"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 eff…