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Posted: July 11th, 2007 at 1:50am By: Rev. Rebecca Schlatter
As a pastor, I sometimes hear, in relation to worship or a church event, "Well, I didn't get much out of it." It's not often I hear it directly. Usually it's admitted reluctantly, usually in the third person: "They left because they weren't getting much out of that community/worship/Bible study/etc."
To make sure people get something out of our church's ministries, I could consult a vast literature telling me how to market our church and how to appeal to various consumers of spiritual goods. Instead, I'd rather help people approach a faith community with a larger hope: the hope of putting something into it.
I'm not one of those religious people who regret the very existence of the "spiritual marketplace" and disdain those who shop for faith and community. I accept that many people need to "shop around" for a tradition and people that fit. I celebrate the way they are driven to keep seeking until something satisfies their longings.
I just don't believe that people's deepest longings can be satisfied by merely getting something out of an experience.
Centuries of spiritual traditions teach that you become what you practice. If you practice being a consumer, looking for what you can get out of something, you will end up becoming very good at consuming. As consumers of any goods, we look for products that work better for less cost. So, as a consumer in community, your expectations of others rise over time, and what you think the community should expect of you falls.
That may be how consumers work, but it's not how community works. Over time, for example, people's irritating idiosyncrasies become clearer, and they're not quite as cool and supportive as they first seemed. At the same time, a community begins to ask more of an individual — i.e., you get asked to be on the proverbial ubiquitous church committee. Soon a given community, no matter how great it seemed at first, will seem to work less well and cost more — the exact opposite of what a good consumer wants.
So with people entrenched in a market mentality, what's the solution? It's all about transforming consumers into producers — people who do the ministry as well as receive it. Or to use a biblical metaphor, those who "bear fruit" as well as enjoying the fruit that others bear. It solves the problem because you experience the good stuff of faith and community even more when you give it away ("producing") than when you receive it from others ("consuming").
Galatians 5 speaks of this good stuff as the "fruits of the Spirit": love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The good news is, you experience those even more when you contribute them to community ("putting something in") than when you "get something out of it." For example, when you give love away, you feel the love within you even more strongly than when someone is giving love to you.
Perhaps that's the desire behind the well-known Prayer of St. Francis:
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive. ...
When you focus more on giving and become a "producer," community works better and is well worth the cost. And it also satisfies a deeper longing. Even more than being entertained or inspired or informed or even loved, human beings long for our personality, talents and contributions to be acknowledged, our love requited and our gifts received. As long as we remain consumers, we can't risk sharing ourselves enough for that to happen.
One more benefit: When you're a producer yourself, you're less at the mercy of the particular "marketplace" where you live and the way it matches your own personal preferences — or not. It can be hard to find just what you're looking to get out of a church. But when you're looking for a place to contribute and to bear fruit yourself, the possibilities are endless.
— — —
Rev. Rebecca Schlatter is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Reno, Nevada. You can contact her at {email newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com}newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com{/email}. © copyright 2007 by Rebecca Schlatter.
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As a pastor, I sometimes hear, in relation to worship or a church event, "Well, I didn't get much out of it." It's not often I hear it directly. Usually it's admitted reluctantly, usually in the third person: "They left because they weren't getting much out of that community/worship/Bible study/etc."
To make sure people get something out of our church's ministries, I could consult a vast literature telling me how to market our church and how to appeal to various consumers of spiritual goods. Instead, I'd rather help people approach a faith community with a larger hope: the hope of putting something into it.
I'm not one of those religious people who regret the very existence of the "spiritual marketplace" and disdain those who shop for faith and community. I accept that many people need to "shop around" for a tradition and people that fit. I celebrate the way they are driven to keep seeking until something satisfies their longings.
I just don't believe that people's deepest longings can be satisfied by merely getting something out of an experience.
Centuries of spiritual traditions teach that you become what you practice. If you practice being a consumer, looking for what you can get out of something, you will end up becoming very good at consuming. As consumers of any goods, we look for products that work better for less cost. So, as a consumer in community, your expectations of others rise over time, and what you think the community should expect of you falls.
That may be how consumers work, but it's not how community works. Over time, for example, people's irritating idiosyncrasies become clearer, and they're not quite as cool and supportive as they first seemed. At the same time, a community begins to ask more of an individual — i.e., you get asked to be on the proverbial ubiquitous church committee. Soon a given community, no matter how great it seemed at first, will seem to work less well and cost more — the exact opposite of what a good consumer wants.
So with people entrenched in a market mentality, what's the solution? It's all about transforming consumers into producers — people who do the ministry as well as receive it. Or to use a biblical metaphor, those who "bear fruit" as well as enjoying the fruit that others bear. It solves the problem because you experience the good stuff of faith and community even more when you give it away ("producing") than when you receive it from others ("consuming").
Galatians 5 speaks of this good stuff as the "fruits of the Spirit": love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The good news is, you experience those even more when you contribute them to community ("putting something in") than when you "get something out of it." For example, when you give love away, you feel the love within you even more strongly than when someone is giving love to you.
Perhaps that's the desire behind the well-known Prayer of St. Francis:
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive. ...
When you focus more on giving and become a "producer," community works better and is well worth the cost. And it also satisfies a deeper longing. Even more than being entertained or inspired or informed or even loved, human beings long for our personality, talents and contributions to be acknowledged, our love requited and our gifts received. As long as we remain consumers, we can't risk sharing ourselves enough for that to happen.
One more benefit: When you're a producer yourself, you're less at the mercy of the particular "marketplace" where you live and the way it matches your own personal preferences — or not. It can be hard to find just what you're looking to get out of a church. But when you're looking for a place to contribute and to bear fruit yourself, the possibilities are endless.
— — —
Rev. Rebecca Schlatter is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Reno, Nevada. You can contact her at {email newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com}newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com{/email}. © copyright 2007 by Rebecca Schlatter.
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