entertaining, useful, or if there is no cash value in the message.  What is more, there are scores of Americans who have background in these watered down churches, so all they know about Christianity is a far cry from what the Bible actually teaches.  We could probably describe this American soil in even severer terms than “burned over.”

I believe solid, historic Christian churches in the U.S. should continue to send out foreign missionaries.  At the same time, we should not forget the mission field in our own towns and cities.  We don’t have to go overseas to bring the message of Jesus to every tribe, tongue, and nation.  The field exists here in North America!  Newbigin was right: “Here, surely, is the most challenging missionary frontier of our time.”

The above Newbigin quote was taken from page 20 of Foolishness to the Greeks.  Side note: if you’re a subscriber to Modern Reformation, you can see a longer version of this discussion here.

shane lems