Consuming Jesus

Beyond Race and Class Issues In a Consumer Church

• Post Author

  
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• About This Blog

  This blog exists to augment the discussion found in Paul Louis Metzger's book Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church. Discussion will include exploration of the material covered in the book, as well as relevant interviews and theological and cultural essays on this topic.

• About the Book

  Many Americans think that race problems are a thing of the past because we no longer live under the Jim Crow laws that once sustained overt structures of segregation. Unfortunately, says Paul Louis Metzger, today we live under an updated version of segregation, through the subtle power of unchallenged norms of consumer preference.
  
  Consumerism affects and infects the church, reinforcing race and class divisions in society. Intentionally or unintentionally, many churches have set up structures of church growth that foster segregation, such as appealing to consumer appetites. Metzger here argues that the evangelical Christian church needs to admit this fault and intentionally move away from race, class, and consumer segregation.
  
  Challenging the consumerism that fosters ethnic and economic divisions and distorts evangelical Christianity, Consuming Jesus puts forth a theologically grounded call to restructure the church's passions and practices, transforming the evangelical imagination around a nobler, all-consuming vision of the Christian faith.

• Endorsements

  While articulating a profound critique of major flaws in the American evangelical church, along with affirming his love for the evangelical community, Paul Louis Metzger offers a theological model for overcoming barriers of race and class within the church.
  
  As a Native American, I see today the negative effects of the uniquely Americanized “consumerist” version of Christianity that Dr. Metzger is unmasking for our reflective examination. I watch as missionary groups come to our reservations loaded with used clothes, good intentions, and notions of improving our way of life by providing us with stuff to make us happy. Rarely is their concern for the true issues of the kingdom: friendship and relationship with us, out of which authentic ministry partnership occurs.
  
  Metzger speaks to this dilemma facing our Native American community: “While evangelicals talk incessantly about personal relationships, we often reduce the relational framework and relationalism to ‘my kind of people,’ which is void of any of Jesus’ concern for the neighbor.” When the dominant church culture does reach out to us, it’s often from the standpoint of giving out charity, not building community. So, after four hundred years, we remain the “perpetual mission field” for the majority culture American church; we are Natives – “those people” – needing civilization, assimilation, and remolding in view of an American consumerist lifestyle; they call this “social uplift.”
  
  Metzger asserts that we are called to care for the weak, impoverished, marginalized, and oppressed; yet he also argues that we must fundamentally reorient the ways we address people’s plight, dying to a kind of self-serving impetus. He offers another path to address their situation, claiming that Christian faith offers energizing hope that mobilizes the church to become downwardly mobile to partner with the downtrodden to take action and do something together with them about their oppressive circumstances.
  
  The invitation of Consuming Jesus to a life of radical reconciliation inspired and driven by the love of Jesus that overcomes the evil one and restores life-giving power to the whole church resonates with my spirit. — Richard Twiss - Rosebud Lakota/Sioux Tribe, President Wiconi International, Author One Church, Many Tribes

• Purchase

  
  Buy from Eerdmans

• Resources

  Consuming Jesus Study Guide

• Pages

  • About the Book
  • Behind the Blog
  • The Drum Majors for Love, Truth and Justice Partnership, Drs. John M. Perkins and Paul Louis Metzger

• Related Essays

  • True Community: A Holistic Gospel Witness
  • Is the Consumer Church Being Exported to Africa?
  • Jacques Derrida and Structural Evil
  • A Diverse Celebration
  • The Consumer Church and Christian Discipleship in Small Groups
  • Critical Loyalty
  • No Room In The Inn
  • Utilitarian Relational Leadership: The Myth!
  • Church Discipline in a Consumer Culture: A Call for Compelling Community
  • White-Man’s Burden Revisited: The Oppressiveness of Certain Forms of Christian Benevolence Ministry

• Removing the Blinders of Prejudice in the Church

  • The Rainbow of Love
  • Redeeming Race
  • Welcome to the Marathon!
  • Thoughts from your Yellow Sista…
  • Diverse Living Shapes My Racial Beliefs
  • My story — and a gentle plea for less vanilla.
  • The Class: Removing the Blinders of Prejudice in the Church

• Consuming Jesus Podcast

  • Drum Majors for Love, Truth and Justice
  • Drum Majors for Love, Truth and Justice Sermon
  • Consuming Jesus Book Reading at Powell’s
  • Trans World Radio Interview

• Categories

  • Consuming Cyberspace (6)
  • Consuming: Section by Section (17)
  • Essays (11)
  • Food for Thought (3)
  • From the Trenches (11)
  • Interviews (4)
  • Removing Blinders (7)
  • Section by Section (1)

• People

  • Braxton Alsop (2)
  • Bryan Dormaier (7)
  • Kelsi Johns (18)
  • MerkerMatic (3)
  • Paul Louis Metzger (0)
  • Will Thompson (1)

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