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Community in a Consumer Culture

I read this post from Pastor Pete Wilson, out of Nashville, TN, and auther of "Plan B" and thought it definitely deserved to be shared.


There are a lot of enemies to community out there, but maybe none greater than the consumer mentality. Skye Jethani has a new book coming out soon entitled With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God. In the book he says,
Consumerism is a supremely narcissistic worldview in which everything’s value is determined by it’s usefulness to me.  I stand at the center while everything and everyone orbits around me.
Sound familiar to you at all? :)
While the consumer mentality may fuel our economy it doesn’t do anything positive for the community God wants to form in our life.
Consumerism in our relationships can look like this:
When my husband no longer meets my needs I discard him and get a new relationship.
When my friends no longer stroke my ego I discard them and get a new group of friends.
When my church doesn’t meet my needs I’ll leave it and find a new church to attend.
When my wife isn’t meeting my immediate needs for intimacy I will just engage in disposable intimacy called pornography.
When someone gets in the way of my agenda, I’ll run over them with no regard to their heart.
This mentality is doing immense damage in our culture today and you will simply never experience the community you were designed for if you continue down this road.
How do you see consumerism impacting your current relationships?

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