To me, malls were a place my family would go to stroll around and see all that America had to offer. We didn't have enough money to really buy anything, but we could at least envy the latest sneakers or jackets or jewelry. And then, we could either dine in the food court or have an ice cream cone.
But would be slowly killing off this Mecca of consumerism? How about more comfortable consumerism, online shopping? As more and more people turn to Amazon and Target and Walmart online, more brick and mortar stores are closing. After all, why have an actual store where you have to spend money to employ people, when all you need is a website and a central processing center? People want it and companies are there to provide it. But in the process, we might be seeing the slow death of the American mall. It's a dog-eat-dog world and who knew that the only way to destroy the symbol of consumerism was to find something that is even more consumeristic?
But are we also seeing this take place in the church? I remember going to visit a friend who was pastoring a church in Southern California in Anaheim. He showed me the church his church was renting, and it was a sprawling campus called Melodyland Christian Center. It was once filled with people in the 50s, where people's felt needs were met. Eventually, the church did not last and the place became a shell of its former self. People wanted more than what Melodyland offered. Also, newer, bigger, shinier, more cutting-edge churches popped up in Southern California. One moment, the church is the greatest in the world, the next moment, your eyes are wandering and the heart begins to ask, "Is there better out there? Does such and such a church have a better program for my kids?" Churches, great and small, are just as vulnerable to consumerism as malls are.
Lest we think this worldview is limited to our day and age, we need only look back to the gospels. How many times did people cry out to Jesus for healing or delighted in his teachings, but actually refused to follow Him? What about the ten lepers who called out for Jesus' help (Luke 17:11f.)? Only one returned to even give a word of thanks, revealing the underlying hearts of the others. They didn't care for Jesus. They wanted what Jesus offered in the moment, but they wanted nothing to do with his cross (Luke 9:23). They just wanted their felt-needs addressed and once they were, off they went. Essentially, they didn't care for Jesus as king because they already had an almighty in place, not the great I Am, but rather, the great I. Consumerism is merely another way of saying self-absorption, self-centeredness, the plague of the human condition since Adam and Eve,
In Luke 24:32, after the disciples met Jesus on the road to Emmaus, they said to one another, "They said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?'" The disciples were consumers too. When it came to Jesus' greatest hour of need, they simply forgot all that He did for them and ran. And yet, Jesus still pursued them and loved them and shared God's Word with them once again. Their hearts burned within them. In other words, they came to see that in order to gain their lives, they needed to lose them, something they would come to fully realize at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit brings us to union with Jesus, where Christ lives in us eternally (Galatians 2:20). Only our new birth (John 3) and the Spirit's power can overcome consumerism. Otherwise, we will always be looking for the next mall, the next Amazon, the next shiny, cool church, the next Savior.