"By living in a society in which most daily choices are consumer choices, people have come to view their relationship to the church in similar ways....But once people come to view choosing a church in ways similar to choosing among competing brands and styles of basketball shoes, then enormous pressure is exerted among the church to conceive of itself in those terms as well" (p. 68). And this tendency toward consumerism may be the most detrimental contemporary temptation for the church.

Years ago, the great sociologist, Ferdinand Toennies, criticized the role of the market in creating a society in which there was no real community, but rather only individuals who approached others with the attitude "I give so that you will give back to me."

"What I do for you, I do only as a means to effect your simultaneous, previous or latest service for me. Actually and really, I want and desire only this. To get something from you is my end; my service is the means thereto, which I naturally contribute unwillingly." (Quoted by Kenneson and Street, p. 69)

What if the church serves people, not as a market transaction, but because it is the people of God? What if our choir works hard on their anthem, not because they hope you will like it and be inspired by it but because the choir knows that we are called to be a sign, a signal, a foretaste, a beachhead of God's Kingdom in the world? What if I'm preaching this sermon, not because I think it's uppermost on your list of weekly wants, but rather because I believe this is what God wants? What you get out of what is done here should not be as great a concern among us as fidelity to the peculiar nature of God's Kingdom.

What is the greatest service the church can render the world? Perhaps the service we render is not necessarily what the world thinks it needs. But the church is not only about meeting my needs but also about rearranging my needs, giving me needs I would never have had had I not come to church.

Once, I departed from my usual practice and preached a sermon which was very judgmental and negative, downright critical, prophetic even.

At the end of the service, as you were filing out, I froze when one of your greeted me at the door with, "Your sermon!" But then you said, "Thanks for telling it like it is. It's rare, these days, that someone speaks honestly about our situation. Thanks, I needed that."

That's rather amazing. We need comfort, reassurance, a sense of peace. Yes. But we also need truth. Honesty. In church, when it's at its best, we get not what we think we need but what God thinks we need which is what we need.

While we are asking what people want, we ought to ask the more frightening question, What does God want? "What does the Lord require?" is a fundamental question...

Someone surely left the synagogue that day saying, "I'm sorry, that new preacher just didn't do a thing for me."

Some, a few, not everyone, surely realized that Jesus was about something considerably larger than me.