After reading Neil Postman’s seminal work, Amusing Ourselves to Death, I, like many other readers, faced many questions concerning the direction of our nation’s consumer-based and entertainment-focused culture. However, rather than dwelling on the many debates surrounding technology and television, Postman’s book caused me to ponder another institution engraved into American culture: the Church. In his chapter on television’s relationship to religion, Postman prophetically argues that our culture’s shift from print to the visual-based mediums like television have transformed religion into nothing more than a glorified form of popular amusement. Not only has this transformation downplayed the spiritual importance of doctrine in the church—as proven by the Evangelical “seeker-sensitive” church movement—but it is my contention that it has also physically dislocated the church’s significance within our local communities.
Nowhere is this demonstrated better than in the contemporary practice of “church-hopping”—that is, the frequent movement of the individual from one church body to another. Two major factors have contributed to this practice: the transportation revolution and the commoditization of religion mentioned by Postman. Traditionally, one’s options for “church” were four to five local churches available from a variety of denominational traditions. However, thanks to the transportation revolution of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, these limitations have been broken. No longer is one limited to the local churches in town – instead, one can go to a church that is a thirty to forty minute drive from their home! However, while the transportation revolution provides the means for “church-hopping,” it is the commoditization of religion that has driven the practice itself. As society is increasingly attuned to the culture fixated on the desires of the individual, the church has likewise shifted its ministry “strategies” to fit within this consumption-based framework by appealing to the culture. Church-goers, also influenced by a consumer-focused culture, have followed the example of these churches.
Ironically, the goal of seeker-sensitive churches to attract attendees by fulfilling their desires for entertainment has done the opposite: it has fueled an unhealthy and uncommitted practice of church-hopping. Instead of seeking a church solely because of its theological commitments and community within the body of Christ, churchgoers search instead for the church that is the “right fit” with certain aspects that satisfy the individual’s wants and desires. In other words, just as worship has been made into marketable entertainment, the Church is also now regarded as a commodity. To postmodern America, the Church’s purpose isn’t to build up one another in Christ, but instead to satisfy the individual’s personal needs, preferences, and beliefs. We’ve been trained to treat church like a product or an attraction, where we can come and go as we please without any semblance of long-term commitment or interdependency.
Before continuing, I want to note that I am not arguing against valid reasons to leave a church for another body of believers. On the contrary, with the rise of theological liberalism, there may be very good reasons to leave a certain church or denomination. One example of this within American Presbyterianism is Dr. J. Gresham Machen’s split from the mainline Presbyterian Church of the USA to form the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) in the early twentieth century. There are many such stories in the history of American denominations, some for good and some for ill, but the point still stands: the possibility of leaving a church for good reasons is real. (What constitutes having a good reason is not the focus of this article.) And of course there is nothing inherently wrong with the fact that believers can worship with congregations who meet outside of their local community. It is by God’s grace that faithful believers now have the means (via car, train, etc.) to attend faithful, Bible-preaching churches.
However, with these cultural transformations, the church has lost something; that is, in all these instances that have given rise to more church options and “church-hopping,” we have lost the sense of committed, tight-knit community that was a hallmark of the Body of Christ for thousands of years. From the Puritan congregations of New England to the Anglican parishes of Georgia, local churches of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were centers of religious vibrancy and community service. Unlike today,the individual believer was geographically and, arguably, ideologically bound to the local body of Christ. Personal preferences didn’t dictate the believer’s duty to the congregation because there were no other churches to attend. Even more than this, he recognized his duty to the body of Christ and that to neglect that duty for personal reasons would be selfish. He recognized, as the Apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 12, that every member of the body of Christ is vital to its whole—that to abandon one’s obligations to his brother in Christ causes the whole body to suffer.
There are no clear-cut solutions to the fact that cultural issues like church-hopping exist. For example, one cannot reverse the manifold effects of modern transportation or entertainment culture on the broader health of the American church. However, at the same time, recognizing these issues can certainly push us to begin to contemplate their possible resolution. It would be a mistake to just dwell on the “good ole’ days” of the old-timey small town church, wishing we could go back in time – even then, things were not perfect. Rather, realizing the costs of a church-hopping culture driven by consumeristic mindsets should cause us to get at the root of the issue right where we are planted; it should encourage the church to foster stronger community within and between local churches. It should cause us to see our churches not as a product or event, but as a community that requires our whole-hearted commitment.
Ultimately, no product or attraction can provide the life-giving community that the local body of Christ is meant to give us. Because of our union with Christ, we as believers are mystically united to one another through the waters of baptism, the blessing of communion, and the wondrous gift of the Holy Scriptures. Amid our deepest moments of pain, suffering, and confusion, who among us would prefer frivolous entertainment to this precious source of life abundant? Like a Bride made pure for her Bridegroom, the Church was bought with a price; we must not lose sight of this. We must not take Her for granted but instead should live in light of the glorious grace lavished upon Her members, earnestly committing ourselves to Her service. Empowered by the grace of Christ, let us walk in brotherly love with one another. May we humbly bear one another’s burdens, always looking to our Savior whose “yoke is easy and burden is light” (Matt. 11:30).
