There is a lot of conversation from church leaders about the consumerism of people in churches. A consumer, well, consumes. He doesn’t give. He accumulates. He takes. He gets what he desires and then leaves. This frustrates many of us and, I think, it should. Some questions I’ve been asking lately are:

1. What am I personally doing to battle this in my life? The truth is my culture is about consumerism, so this is tough.
2. Are there ways in which we approach ministry that may actually be enabling a consumer mentality? At worst, creating it?
3. Are there battles we’re not facing that we ought to be? What fears are we giving into by not fighting those?
4. What does our infrastructure of ministry say about the Christian life, without using words? In other words, what would an outsider say about the Christian life if they only had our ministry as an example? Would it be self sacrifice, or feed a consumer mentality?

These are questions I’ve really been thinking through. Literally sleepless nights. Why? Well, the very core of the gospel message is anti-consumer. Sure, we certainly benefit from the death of Christ and enjoy many blessings. And I’m VERY thankful for that!! But as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:15:

“and he died for all, that those who live may no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised”

This certainly isn’t consumerism. It’s actually exactly the opposite. Christ also speaks to consumerism when he says that in order to follow him we have to “deny ourselves.”

So, ok, we get that. But what about college ministry? How does this apply to us, in college ministry, today? Two things. First, for our own life. I’m actually going leave you to think through that and ask yourself whether or not you have a consumer mentality – but I will say it of course has to start with us. The second has to do with college-age ministry and this is where I’ll try to direct some thoughts and questions.

One of my observations over the years regarding college-age people is that many of them are at a stage of consumerism. Some of this is due to a search for identity, a search for anything to grab a hold of really. And, truthfully, I think we’d all prefer them to be “searching” in Christian circles (at least at some levels) than we would in secular ones. The zeal of college-age people is one of them most beautiful things about college ministry! On the flip side we see many of them being a part of numerous ministries all at once and not investing in anything – just taking.

There is however a fine line we must walk in college ministry. If they view us as trying to “use” them in any way, we’ll repel them – and quickly! So, here’s some questions…

How do you deal with consumerism in your college ministry? What boundaries are important to watch, especially in asking college-age people to serve? What are some things you’ve done that have been effective in helping college-age people embrace a “life of giving?”