Born: June 9, 1972
« Who saw that it was g… | Home | And on the last hour … »
October 31, 2003 at 10:10 am
Andy Crouch: The Post-Consumer Church (Jacob's Well, Kansas City, MO, October 26, 2003)
After receiving a barrage of requests (two Blog comments and one e-mail — whew!) I have decided to post the notes that I took at our church’s recent “conference” in which Andy Crouch discussed “the church in the midst of a consumer culture.” I understand that anyone’s notes, without any sort of context, can be difficult to comprehend and I will make no apologies for the fact that my notes are being presented out of context. This being said, I think that the concept being presented is is fairly self-explanatory — of course, I know why I wrote certain things in my PalmPilot and you don’t. In any case, have a good time reading and share your comments (especially if you need me to explain anything in greater detail).
A few final notes before reading:
ANDY CROUCH (October 26, 2003) THE POST-CONSUMER CHURCH: THE CHURCH IN THE MIDST OF A CONSUMER CULTURE
– CULTURE is what human beings MAKE of the world (in both senses of the word “make” — i.e., what we make with our hands and what we make with our minds).
*Based on: – How the world “is.” – How the world ought to “be.” – What does this “making” make “possible”? – What does this “making” make “impossible”?
– CULTURE creates opportunities for new culture — culture never stops. *Because of this, human beings are constantly processing their current culture and, out of it, creating new culture. CULTURE is powerful! It can make things feel possible and impossible — completely unreliant on any “natural” laws.
Even though someone has an idea, it’s not CULTURE until the idea is executed publicly — there’s no such thing as private culture.
CONSUMER CULTURE
– What is a consumer? 1. Discovering that you have a lot of options (life begins w/ very few options — as a baby — which quickly increase w/ age). 2. Knowing what we like/want (what are our prefences?). 3. Someone who attends to VERY small matters (the minutiae of differences in product and in ourselves). 4. Having established “trust” in an “assistant” — or brand (once we have trust, we no longer need to “check it out” again, before purchasing). 5. We attend to very large things (humanity, faith, well-being, time, trust — the universal transcendant aspects of life). 6. Knowing the diffence between involvement & unknown outcome (risk and mystery) and buying something that will unquestionably provide us w/ excellence (no risk at and face-value).
*PURCHASE (satisfaction that starts high and drops after time) VS. PRACTICES (satisfaction that starts low and raises over time). *As consumers, we find our satisfaction in purchases rather than practices.
– See, “The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness,” by, Virginia Postrel.
Digg This Story | 
Save This Page
No Trackbacks
Trackback Link:
Comments (3)
Arg.