Beards, Bad Breath, Sandals and Socks

Beards, bad breath, sandals and socks....

...probably what you'd expect to find at a clergy conference but things have moved on in the church and although hairy halitosis can still be found lingering in the corners - you are more likely to be met with designer stumble, iPads and famous labels...

This is not just because the church has modernised but something that has gone even deeper than that - the consumerisation of the church

Inbuilt in capitalism is the notion of choice - or more bluntly - the idea that we express our choices by consuming defining who and what we are by what we buy!

Since Henry VII there has been ecclesiastical choice but the nature of that choice is far greater today than ever before and runs deep in modern Christian physic - no longer is anyone a Methodist, Anglican or whatever - we go to the church we like, that has the style of worship we enjoy, the vicar who thinks like us or at least the one we haven't fallen out with yet!

The proof of this can be seen in the numbers of people who turn up on the first Sunday of the new minister...

So I'm stood behind a stall for a charity at a clergy conference with the aforementioned designer stumble, iPads and famous labels (the clergy not me - well ok I admit I gave designer stumble and am writing this on my iPad!!) - we are not selling anything - just offering the church a chance to live out the gospel - am I the busiest stall?

No - clergy check out the logo and pass me by on the other side... (even the Christian Naturalists are struggling to attract people - and the irony of placing them next to a vestment stall!!)

I'm told its because I have no sweets to bribe these men and women of God with and I need more helium filled balloons to entice people who celebrate the God who created the world!

Yet the stalls selling books are busy and the vestment stalls are packed and they have no cheap gimmicks

You may argue that books and vestments are important to clergy - but surely so is enabling your congregation to live out faith...

In the church we have become consumers - paying our money and taking our choice - being drawn to the cash-till altar rather than the sacrificial communion table.

We are defined by the colour of clerical shirt we buy as much as whether it's apple or android, a church is seen as successful by the numbers it attracts not the authenticity of its mission - we buy into discipleship programmes that promise growth, copyright styles of outreach and define our worship by brand.

So ignored I sit and write a rant - and fail to follow Christ as much as the clergy who pass me by - so I'll stop writing on my iPad and get up and follow Christ - I do believe I have a few tables to overturn....