Michael Moynagh turns some contemporary assumptions on their heads in his book, emergingchurch.intro. Everyone recognizes, for instance, how deadening to the soul consumerism can be, so it is quite a remarkable turn in which he states, “Consumer desires should not be things for the church to battle against, but entry points for the gospel.” Say what? Well, let him explain.
“[Church leaders] give the impression that Christianity is against what individuals enjoy in their everyday lives. Many people conclude that the church has little to contribute to their deepest longings – to their search for identity, acceptance and ways of achieving their aspirations. They don’t see church as being on their side. In its attempt to be prophetic, the church undermines its mission.”
An interesting feature of Moynagh’s book is that he invites a couple of friends to dialogue with him throughout the book, and his friends’ responses are interspersed in the text. One of his friends responds to Moynagh’s bold idea of engaging consumerism for the sake of the gospel with this comment: “I hope Mike will develop this. How to be counter-cultural from within consumerist culture is our biggest challenge, not least because its values have eaten so deeply into the existing church.”
Moynagh sees enormous opportunities for churches to co-opt the powerful consumer tendencies that are shriveling the souls of contemporary society. What Moynagh is not championing is the way large, wealthy churches, both traditional and seeker-oriented, draw crowds with spiritual entertainment. They are joining consumerism, not subverting it, and they are not transforming lives.
Instead, Moynagh urges the church to recognize the spiritual hunger that is driving consumer impulses and to offer Christian faith and community as a better choice. And choice is the key word. “Only by taking seriously the culture of choice will the church have a future. When people think ‘it’s up to you,’ the church won’t get away with being dogmatic or hierarchical: it needs to be more like a partner, working with individuals as they explore belief for themselves – ‘this is how the passage has often been understood, but how do you read it?’ (Time to farewell the traditional sermon?)” [Moynagh’s parenthesis, not mine.]
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