Christianity requires the submission of one’s individual will to the lordship of Christ. It is impossible to simultaneously assert the sovereignty of one’s subjective spiritual path and the supremacy of Jesus Christ. We are either in Christ on his terms and by his grace, or we aren’t. Christianity doesn’t work on the terms of consumerism. Jesus calls his followers not to comfort and convenience, but to deny themselves (Matt. 16:24) and take up their cross (Luke 14:27). Christian discipleship is not consumer-friendly. Further, Jesus calls us not to individualized, self-styled spirituality but to faith in community, accountable to others. Christianity disembedded from the church is not really Christianity. It feigns to embrace Jesus while shunning his body (see 1 Cor. 12, Eph. 1:22–23; 5:23; Col. 1:18).
Churches that attempt to accommodate the moving-target needs of individual “spiritual quests” are not doing anyone a favor. By shifting the focus away from the fixed point of Jesus to the fickle, frequently diverging “paths” of individual churchgoers, churches lose their bearings and become inherently unstable. When a church becomes less about the demands of Scripture on individuals and more about the demands of individuals on the church to fit their preferences (favored music style, ideal sermon length, brand of coffee, and so on), it loses its power to transform us and subvert our idols. It becomes a commodity to be shopped for, consumed, and then abandoned when another shinier, trendier, more “relevant” option appears.
This consumer framework also lends itself to weird mutations wherein bits and pieces of one church/tradition are combined with those of another, like a hipster might appropriate various disconnected motifs in assembling his personal style: the shoes of a Wall Street investor, the beard of a Canadian lumberjack, the Vineyard Vines button-downs of a Southern frat guy, the Persian tattoos of a Big Sur mystic, and so on. Read More
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