“I recently read an article by an Evangelical vicar of the Church of England warning of the church’s inevitable exile from the already estranged culture. So, in addition to the dangers of compromise that this fellow-Evangelical observes, I would add that the particular American danger for the church is its preoccupation with providing an entertaining experience for the 8:00 am, 10:30 am, and 11:30 am Sunday crowd.”
(Theodore Zachariades – Pulpit & Pen) It should not surprise one that the church in its larger contours is eaten up with consumerist mentalities. The wider culture in North America is certainly rushing full-throttle on the capitalist train, so it should not be a shock to see the “church at large” imbibing marketing strategies and selling its product.
Furthermore, as the average person in the USA is currently predisposed to find comfort and entertainment as the answer to their otherwise futile working weeks, the church senses its need to compete for attendees.
If a shopping mall is more attractive when it has a food court and a Starbucks, we may as well have high-end coffee and donuts on offer at our congregational meetings or we might fall down the scale of the trendy and the desirable. Malls, once a thing buried deep in an innovator’s ingenuity, now provide avenues not just for purchasing things but a complete shopping extravaganza.