I wonder what you consider to be the greatest challenge for the Church in the West as we head into the second decade of the 21st century? There is certainly no lack of candidates for that poll position in the problems confronting the church

The decline in church membership
The growing hostility of secular culture to Christianity
The rise of militant and confrontational atheism
The changing culture as whatever post-modernism is squeezes whatever modernism was out
The growing power of Islam

Speaking personally I have come to the conclusion that our greatest contemporary challenge is a perennial problem. Its a problem that stretches right back to the church in embryo, to Jesus first group of disciples. I see it displayed at its most blatant in this incident

Matthew 28:20 Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favour. 21 “What is your request?” he asked.
She replied, “In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honour next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.”
22 But Jesus answered by saying to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?”
“Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!”
23 Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. My Father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.”
24 When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. 25 But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 26 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. 28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

I have known a few people down the years who seemed to have an uncanny knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. James’, John and their mother seem to have belonged to that illustrious group, people who only take their foot out of their mouth to replace it with the other one. Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem for the final time, mind full of the enormity of what his mission will call upon him to give there and he is confronted by Ben Zebeddee family with their shopping list of what they wanted to get from the revolution they knew Jesus was about to kick off.

We get a real insight into how at least these three early followers of Jesus regarded him. They saw Jesus as the one who could make their dreams come true, who could improve their lives. They wanted Jesus to help them move on up in the world in terms of power, status and wealth to enable them to leave behind their humble lives in Galilee to become power brokers in Jerusalem. I am not sure at this stage we could even call them followers of Jesus. to me they are little more than fans. I can come to no other conclusion than that they saw Jesus as existing primarily for them.

There is a taste of disappointment in Jesus words in that passage. He can hardly believe that after three years some of his closest friends have so fundamentally misunderstood what He and his revolution, the Kingdom of God is really all about. He tells them bluntly that there is no place among His disciples for those who are in it for what they can get out of it. The way of Jesus which is going to be so publicly and radically displayed on a hill just outside Jerusalem finds greatness in, serving not being served, in giving not getting. To follow Jesus is to be a servant and to be a servant is to make your focus in life giving not getting. Life in the Kingdom of God is about contributing to Jesus’ revolution of transformation in the world not just wanting to be a consumer of its benefits.

Which brings me on to the greatest challenge I see facing the church today in the 21st century. The truth is that its not different from the challenge that faced Jesus on the Jerusalem road in the 1st century, its moving those who claim to be Christ followers from being consumers to contributors in the Kingdom of God. I don’t think its an over exaggeration to say that the contemporary church is being held captive by Christian consumers. They want to consume what Christ and his church can offer them but resist sacrificing to contribute to the Kingdom of God. Just like James and John and their pushy mother they see Jesus as being the one who could help them achieve their ambitions in life rather than understanding that they are called to give their lives for Jesus’ ambition for this world. They want Jesus to improve their lives but are less keen on any sacrifices involved in giving their lives to Jesus mission to improve the world. I have seen prayers recently on Face Book where Christians have said that God has given them the faith for a millionaire lifestyle, the faith to be a megastar! Doesn’t sound that different from what Jesus first disciples were asking, make me a somebody and a wealthy powerful somebody. The problem is that is the dream of the world not the dream of someone who has understood the Kingdom of God. To be brutally honest too many people want church to be about what they want, they like, they are comfortable with rather than what Jesus calls it to be. No one says that outright, but at church meetings, at AGM’s and leadership meetings that this the way they vote.

The problem as I have already pointed out, is that the Kingdom of God which should be the obsession of the church is inevitably on a collision course with the consumer culture we live in. The admen, the soaps and the celebrity mags tell us that greatness comes from getting, getting power, getting money, getting fame, getting pleasure. Consumerism puts us at the centre of our own universe and encourages us to believe that life should revolve around us and what we want and its infected the church. Today what could be more radically counter cultural than believing greatness comes through serving and giving, through making a purpose greater than our own comfort the prime motivation in our life?

Just listen to Matt Smay and High Halter describe what it means to be a follower not just a fan of Jesus, “You don’t get to keep all your money. You don’t get to do whatever you want with your time. You have to share your stuff, your money, your kids. You have to exchange your ambitions for God’s, your kingdom for His, you must be available for God to interrupt your nicely scheduled day with needs that will make you want to pull your hair out” Is that the way you think most people who go along to church buildings Sunday by Sunday live? No me neither.

The sad reality is that our churches today have too many fans of Jesus who bring their consumerist mentality to church and want to be consumers of the Kingdom of God not contributors to it. Yet this consumerism is the very embodiment of the self focused, self interested, selfish orientation that the New Testament calls the “flesh” and warns is toxic to living for God. You simply cannot be a follower of Jesus and have an unchecked consumer mentality, even if all you want to consume is hymns that you like in an environment that makes you feel comfortable.

Despite all I have said I find this is an encouraging not discouraging story, James and John finally got “it” Perhaps it was when confronted by Jesus hanging on the cross and seeing God the father give that sacrifice the divine thumbs up through the resurrection and ascension that the penny dropped for them and they understood that giving rather than getting was the essence of greatness in the Kingdom of God. These two men radically reorientated their lives, they literally gave the rest of their lives to serving Jesus in his mission of the Kingdom. They put Jesus at the centre of their lives and kicked consumerism out, moving from being selfish fans of Jesus to committed followers.

The question that keeps me awake at night is how do we help people in today’s church take that same journey?
How do we motivate people in our churches to become active contributors to what God is doing in this world rather than just wanting to be passive consumers of what they want Him to do in the church building?
More than just about anything I want Mosaic to devoted to finding out the answer to that question.

I must confess that I have no definitive answer, no great 10 point plan but I am holding on to the question and praying because this story gives me the hope that we can see consumer Christians become Kingdom contributors.