You Too?
Published December 12th, 2005 in Emerging Missional ChurchLet me say upfront that I like U2. I have a couple of CD’s that get a good working out from time to time and when a U2 song comes on the radio the volume gets turned up a bit.
But I have been absolutely stunned by how many emerging church people have gone absolutely crazy about the news this band is coming to Australia. It seems like you can’t be a real emerging/missional church community unless you are a die-hard U2 fan. Suddenly all the talk of missional community that includes the poor and the destitute is thrown out the window as they line up to pay $100 plus for tickets for two hours of light entertainment. In my mind, nobody is worth that much to look at or listen to.
And the anger that has been generated in those that have missed out….!
Yep, Bono has some good stuff to say. But his popularity is driven by the consumer mentality that drives our culture. The appearance of Bono and co on our shores has, I think, exposed how little many so called ‘missional leaders’ differ from any other person caught up in the consumer driven culture. I wonder if there is a question of integrity that needs to be addressed here.
Anyway, Dan at Signposts has some other interesting thoughts.
I started to comment on this at signposts. As someone who has bought the tickets (even though I think the band is overrated) I will try not to be too defensive….hehe.
Anyway, buying tickets for a high profile concert is very conspicuous consumerism - but I see plenty of examples of consumerism (or perhaps poor stewardship) which are equal to this expenditure but which are more hidden - habitual restauranting etc.
True Dan, it is very high profile and an easy target, perhaps more noticeable than many other misues of money
Although its not a true justification, I do feel a little better about it knowing I already contribute to bigger world issues, and generally manage my money well other than this extravagance.
While I take your point that any pressure towards a consumeristic pursuit is an unhealthy push, I must admit as another ticket holder (although I managed to get through for the first concert), that I feel a lot more guilty about owning an iPod (even though I use it every day and spend more than 1.5 hours on a train each day with it in) than I do about having bought tickets to U2.
I think this also raises one of my ‘pet issues’ - discipleship and money. I’m hoorified at the levels of debt I see young people and families generating and for a missional culture to put (hidden) pressure on people to be part of a concert or be left out of the loop is an infectious evil that needs to be named.
I’ve thought the same thing at the Forge gatherings this year when laptops, iPods and all sorts of other gadgets have been flaunted around while talking about ministry to the poor. (Not having a go at you Geoff)
I think this is one area that we can be TRUELY counter cultural.
Like I said, I don’t think it’s wrong to go to U2 of have the things. But when the pressure is there to have them so you can belong, we’ve lost our focus entirely.
Then again, I might be just jealous becasue I don’t have any of those things…:)
So U2 consumerism and ipods were mentioned as being bad. So the U2 ipod is REALLY bad then.
It depends on whether the tools help your ministry or not. Of course, tools like computers and ipods have thier casual uses too. That’s not all bad. You could be using your cell phone to talk to your family/friends/call for pizza, (casual uses) or you could use it to phone pregnancy crisis for someone. Or something.
For me, my skills are in technology/webdesign, so that’s the ministries I’m involved in. Now, I also use the computer to update my blog, play games etc, but I wouldn’t be as effective for God with out my computer, I don’t think.
I agree with you though Matt- pressuring someone to be a consumerist (especially when they can’t afford it) is wrong.
sorry, rambling again….
interesting question…
because it makes a judgement on where we ought to / ought not to spend our money.
are U2 tickets bad? ipods? expensive cars? clothes?
I have never been to a concert in my life (seriously!) and just don’t care about them - but I do like decent wine… I think the equal and opposite danger is the aesthetic life.
It seems life is always a balancing act!
Good to see you back Hamo!
Not a judgement (in my mind anyway) but more a comment. Having said that, Jesus made plenty of calls on where and how money should be spent, so there’s no real need for us to shy away from the topic. I think there are some areas where we need to be counter culture for our message to have any integrity and impact. The UNOH (http://www.unoh.org/) team are a classic example.
One of the spiritual disciplines we will be looking at as a community next year is living simply. As you say, it is a balancing act that can all too easily fall either way. The aesthetic lifestyle forgets Jesus’ message of life to the full. Affluent lifestyles to easily take our focus off Jesus and make it hard to identify with the poor and needy in our communities.
It’s one of my struggles. I must admit that. But a prayer I try to keep before me alwaya is that from Proverbs 30.
“Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown y you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God”
You (and the leadership) have to be careful about simple living, Matt. Sure, it is a good and honourable thing, but People can hurt and angry by the different ways that people think they themselves were being sacrificial - differing levels of sacrifice, I mean, in different areas.
This has to be approached VERY carefully. ’tis better to give than to recieve - and what better way to give more than if you aren’t spending it- however this is SUCH a touchy issue- asking people to give up stuff.
Alison, you just made me feel so much better!!! Just the other day I used the photo and video (yep, it’s a really shiny new iPod) to run my chat with the youth. Winner! I’m still OK! What a relief.
(I might sound sarcastic but I’m not meaning too, I think that’s a very valid point)
Well- we’ve come a long way from those old missionary slide shows… (and I’m not talking about powerpoint)
No sarcasm taken.