Week 4: Spiritual Consumerism

Non-discipleship is the elephant in the church.  It’s not the much-discussed moral failures, financial abuses, or the amazing general similarity between Christians and non-Christians.  These are only effects of the underlying problem.  The fundamental negative reality among Christian believers now is their failure to be constantly learning how to live their lives in the kingdom among us, and it is an accepted reality.  The division of Christians into those from whom it is a matter of whole life devotion to God and those who maintain a consumer or client relationship to the church has now been an expected reality for over 1500 years.   — Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

• Some approach church as a disciple, with the posture of a learner, with the attitude that says “I want to become more like Christ, I want to grow, I want to be a participating and contributing member of a community faith.
• Others approach church from a consumer or client posture, waiting to see what the church can do for them or give to them.

It’s important to fully understand that there’s a difference between these two views:  something you participate in vs. something you get something out of. 

Sometimes you can see it even in how we share out faith:  here’s the Jesus product, ok, make the transaction, instead of a journey or friendship.  It’s not a card you carry in your wallet, it’s a relationship, commitment, a lifestyle, an ever growing and changing journey.

Week 3: Legalism – The Grey Elephant

In an effort to be ultra careful to please God, the Pharisees mentioned in the New Testament came up with a list of 613 laws that they told people to follow.  Jesus responded by saying that only a few things were really the important things: to love God and to love people, to remember justice, mercy, and faithfulness.  Today, spiritual leaders, churches, and individual people can easily become as legalistic as the Pharisees became–the wrong things for the right reasons.  We can easily make black and white issues gray issues (compromise on things very clear in the bible), AND we can turn gray issues Ithings not clearly addressed in the bible) into black and white issues (create a law or rule where God never did).  How can we end up dealing with GRAY issues in ways that both pleases God and treats people rightly?

Week 2: Hypocrisy – The Fake Elephant

“Hypocrites” and “hypocisy” is one of the biggest complaints from average people about the church and church people. So how do we as followers of Jesus:

1.  Avoid being a hindrance to people being able to really see who Christ really is and what the church is really all about, and
2. Learn to live lives of visible sincerity and authenticity?

Be sure to be a part of the discussion both at RLC on Sunday, September 21st (10am), and as well here on our RLC Elephant In The Church blog.  Feel free to post your comments and questions, and also to interact with P. Pete and the rest of the staff, as well as our team of bloggers on this topic.

We’ve had a wonderful (and continuing) discussion on our week 1 topic, “Christian Subculture - The Christian Elephant.”

Our wi-fi service is up and running in the auditorium, and we invite you to bring your laptops and wireless devices to post comments and questions even during the service (no checking your fantasy football lineups!).

Week 1: Christian Subculture

Beginning on September 14th, we will be in a series titled, “The Elephant In the Church”, dealing with hard-to-talk-about topics that not a lot of churches would.

• Sept. 14th: Christian Subculture, “The ‘Christian’ Elephant”
• Sept. 21st: Hypocrisy, “The Fake Elephant”
• Sept. 28th: Legalism, “The Gray Elephant”
• Oct. 5th: Spiritual Consumerism, “The Circus Elephant”
• Oct. 12th: The Bible, “The Blindfolded Elephant”

Then, as a feature service on Oct. 19th, we will be hosting a Q & A session.  This service is designed to address questions and comments from the previous 5 weeks’ topics.  That’s what that blog is all about!

For this series, we’ve assembled a team of people that will be interacting with your comments and questions.

So, we invite you to bring your laptops (we will be hosting WiFi access during the service) to church and post any questions or comments that you might have.  We will be hosting discussions throughout the week via this blog and comments.  We also encourage you to e-mail your questions to elephant@reallifechurch.net

Have fun, and happy blogging!

P. Jim