Discipleship in a Low Commitment culture (or “why I hate the Facebook Maybe”)
Recently I've been thinking a lot about the effect that our consumeristic culture has had on the level of commitment people are willing to give. I've often spoken out against the Facebook "Maybe" option as responsible for a lot of the problems with our society – particularly youth/student culture. But actually, I think that it's actually a symptom of the problem rather than a cause.
As well as blattantly being about shallowness ("I don't have the guts to say I don't want to go, so I'll maybe"), the Facebook maybe also personifies an unwillingness to commit – particularly when doing so won't in some way specifically benefit us. That little blue button is a symbol of the low commitment culture which has been brought on by the monopoly which consumerism and materialism has on our society – and which has an infectious, virulent hold on the Church.
As Christians, we need to realise that one of the reasons our faith isn't speaking into our lives in a revolutionary, counter-cultural way is that our version of Christianity is only a denomination in the greater religion of consumerism.
Mark Sayers has a recent blog on how our culture is de-evolving to a post-literate state. Why? I'm sure partly because it takes too much commitment of our time to sit down and read. To contemplate and reflect is five minutes commitment which could be spent doing something seemingly more beneficial. "There's so much more I could be doing that would take less commitment, than commiting to sit here and do nothing"
So what's the remedy? (and Jesus isn't an acceptable cop-out answer ;-)
How about Covenant?
Holistic, whole-life, discipleship must be a life lived in covenant (huge props to Chris Moore for a great couple of conversations yesterday). And covenant means commitment.
Covenant has been the foundation for humankind's relationship with God since the beginning. Covenant is about a commitment to listen to and follow God. But most of us would say we've already made that commitment – so how can that commitment be taken further? By committing to a specific rhythm of life that makes room for God to speak, and makes room for the following to happen.
We need to become a covenantal Church, which raises the bar on discipleship – asking for more than simply cheque books or gift aid declarations. Urging people to give simply raises their expectation of service from the Church – instead we need to be urging them to invest their lives through a life of covenant.
I think this is why community practices amongst missional communities are becoming more and more common. These practices bring a rhythm which is deeply counter-cultural and provide a practical basis for covenant and commitment. Of course, the monastic rule of life has embodied this kind of covenant for around two thousand years. So it is no surprise that at the heart of a missional movement which seeks to dis-engage Christianity from consumer paganism is a fresh engagement with the monastics.
What if a starting point is simply to re-discover the art of contemplation within our church gatherings? Let's learn to stop together, and listen. And commit together to choosing the "bad investment" – spending time when there's seemingly nothing to gain from it.
Once again, the disclaimer – hope some of that at least made sense.
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Richard Passmore
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James Henley
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Richard
