The words ‘remember the poor’ ring loud in the Bible (Gal 2:10) and in recent years have had plenty of resonance in the movement of churches I belong to. The Lausanne Paper: An Evangelical Commitment to Simple Life-style which is stirring me greatly at the moment says,

“We are shocked by the poverty of millions, and disturbed by the injustices which cause it.” One quarter of the world’s population enjoys unparalleled prosperity, while another quarter endures grinding poverty. This gross disparity is an intolerable injustice,—we refuse to acquiesce in it.”

I agree with that but the reason why Christians in the the rich nations of the world should be far more concerned about consumerism than they currently are, is not because of the poor.

The poor would undoubtedly benefit if we raised our game in the area of simplicity, generosity and contentment (the three key ingredients to challenging consumerism and essentials in Christian discipleship). If we reject consumerism and live more simply, then very simply we will have more to give both to relieve the poor and to reach the lost.

Poverty remains a scandalous stain in the world and every child dying of malaria or hunger or thirst is a victory for injustice that should never have been allowed. God’s response to the breaking of His heart over the plight of the poor is to send His people. But we still do not respond to consumerism because of the poor.

The poor will thank you or they might rob you (both have happened to me), they will absorb all your energies and after ‘you have given all you have’ (1 Cor 13:3) and committed all life into meeting the needs of the poor, needy and oppressed and even after my body is burned or in the ground, the poor will remain (Matt 26:11). In some ways caring for the poor can feel like Canute urging the tide to turn around, although the principle of the Starfish remains true.

The Lausanne Paper also says,

“Our Christian obedience demands a simple life-style, irrespective of the needs of others.”

So just as the environment would flourish not suffer (Rom 8:19-21) because of the lives of the people of God, the same is true for the poor. But our lives are not based on these as ends in themselves or as foundations on which to build. Instead the foundation is ‘Christian obedience’, as Lausanne says,

“Jesus our Lord summons us to holiness, humility, simplicity and contentment.”

And this is the key for me, we live simply, we give generously and our hearts are content because of Jesus, for Jesus, to follow Jesus and become like Jesus. Here’s the Lausanne paper again,

“He [Jesus] calls all his followers to an inner freedom from the seduction of riches (for it is impossible to serve God and money) and to sacrificial generosity (“to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share”-] Timothy 6:18). Indeed, the motivation and model for Christian generosity are nothing less than the example of Jesus Christ himself, who, though rich, became poor that through his poverty we might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). It was a costly, purposeful self-sacrifice,- we mean to seek his grace to follow him.”

Can you argue with that?

It’s quite a headline really, when you stop to think about it. Pretty much everything these days seems to be about the environment. Climate change was one of the themes of the last decade and will be one for the next ten years too. If you’re sick of hearing about it, talking about it, thinking about it then I have some bad news for you, in all likelihood this train is only just beginning to pull.

There are massive forces at work reshaping the way our world works (and some fairly hefty forces resisting any such change), but governments (and importantly most of the big ones) are slowly changing too. Take recycling waste for example, almost everyone in the UK deals with household waste differently to ten years ago, more is recycled than ever and looking forward you’ll have increasingly less choice in the matter. Recycling will be what we all do, what we have to do.

Laws will make your cars more energy efficient, increasing numbers of electric vehicles will begin to appear, hybrids will change our petrol stations. Already incentives are available for households to generate electricity and grants available to reduce waste through insulation and new boilers. These are just a few of the ways your life is changing because scientists and governments believe our climate is changing (and not really for the better).

Tied to all of this political drive are the cultural battles taking place, those preparing for a brave new world where cars are obsolete, travel is restricted and everything gets local. It’s a back to the future kind of approach, a blending of nostalgia for ages past and a hopeful mix of new technology and thinking. At the same time a sizeable majority are appalled at the idea of not being able to buy strawberries in winter or driving to the shops in a 4×4. Development agencies are lobbying, oil companies are lobbying back. It’s grassroots against big business.

At the heart of much of the campaigning for change is the belief that our current way of living in developed nations is unsustainable, we simply can’t go on like this, goes the thinking. We buy too much, waste too much, need so little. This is mostly true. This is at the heart of consumerism.

And it’s at this point that Christians are moved into play, we must change to save the planet. Only it’s not about the environment, at least not for me anyway. I don’t want the Maldives to sink beneath the waves, or the farmers of east Africa to endure greater droughts and hardship but that’s not my prime motivation for taking a stand against consumerism.

It’s disconcerting to me that Christians should need to change the way we live at all. Shouldn’t our lives have been respecting creation all along? To me that says, somewhere along the way we stopped thinking about our culture and got swept up the beach of material comfort, so much so that our way of living is indistinguishable from those not following Christ.

I whole heartedly believe that the way in which Christians live should demonstrate care for Creation, but not for the sake of creation but for the sake of Christ. Colossians 1:16 tells me that creation isn’t for me but for Jesus. So I should live is if that were true. Environmentally sustainable ways of living is not my aim but I believe if I were more fully living for Christ that would be just one of the outcomes, it’s the by-product of a simple life not the goal.

Challenging consumerism then is not, for me, about the environment but it is about following Christ.

I also get frustrated by the perception that this is not an important issue or worse still it’s an issue of the left, so being against consumerism makes me automatically a communist. That perception (and I am willing to admit that it might be just me) really bugs me.

So here begins a series on why consumerism is an issue all Christians should be concerned about. I’ll cover topics such as ‘It’s not about the environment’, ‘It’s not about the poor’, ‘It’s not about politics’, ‘It is about the Gospel’

Firstly, it’s a debate you can’t ignore. A side must be taken because, while the future of the planet is not in jeopardy, the form of human civilisation could drastically alter and as always the poorest will be hit hardest. For some of our brothers and sisters we’re not talking about paying higher energy bills we’re talking about them living or dying. So decide I must. Will the streams of justice roll or will they have dried up in western greed and apathy. I think justice demands I make my mind up.

Having decided to decide, I have to decide who to trust. I respect theologians but I don’t listen or believe all of them, same with most experts really. But I don’t dismiss them out of hand. And while not all scientists agree, the vast majority of climate scientists do. That’s a point worthy of note. Given they know more about this than I do, am I going to choose to listen to their warnings.

This group is not a small group, nor is it a group that obviously has much to profit by championing this cause. They’re not backed by big oil companies. Some may make their name, so ego isn’t to be discounted, but for the majority this argument doesn’t apply. It’s a global group – from many different countries, not just liberal, eco-friendly, tree-hugging, atheist Scandinavians. The scientific panels now have decades long body of evidence, they have been subject to scrutiny by peer review, the media, governments and public opinion.

But there are the nay-sayers. The sceptics and climate-gate has only roused them in their conspiracy theory anger. Are they right? Is this whole thing some excuse to sneak in a one-world government through the back door or worse socialism? Well maybe, so what? Anyway, here’s my conspiracy theory in reply. Doesn’t it seem odd to you that the most vocal opponents of change are the ones accused of being the most guilty? That the ones that might actually have to pay up and change are the ones fighting the hardest against it, how strange is that, how unexpected and inconsistent with human nature; wouldn’t you agree?

So here are the sceptics and the pretty robust response from the believers. (HT: Jeremy – read this post!).

But even if the climate isn’t changing (and it’s not just about the planet getting warmer) there are good reasons to work with not against this movement. Here are a few:

1. They have a better response to stewarding and caring for creation and not just using it’s resources
2. It’s not quite as man-centric as we are today, and we always need reminding that we’re not the only thing on the planet, nor the centre of the universe.
3. It’s likely that more just economics, new technologies and in the long run healthier lifestyles will emerge
4. For the Christian this means rejecting the doctrine of greed that so often lies behind consumerism and adopting as part of our lifestyles – a pattern of simplicity, generosity and treading lightly on the earth. Which in the end is I think the more biblical route.

Not so long ago, there was the brief whiff of debate on the blog about climate change. It seems to me that evangelical Christians (especially in the US) are sceptical about climate change (they don’t have a great record of trusting the scientific establishment) and here in the UK, the more reformed you are the less likely (in general terms) the issues of climate change, the environment, consumerism etc are going to be taken seriously. This is a shame and a cause of sadness. I’m convinced one of my roles is to make a contribution to that debate to bring more of the church round on this one. So I’m convinced, are you?

1. We’re not ditching all TV entertainment. We’ll watch DVD’s on computer and if we think about use online options to stream the TV. Given that we’re lucky enough to have those options what do we need the big box in the corner for? I want to be proactive not passive about the programmes I watch, exercise more not less discernment.
2. TV makes us lazy in a number of ways. It’s too easy to just sit there and let the waves wash over you. I’m not sure ‘couch potato’ is a status I want to have.
3. It makes me relationally lazy. I can spend time with Emma without actually being present to her. We can eat meals, pass evenings together and not communicate about anything significant. I’m not sure that’s good for me or my family life.
4. It makes me mentally lazy & unimaginative. The TV does all the entertaining, without the TV – conversation, books, games, crafts (for Emma), running (for me) and other more stimulating and therefore more enjoyable activities take their place.
5. I waste too much time in front of it. I don’t want to use that time for work necessarily, but playing computer games, watching Top Gear repeats or heaven forbid the X-Factor is time I’ll never get back again. Is that really what I want?
6. It disciples me but not in a good way. All of the above forms character, influences my thinking, influences my views on the world, influences my thought-life and more and most of the time I’m not really very discerning about it. Best not have it.
7. I don’t need to see more advertising. I just don’t. Most of it makes me cross.
8. I don’t need the temptations in my house. Let’s face it – there’s a good chunk of immorality, sexual and otherwise on TV. I don’t need it, it doesn’t do me any good.
9. I’m not sure it will do my son any favours as he grows up. I’m not sure I want the TV to be my babysitter, my child’s main educator or form of behaviour control. There are very little dangers associated with NOT watching TV, the same can’t be said of the opposite.
10. The position of our chairs is no longer decided by the location of the TV. Talking to each other is now the design of the room, not watching the box. This is better.
11. I don’t know why I chose to have one in the first place. ‘Because that’s just what you do’ is not a good reason.
12. Silence is under-rated. There’s a lot of noise around in life. The TV is a big culprit in this. Not having will help us rediscover ‘peace & quiet’.

Got any more?

• Questions of life
• What about the consumer dream?
• What about the environment?
• What about consumption?
• What about the way we label success?
• What about generosity?
• What about the desire for ownership?
• What about sharing?
• What about the goal of our lives being the accumulation of wealth?
• What about how we approach debt?
• What about trade justice?
• What about the desires of our heart?
• What about community?
• What about our security?
• What about the future?

Here are a few hunches (shot from the hip), let me know what you think. Money becomes tied up with our dreams, in fact they become inseparable. Money is the key to my early retirement, my travel dreams, my home, my family aspirations. It’s not that I begin by wanting money but that I can’t achieve my dreams without it, so begins our search for more cash.

At the other end of the spectrum is a different but related issue. Money is tied up with my survival, without I cannot buy clothes, food, shelter, basic provision for my family. Without money, my options are limited and unlikely to be lawful.

So money feeds my dreams and keeps me alive but it also soothes my fears. When I’m old, I’ll be OK because I’ll have a good pension, because I’ll have bought my home, because essentially I’ll have money. Without those things I become anxious, nervous and fearful of the future, fearful of illness and loneliness.

In the end we invest ourselves into money, it is the road we must journey on to have hope, to live without fear and to survive in our world. Yet Jesus holds out something different – he calls us to have a new hope, one founded on his kingdom, one that stretches into eternity, He calls us to live without fear – trusting that our Father knows what we’ll need and is able to provide. Death has lost its sting so we are freed to live fully in the present moment. More than that we are born into a family that cares and shares its possessions with each other because they are not mine or even ours but His. No widow should fear loneliness or lack, no orphan should worry about a life without love or food, no family should struggle to survive. And our dreams become renewed, of an earth without pollution, a society without sin, a life without guilt, a kingdom of justice, mercy and grace.

When our hopes, dreams, fears and lives are placed in Christ, money can no longer be a master or even a servant but instead another gift given, received and shared. Then we are free.

Simplicity can seem a mile away in the aftermath of the Christmas season when our accumulation of stuff as well as debt has gone steeply up.

Simplicity, first of all though is not the order of our lives but the order of our hearts. It comes from first of all knowing what we are living for, and as a Christian that means primarily following Christ with our eyes firmly fixed on living out the two great commandments to ‘Love God’ and ‘love neighbour’. This is what gives me my primary purpose and calling as a Christian. It is a universal, for whatever else may change the requirement to do these two things does not.

I may worry or wonder about many other things that I might do with my life or time or energy or resources but instead I should give more of all the above to living out these two crystal clear things that Jesus gave us to do. When it comes to following Christ the requirement is simplicity itself for on these two things, everything else hangs.

This simplicity of heart can bring simplicity of thinking and focus if we let it, setting a framework of freedom for our lives and releasing us to fulfil our potential.

It would seem strange then if that simplicity didn’t filter on down to the level of our possessions, if we are indeed giving ourselves to love god and loving people, seeing us building community and sharing in authentic mission as the people of God, taking the opportunity to be generous to our brothers and sisters and to those in need both near and far away that it that it didn’t result in a reduction of stuff and a greater simplicity in our lives.

These aims go hand in hand, if I reduce the amount of things I need and stuff I want my opportunity to be generous increases, if my heart yearns for the opportunity to give more than I am currently I may think about ‘selling what I have and giving to the poor.’ Listening to the God I love with all that I am may well lead to similar things happening.

In the end, I am sated and bloated by possessions, I buy them, insure them, protect them, care for them and repair them, then I throw them away and replace or upgrade them. All around me are hearts and souls alone, waiting for someone to protect, heal, and provide care for them. One will reap rewards into future generations and the other will disappear about roughly the same time I do. So why is something so simple, so hard to do?