the business of the church

Let me begin by explaining that we M Div first years (juniors) have the "extra curricular" assignment for which we find a "teaching congregation" at which we work 10-12 hours every month. I am really quite excited for this project as it is a great way to understand better the life of the parish and a chance to directly move from the ideas discussed in the classroom into the practice of those ideas in the parish. Still, I am a little irked by the way in which the assignment is to be carried out. And my discomfort has to do with the wider practices of the faithful in our American context.

Here is a journal entry for my education course from earlier today:

This revamped form of the teaching parish is, for me, still in the "church shopping" phase. I visit new churches every week as a sojourner to find one that fits. I am torn over whether this is a good method. While we do need o be in congregations that fit and challenge us, a part of me is very uncomfortable with church shopping. It seems ideal to me to have a community parish where one's whole community meets to worship and live life together. But I understand (especially after reading God is Back) that this has never really been a part of our nation's ecclesial landscape. Voluntarism is a part of our faith. I am also made uncomfortable by the language that is directly taken from capitalism. This model is so marketing and business like. It smacks of competition. We must sell our message to the public and the group with the best sales pitch, and who presents the shiniest version of the product gets the customers. The reality of our context is that this tends to be true. Even the emerging church, which I tend to hold up, presents the gospel in a way that is designed to be attractive, ready to consume, and, dare I say, trendy. New monastics-those so ardently opposed to consumer culture-even market their message (see the sales numbers of Claiborne's books).

Now, I wonder, is this a part of the nature of religion, which needs people in order to survive? Or, as a people so shaped by the Wealth of Nations, is this an especially American or post/late-modern phenomenon? Can evangelism be done without the use of micro-economic language that makes the capitalist model its normative framework?