Brothers & Sisters,
We Are Not MERE Consumers

The Opening Parable

The sermon opens with an imaginative scenario: what if your pastor spent twelve weeks giving you highly specific instructions — about aerobic endurance, exposure to cold, deliberate communication under fatigue — without ever explaining why? You'd tune it out. You'd find it irrelevant. But what if they first told you: in twelve weeks, we are climbing Mount Everest together? Everything changes. You listen because you know where you're going.

This, the pastor argues, is precisely what happens in the Church. We come on Sundays, we hear things, and we wonder — who is he talking to? Why does this matter? And much of it goes in one ear and out the other. The problem isn't the content. It's that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of what is happening here on Sundays.

We Are Climbing Mount Everest

Every follower of Jesus is on an adventure: we are mountaineers climbing the great Everest of discipleship. To be a disciple means to be a learner, a student, a pupil — someone who follows a rabbi so closely that they learn to think like him, talk like him, and live like him.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…" — Matthew 28:18–20

This is not a calling for a few special Christians. It is the calling of every follower. There is no option of being "saved and going to heaven" without being a learner and follower. Christian discipleship is a lifelong, intentional process of following Jesus, learning his teachings, and becoming more like him.

But First: The Mountain Jesus Climbed

Before we can climb the mountain of discipleship, we must understand the mountain we could never climb ourselves — the mountain of salvation, righteousness before God. Psalm 24 asks who can ascend the hill of the Lord. Romans 3 answers: none of us. Not one.

Jesus alone, with clean hands and a pure heart, could climb that mountain. But instead of receiving blessing at the top, he ascended a different hill — Golgotha — and was crucified in our place. Then God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand. Jesus climbed the mountain of salvation. And because he carries us up that mountain, we say: our lives are yours. We follow you to any mountain you call us to.

The Danger: Becoming Mere Consumers

Andy Crouch identifies four ways Christians engage culture: Condemn, Critique, Copy, and Consume. Each can be a valid gesture — a healthy, temporary response to a specific situation. But when any one of these becomes a permanent posture, the damage begins.

Crouch's diagnosis: the dominant posture of self-described evangelicals today toward culture is consumption. We go to movies, we love them, we walk out amused — just like our fellow consumers. We haven't engaged. We've just absorbed.

"The dominant posture among self-described evangelicals today toward culture is neither condemnation nor critique nor copying, but simply consumption…"

And when we bring this posture into our life with God and with the Church, it is antithetical to discipleship. We cannot be or make disciples of Jesus if we remain mere consumers.

The Posture of Jesus: Cultivate, Create, Suffer, Depend

Jesus — the most capable person who ever lived — chose not power but trust, not independence but dependence. The most culture-shaping moment of his life was not something he did by force, but something he suffered willingly. The resurrection reveals the pattern: not power, but trust. Not independence, but dependence.

This is the posture most befitting a disciple: cultivating, creating, suffering, and depending. From this posture, all other gestures — consuming, copying, critiquing, condemning — remain available and appropriate. But without this posture as the foundation, we can only ever be variations of what we've always been: consumers.

The Call

The sermon closes with direct words to three groups: those exploring the faith (come consume — weigh Jesus against your options), those who are exhausted Christians (rest is valid, but beware letting gestures ossify into permanent postures), and those who call Church of the Bay home: this is our goal. We are climbing this mountain. We are going to help one another climb it together.

Questions to Consider