A more selfless discipleship will replace consumer Christianity

Aug. 14, 2025

By Rev. Rick King

On July 13, New Life and Falcon Heights approved the Plan of Union and entered a new chapter: moving toward life as a NEW church with a new mission, vision, and identity. Carey Nieuwhof’s essay ten years ago, titled “13 Predictions about the Future Church,” continues to be relevant to what we’re trying to do. This is the fifth in a series of columns on these in light of our merger opportunity.

Neil Postman critiqued its rise in televangelism and megachurches in his 1985 book, “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” Eugene Peterson decried it in his memoir, “The Pastor,” in 2011.

Carey Nieuwhof calls it “consumer Christianity.” Regardless of what language we use to label and describe it, it’s the fruit of organized Christianity, particularly Protestantism, seeking to capture an ever-shrinking portion of people’s attention, amid all the other options for what to do, how to think, what to spend our money and time on, you name it.

And although evangelicals were the first to pioneer the use of market research principles and practices, soon it seemed every other church that wanted to grow sought to package itself and its message in terms of, “What can I get from God?” and “What’s in it for me?”

Add to this the way that using certain kinds of media can shape the Christian message itself, even distort it, and you have a recipe for a never-ending quest for people’s eyes and ears at the expense of winning over their hearts and minds.

Whether we’re aware of it or not, this has led us to evaluate our religious experience, our churches, and even our faith itself according to our “individual preferences and comforts,” to quote our church’s Vision and Covenant. Nieuwhof points out that “even many critics of the church who have left have done so under the pull of consumer Christianity because ‘nothing’ meets their needs.”

And given how central dying to oneself and emptying oneself, taking the form of a servant, are to the Gospel, consumer Christianity is out of step with the core of who and what the church is about.

The general public saw this disconnect a long time ago. As the church turns its life around (literally repents) and necessarily becomes more authentic, it will become more selfless, more directed at the well-being of the community where it lives and less concerned with its own survival.

As we engage with neighbors around the church this fall to discern the identity, vision, and mission of the new church birthed by this merger, we have a chance to seek the welfare of the city that surrounds us, not just our own.

What questions would YOU like to ask our neighbors?