Leadership Journal

Heard the latest disorder? Something called TiVo Tyranny. It's the burden of having recorded too many TV shows and now finding there's no way you're going to be able to watch them all. Though TiVo® is supposed to be a convenience that frees us up, it has produced its own overstuffed feeling. When people gorge on entertainment, can they attune themselves to sermons containing words of life?

That's our challenge. We preach in the world, but not of the world. How do we preach the Kingdom of God, a countercultural message, to people steeped in consumerism?

We gathered a panel to discuss this at the recent National Pastors Convention in San Diego. The panelists:

John Ortberg, teaching pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Northern California, and author of many books, including The Life You've Always Wanted (Zondervan, 2002).

Doug Pagitt, pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis, and author of Preaching Reimagined (Zondervan, 2005).

Efrem Smith, pastor of Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, and author of The Hip-Hop Church (IVP, 2006).

Will Willimon, bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, and the author of several books, including Pastor: A Reader for Ordained Ministry (Abingdon, 2002).

How has consumerism touched your ministry?

Pagitt: In the last few days, I've been both a supplier and a consumer.

First, I was preparing my seminars for the National Pastors Convention and thinking, I'd better come up with material that people are going to want to hear. I found myself a supplier of information, part of an economic system exchanging ideas for registration fees. I'm not bemoaning that. I don't see a total separation between materialism and spirituality.

Second, my wife and I own some rental properties. On Friday night at 11 p.m. one of our tenants called to say a pipe had burst and water was running all over the place. So I opened the phone book and went for the largest ad in the Yellow Pages. This company seemed reputable because they had a hotline, and they guaranteed 24-hour service. So I called and purchased plumbing services. Problem solved. Lots of money spent, but the problem was solved.

Smith: In the inner city of north Minneapolis, I see gang violence stemming from young people who think they're being left behind in the consumeristic culture. There's a disparity along racial lines.

Our church is 60 percent white, 30 percent black, and 10 percent Latino and Asian. A number of the whites in our church are downsizing. They come to the church because they're leaving the suburbs and that materialistic life. They want to shop at thrift stores and buy a house in the inner city. Then I have African-Americans who were raised in the inner city, and they're wanting out: "Look, my parents worked hard so I could get out of the inner city."

These dynamics complicate our efforts to do reconciliation.

Ortberg: I serve a church in the Menlo Park/Atherton area south of San Francisco. Forbes recently named Atherton as the single ...