Discipleship in America, Part 2: The Problem with Individualistic Consumerism门徒在美国，第2部分：问题与个性化消费

I was hoping to sumbit my second installation of this series earlier, but I’ve been overwhelmed this week.  I have an event to attend this weekend (InterVarsity’s Breakaway) and am preaching at the我只是希望以sumbit我的第二个安装这一系列较早，但我已经不堪重负，这周。我有一个活动，参加本周末（ intervarsity的分裂）和上午的说教在 Crossing at Woodland通道林地 on Sunday morning, so I’ve been feeling spread thin.  Nevertheless, I am perhaps more committed to writing this series than I’ve been committed to anything I’ve ever written in this blog.  And so, here is part 2.对周日上午，所以我一直感觉蔓延薄。不过，我或许更致力于写作这一系列比我一直在致力于什么我从未在这方面的书面博客。等，这里是第2部分。

The Church should take a much more central position in how we conceive of our faith.  This observation is articulated by many many emerging church leaders.  When one reads the Scripture, it is helpful to keep in mind that it is the Church that is being addressed, not the individual.  This is more than just semantics.  The individual cannot read Scripture apart from the context of the Church.  And I am reminded by a comment that Eugene Peterson once made (I’m not sure where it comes from, but when I get home I’ll look it up and cite it in the comments) that prayer must first be a community enterprise and then an individual one.  We should come together and pray according to the mission, purposes, and needs of the church, and then, when we are at home alone, pray for our selves as though we were one part of a larger group.  This is contrary to the normal practice, where we build up a sort of prayer list in our private prayer sessions, and then come to church or small group or prayer meeting with the top 2 or 3 ready to be shared during prayer time.  At the end of the meeting, a big list is compiled made up of individual needs, and then maybe… maybe …there are prayers which center around the church.教会应采取一个更为中央的立场如何，我们设想我们的信仰，这是观察所阐述的许多许多新兴教会领袖时，一看圣经，这是有帮助的请记住，这是教会正在解决，而不是个人，这是不止的语义。个别无法阅读的经文，除了从上下文的教会，并提醒我由一个评论说，尤金彼得森曾经（我不知道它来自，但当我回家，我会看看它和它举在评论中）祈祷，首先要一个社区企业，然后个别一，我们应该走到一起，并祈祷根据使命，宗旨和需要，教会，然后，当我们正处于独自留在家，祈祷，为我们守土有责，因为虽然我们的其中一个部分，一个更大的集团，这是违反了正常的做法，我们在那里建立一个排序祈祷的名单在我们的私人祈祷会议，然后来去教堂或小团体或祷告会与顶端第2或第3愿意分享在祈祷的时间，在会议结束时，一个大名单，编制成立的个别需要，然后也许… … 也许有祈祷，其中围绕教堂。

We cannot begin to identify ourselves as a community of disciples until we can begin to break the bad habit of thinking of ourselves as individual consumers.我们不能开始确定自己作为国际社会的弟子，直到我们可以开始打破坏习惯的思维自己作为个人消费者。

At this point, I need to be very clear.  When I say "consumerism" I am not saying anything about materialism.  I am not refering to selfishness or greed…at least not directly.在这一点上，我必须很清楚的。当我说“消费”我不是说什么唯物论，我不是指自私或贪婪…至少没有直接关系。 When I say "consumerism" I am refering to a specific way of seeing the world…one which embeds itself in our individual thought patterns.  Behind it is the assumption that I am first and foremost an individual and that I am autonomous and sovereign.  My identity is one of my own choosing.当我说“消费”我是指一个具体的方式看世界…其中嵌入本身在我们的个人思维模式的背后，这是假设，我首要的1个人和我的自主和主权。我身份是一个我自己的选择。 Consumerism tells us that my engagement with the world is primarily one in which I have sovereign choice to purchase whatever I choose.  And that this reality is a good one.消费告诉我们，我的接触，与世界主要是一个在我的主权选择，购买，无论我选择。 ，并认为这实际是一个很好的一个。

The problem with this, at least within the scope of my series here, becomes apparent when one begins to apply this sort of "worldview" to the Faith and to people.  We see belief and Christian practices as commodities that we can decide to purchase or not purchase.  We have the freedom to opt into or opt out of whatever we choose.这个问题这一点，至少在我的职权范围了一系列在这里，变得很明显时，一开始申请这种“世界观”的信念和人，我们看到信仰和基督教的做法，作为商品，我们才可以决定购买或不会购买，我们有自由选择加入或退出，无论我们选择。

Through the lense of Individualist Consumerism, our identity exists independently from the Church. Please re-read what I just wrote.  This is important.  This way of thinking tells us that our idenity exists seperately from the Church, and therefore, we have a fundamental difficulty reading Scripture as a church.  How can we read Scripture as a church, when we conceive of ourselves as a group of individuals, each with a sovereign consumer will?  How can we take Scripture seriously when it tells us to "submit to one another?"  In fact, all the allelon ("one another") statements in Scripture come directly into conflict with Individualistic Consumerism. 通过伦泽的个人主义者消费，我们的身份存在独立于教会，请重新阅读我刚才写了，这是非常重要的。这种思维方式告诉我们，我们idenity存在，分别从教会的合一，因此，我们就有了一个根本的困难，读经文，作为一所教堂。我们如何能读经文作为一个教会，当我们设想自己作为一个群体的个人，每一个主权国的消费意愿？我们如何能够采取认真的经文时，它告诉我们“提交到另一个？ “事实上，所有allelon （ ”一个又一个“ ）报表在经文来直接进入冲突与个性化的消费。

But we are not without hope.  We can subvert consumeristic thinking and be the Church.  We can be of the Church first, and individuals second. But we first must stop "doing" church in ways that play to, or placate, the consumer impulse.  We must stop marketing ourselves to individual shoppers of spirituality and begin to reach out in other ways.  We must be disciples, students of the Way of Jesus.  We must discipline ourselves to read Scripture together.  We must pray together.  We must practice the economics of the Kingdom of God.  Once we begin to desire that, and begin to conceive of ways of practicing that, we will begin to understand how to be disciples in America.但我们并不是没有希望，我们可以颠覆消费主义思想和教会，我们可以对教会的第一 ， 第二和个人，但我们首先必须停止“做”教会的方式来发挥，或安抚，消费者的冲动我们必须停止营销自己的个人购物者的灵性，并开始去接触其他的方式。我们必须弟子，学生的方式，耶稣，我们一定要纪律，自己读经文一起，我们必须一起祈祷，我们一定要实践经济学上帝的王国，一旦我们开始的愿望，并开始设想如何实践，我们将开始了解如何成为弟子在美国。

for further reading .为进一步读。 . 。 . 。

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