We had a brilliant lecture today from a guy involved in 'indigenous church planting' amongst other things, as part of our discipleship lectures. We covered a whole range of topics but the one that most caught my attention was the subject of consumerism and discipleship. There was a lot of discussion about how we deal with the subject, the role of material possessions in our life and so on. This, in light of the current economic situation, brought out some good discussion points about the kind of message we as Christians should be sharing. It got me thinking. We talk a lot about poster-modernisation and post-Christendom and it made me wonder... are we heading for a time of post-consumerism? Could there ever be such a thing? Is this the time for us as Christians to pro-actively encourage those around us to reconsider our obsession with the consumerist culture we've come to depend on? Do we in fact have a responsibility to bring a message of stability, security and hope to the western world which is currently so wrapped up in the controlling tide of the economy?Not sure quite how I feel yet or what I really think. Will need to look deeper in to the subject but it definitely sounds like something worth thinking about...
