Skye Jethani, at Leadership magazine and Out of Ur blog, has created a bit of a dust-up about “consumerist” Christianity with his new, very good book: The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity
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His book does three cool things: he sketches consumerism and its impact on the church, he offsets consumerism by proposing spiritual disciplines as ways to get out of the consumerist mindset, and he weaves into all of this the life of Vincent Van Gogh. Well, good on Skye and I endorsed this book heartily. But… but… but… it’s easier to say we are consumerist Christians and much harder to define.

I’ve got a big question when it comes to this critique and I wonder what you think:

How would you define “consumerist Christianity“? How do you know when you see it? What is its defining element? What are its impacts? Who wants to join in on this discussion with us?