Are you a Consumer or an Investor?

I'm a movie person. I could watch the same movie over and over and be moved by the slight nuances of each viewing. One of my favorite movies is "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.

There's one scene in there that really captures the difference between going to church as a consumer versus being part of a church as an investor.

George Bailey and his wife Mary have just gotten married. As they are about to leave on their honeymoon, they see a panicked scene at the entrance to the Bailey Savings & Loan business. Old Man Potter has called in the loan and is trying to put them out of business. People are scrambling for their money.

George lets the people through the gate and tries to calm everyone down. One man bolts in and declares that Potter is offering 50 cents on the dollar for every share. Everyone scrambles for the door- but George stops them. He says, "Don't you see what's going on? Potter wants you to panic. He wants you to pay less for your shares so that he can put us out of business."

Here's where people's true colors come out. One man demands all of his shares: $242. George says, "Look- you can't take all your money out, then we'd be out of business." George explains the situation. In effect he says, "When each of you made an investment in the Savings & Loan- you made an investment in the well-being of others. You put your money in so that others could have money to borrow from and build houses. The health of one person's account depended on the investment of everyone else. By pulling all your money out now, you are risking the health of the entire group."

And so it is with the church. When people come to a church, they either treat it as a consumer- taking what we want and moving on- like the one man who wanted to withdraw all his money. Or we come as investors- people who realize that our spiritual health and well-being is a shared investment with others. If we pull out, it hurts other people as well. But if we keep investing-even in difficult times- then the health of the whole body improves, including ourselves.

1 Corinthians 12 talks about the church being like a body. A healthy body has all the parts working together. When one part of the body hurts, the whole body is affected. One part can't say to another part, "I don't need you" God has designed the church so that healing comes first through Christ, and secondly through other people. God has placed each of us in relationship with him and with one another for our benefit.

When times get tight, people's true attitudes come out. When we feel hurt or abandoned, we tend to isolate ourselves, and treat church as just another obligation. That's the consumer mentality.

But investors know better. When times get tight, we realize we need each other even more, and that when we truly stick by one another and love one another is when the love of Christ is made known. (John 13:34-35)

Are you a consumer or an investor?