Consumerism and the Church

It seems to be a difficult balance to get. Within youthwork how much time do we providing attractive looking programmes? It seems legitimate in some respects, but at the end of the day what keep young people engaged with the church?

My thinking around consumerism has been prodded and formed by different things over the past years. I remember reading and listening to Pete Ward talk about his book 'Liquid Church'. In fact i really like this book and his exploration of new forms of being church. However one of my former lecturers was fairly heavily critical of the approach to this book as he branded is as consumeristic as its premise was to create church to be what we enjoy. I can see both sides of the fence.

Whilst at our weekly n:flame team meeting yesterday we were thinking about consumerism within youthwork and spent some time thinking about Marko's excellent article in octobers Youthwork magazine.

I found this piece from some burger king advertising on Conrad Gempf's blog and some his thoughts around it.

"Have It Your Way
You have the right to have what you want, exactly when you want it. Because on the menu of life, you are "Today's Special." And tomorrow's. And the day after that. And... well, you get the drift. Yes, that's right. We may be the King, but you my friend, are the almighty ruler."

It does seem to perfectly sum upthe consumeristic nature of today. I wonder how prevelent this thinking is in church. How many people expect things to be put on for them as church becomes something that we attend rather than what we are?