“The issue is that the church in North America has, for the most part, embraced this insidious monster of consumerism in the most pragmatic manner and has used it as a principle foundation for church growth (66).”

“The difficulty is that we live in a church culture where external success is self-justifying. If more people are coming to our church, this is obviously a sign of success, and God must be pleased. The throng of people coming into the church is decisive evidence that the kingdom of God is advancing, or so we believe. And if this belief is held by the church leadership, then we will be continuously tempted to pursue pragmatic methods to attract and retain people. The insidious thing about this, of course, is that these efforts are inextricably enmeshed with teaching them how to follow Christ. In other words, our attraction all methods are not value neutral. We are training people as we attract them (67).”