Faith & Consumerism amongst Young Adults
Some of you may know that I’m in the process of writing my undergraduate dissertation. I’ve been working my way through research, reading material and planning since September. Now I have my research approach fully sorted, it means I can begin to share a bit more of what it’s about. I’d also like to begin to blog through some of the reading material I’ve been looking at and some of the key issues and concepts I’ve been working through.
My dissertation is about how consumerism affects the way young adults understand and live out their Christian faith.
One of the key elements to my dissertation will be to explore possible responses to consumerism – whether the church should accept and learn to function well in a consumerist culture (Contextualisation) or create and encourage an alternative culture (a kind of counter-cultural response). Or whether a mixture of the two approaches is needed, or better yet: another, third way.
Last month on his blog, Ben Edson made a really interesting observation about consumerism and contextualisation as he re-counted a Q&A with Cid Latty, founder of the Cafe Church Network:
Basically my question was this: Costa/Starbucks/Nero’s are not contextual, they have a brand and they apply that brand which they apply irrespective of context. They do not listen to their context. Is this what Cafe Church is also doing? Developing a brand identity and then applying that irrespective of context. I was fascinated by his response and am still reflecting on it.
His response was essentially, “Yes this is what we are doing.” ” But by doing this we are taking the culture of consumerism seriously. We are not dismissing it for a distance but are engaging with it by creating a brand of church that works in the context of consumerism.” Now, the purist in me hates this response, as it says that Church must never be driven by the culture of consumerism, however the missional part of my nature is fascinated by what he is saying. He is saying that to engage with this context we need to be contextual to consumerism.
What do you think?
- To what extent should the church embrace and adapt to the consumer culture around us?
- And when should the church stand up and challenge the culture around us?
- Should we challenge the mainstream, or go off and create our own, different culture?
I have found writing to be a brilliant way to work through and clarify my own thoughts. So over the next few months, I’ll be continuing to post my thoughts, reflections and analysis in hope that this will aid the process of my dissertation coming together.
