momentum mini mag: early 2012

ARE YOU WHAT YOU OWN? Are you more concerned with what a product says about you than the function it serves? Mark Greene gets to grips with the heart of advertising and looks at the impact such messages have on our faith. More on page 17

HOW DID I GET HERE?Three of our mates ponder how they ended up doing what they currently do. More on pages 9, 13 & 16

ARE YOU A FAILURE?Becca explores what can happen when our lives go totally Pete Tong. More on page 6

RESTLESS SOULMartin confesses that he just can’t help being busy and feeling restless. More on page 10

THE FREE BI ANNUAL MAG FOR TWENTY & THIRTY SOMETHINGS FROM SOUL SURVIVOR

* Subject to terms and conditions and the purchase of other similar products.

We wanted to send you this little mini mag to say a quick hello and wish you a good start to 2012! We’ve got some of the team and a few friends to contribute so we can tackle some interesting issues including failure, growing in leadership and dealing with that feeling of restlessness that can creep in.

As always we’d love to know what you think of the mag and for you to let us know if you’ve got ideas for articles that you’d like us to include next time (we’ll be popping back through your postbox in a couple of months)*.

One of the things God has been talking to me a lot about recently is about us, as his church, moving more in the power of the Holy Spirit. As you already know if

you’ve spent more than a few minutes with us, it’s something we’ve always been pretty passionate about. Recently God has again been emphasising to me that if the whole church was empowered by his Spirit, how differently things would look!

We’re longing for God’s people to be living in the power of the Spirit day-in, day-out so in February we’ll be holding a conference that’s on that exact topic. This is an event for the whole church and one thing we’ll be putting an emphasis on is looking to equip you guys in your churches and as leaders, so that you can increase your confidence in leading ministry times yourselves.

We also want to look at what it would be like if we were naturally supernatural outside of church as well as inside of church. We want to learn more about the power and authority we are given in the name of Jesus to pray for healings and miracles, plus we want to give lots of space to worship God because we know that it’s out of God’s presence that we are empowered to be like him. We want to explore the role of compassion in all

MOMENTUM MINI MAG: EARLY 2012

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*Drop us a line with your thoughts at: [email protected]

of this; allowing God to break our hearts that we might be increasingly motivated to live and act for him. We also want to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and understand how we put them into practice in our lives.

We never want to teach an unrealistic gospel and pretend like we’ll see the fullness of God’s kingdom now. We know that isn’t true; God’s Kingdom is ‘now’ and ‘not yet’, but we also know that we’re more likely to see people healed if we pray to see them healed! If we pray for one person we might get a 100% failure rate. If we pray for 100 people we might have five incredible stories to tell of God healing and releasing people. Wouldn’t that be amazing?! Wouldn’t that be better than having a 100% ‘never asked anyone’ success rate?

We’d love for you to come to our ‘Naturally Supernatural’ conference in February (find all the details over the page) and for you to tell as many people as you can about it too. Our desire is for everyone to get excited about this stuff, to be equipped by God’s spirit and moving in his

power in their every day lives. The conference is now in Watford (we had to move from the previously advertised venue in Eastbourne for various reasons) and we’d love you to come along as we’re excited about what God will do among us.

THE ADVENTURE OF OBEDIENCE! Momentum weekend, 2nd-4th March, Sherwood Forest!

Another thing that God has been underlining to me recently is the importance of obedience so that’s something we’re going to be thinking a lot about over the Momentum weekend. We love this retreat as an opportunity to hang out with you guys, get to know you in a smaller setting, and spend lots of time worshipping and waiting on God.

In our teaching we’ll be focusing on ‘the adventure of obedience’ because we’re utterly convinced that the best way to find ourselves is to lose our lives for God’s sake. We believe that if we’re obedient to God in the big things and the small things, if we’re obedient in the radical and mundane ways,

WORDS FROM MIKE

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our lives will be the greatest adventures we could hope for. We’ll be looking at how we can discover God’s call on our lives and how we can hear him speak to us. We will also look at what it means to live lives of radical obedience to his will.

On the Friday and Saturday nights we’ll have some live music and we also want to make the weekend a chance for you guys to meet new people. We’re working on how we make that happen, so look out for more news soon and tell your single friends not to miss it! So all of this AND we’ll be in the amazing surroundings of Center Parcs (no camping – praise God!), so get yourself and your friends booked in and we’ll see you there in a few weeks.

We’re also working hard on making our Momentum summer event the best yet. There’s more of that to come in the next edition, but make sure you don’t miss the early booking deadline at the end of January!

With Love

Mike

MOMENTUM WEEKEND2nd-4th March

MOMENTUM SUMMER17th-21st AUGUST

soulsurvivor.com/momentum

WE’D LOVE YOU TO JOIN US AT THE UPCOMING NATURALLY SUPERNATURAL CONFERENCE WE’RE RUNNING IN FEBRUARY.

We’re going to be spending four days learning more about how to depend on the Holy Spirit, following his lead in our lives. We’re desperate to see the whole church use all the gifts that God has given to help bring his love, healing and restoration to our

world. The conference is going to be really practical with sessions on everything from leading ministry times to time spent praying for each other and waiting on God to learn how to listen to what he’s saying.

As well as Mike and Andy we’ll be joined by Christy Wimber, who’s father in law, John Wimber, was one of the people to inspire Mike

to lead as he currently does. Christy helps head up the Yorba Linda Vineyard in California and we’re excited to have her with us!

DATES: 15th-18th February VENUE: Soul Survivor Watford PRICE: £50 (not including accommodation)


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WWW.NATURALLYSUPERNATURAL.CO.UK

WHAT’S INSIDE?

FAILURE Becca gets real and speaks about our ability to grow through failure, and shows how even though it hurts, we can get through it!

RESTLESS SOUL Managing Editor of Youthwork Magazine, Martin Saunders admits to an insatiable restlessness that he can’t shake.

STAY SECURE Our very own Ali Martin looks at some of the challenges facing female leaders and encouarages us to get secure in who we are!

ADS R US Mark Greene from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity explores whether we want what we need.

HOW DID I END UP HERE? Three different chaps, from a shop assistant to a business coach in-the-making speak about how they’ve got to where they are!

MOMENTUM MINI MAG, EARLY 2012 The Momentum Mini Mag is produced by Soul Survivor UK. It’s a bit of an in-house job and so all the content and design is put together by Liza, Sarah and Dan (the Soul Survivor Communications team) and editorial oversight is given by Mike, Andy and Ali. The Mini Mag is free to anyone who would like to receive it and we send out around two a year.

CONTACT DETAILS [email protected] 0303 333 1 333 Soul Survivor Unit 2 Paramount Industrial Estate, Sandown Road, Watford, Herts, UK, WD24 7XF Charity No. 1080720 Company No. 03991111

FEEDBACK? Got any feedback or comments on this edition of the Momentum Mini Mag? If so drop us a line at [email protected] to help us improve future editions!

ARE YOU WHAT YOU OWN? Are you more concerned with what a product says about you than the function it serves? Mark Greene gets to grips with the heart of advertising and looks at the impact such messages have on our faith! More on page 17

HOW DID I GET HERE?Three of our mates ponder how they ended up doing what they currently do! More on pages 9, 13 & 16

ARE YOU A FAILURE?Becca explores what can happen when our lives go totally Pete Tong. More on page 6

RESTLESS SOULMartin confesses that he just can’t help being busy and feeling restless! More on page 10

THE FREE BI ANNUAL MAG FOR TWENTY & THIRTY SOMETHINGS FROM SOUL SURVIVOR

* Subject to terms and conditions and the purchase of other similar products.


a A f F i I

u U r R e E

l L

By Becca McGowan

Do you sometimes feel tempted to ‘edit’ your story so you can play down the times you have failed and focus instead on your successes?

What would it mean if, as followers of Jesus, we were able to learn to accept, even embrace, our failures?

FAILURE: By Becca McGowan

This perspective did not last long though. I soon learned that the world doesn’t value ‘effort’ in the same way that my parents did. The world operated according to different standards. I started to place great importance on my own achievements and successes, believing they were a reflection of my worth and value. I like to achieve, to succeed, whatever I am doing. I have loved the sweet smell of success, and I have loathed the miserable stench of failure.

Is it just me? Or are we, as Christians, often as concerned with success as everyone else? Do you sometimes feel tempted to ‘edit’ your story so you can play down the times you have failed and focus instead on your successes? What would it mean if, as followers of Jesus, we were able to learn to accept, even embrace, our failures?

As I look back over the last few years, I see multiple failures in my own life – both big and small. I spent years devoting myself to the cause of desperately poor kids in South Africa. I spent time with some of them and fell in love

with their courage and resilience. I embarked on a PhD looking at ways to help them and talked incessantly about the day I would go back to Africa and help them once more.

Then I was offered my dream job starting up a new project to help kids and young people like these in Africa. I raised money, sorted out a visa, told everyone about my big vision for the project, got on a plane and started my new life.

And then, it all started to go wrong. It was a lot harder than I had expected, I faced many obstacles and I felt incredibly isolated. As the weeks rolled on, I started to lose hope – in my own abilities and in my dream. Stress led to burnout and I was told that,

Do you sometimes feel tempted to ‘edit’ your story so you can play down the times you have failed and focus instead on your successes?

What would it mean if, as followers of Jesus, we were able to learn to accept, even embrace, our failures?

for the sake of my health, I should head back to England. Four months after I arrived, I got on another plane and came home. It was over.

I noticed in those first few months after my return that some people felt a bit awkward around me. There was an elephant in the room and people didn’t know how to talk to me about what had happened – the death of my dream. We all started to edit the story; it hadn’t finished in the way people had hoped. We all wanted a happier ending. I think that sometimes as Christians, we feel a bit uncomfortable with the reality that life doesn’t always follow our ‘happy ending’ script – especially when we think we are pursuing God’s will. I

believed God had led me to this work so I couldn’t understand why it had all gone so wrong. I had never heard a sermon on what to do when following God leads to an unhappy ending. My mental health was fragile. I was exhausted, spiritually wrung out and completely confused that all this had happened as I tried to obey God. I hit rock bottom.

I started to question not only myself but also God. Surely God wanted this project to succeed? He wanted these kids to be loved and restored, he wanted people to fight the injustices that kept them trapped in poverty.

If God’s heart was for justice, why had my attempts to bring justice gone so wrong?

During this period of questioning, I learnt that there are no easy answers and that life is not always fair. To my amazement I learnt that failure is not always a bad thing. Failure taught me that life is not all about achieving, that we do not always understand all that happens to us here on earth, and that God is there in the darkest, most painful periods of our lives.

God did not put us on earth just to achieve loads of stuff before we go to heaven. He never promised things would always go our way, or that we would get through life free from tears, bruising and scars. He never said we would understand everything that happens. In short, God never promised us a bubble of safety and happiness, yet sometimes we seem to think that

is what we deserve. We get angry when God doesn’t do what we want, when he doesn’t act like the genie who grants our three wishes. My failure helped me to understand God’s priorities in a new way. I saw that relationships are more important than achievement, that obedience doesn’t always equal happiness, and that one day we will be free from all suffering, heartache and injustice.

I still have days where I feel haunted by the question “what went wrong?” I still don’t have a definitive answer. I still get scared that things might completely fail again. What I don’t fear anymore is whether I will survive failure. I have survived, by God’s grace, and I will again. And so will you. Maybe it’s time we all started telling the whole story of our lives – the successes and the failures. Let’s stop editing out the difficult bits, the parts that don’t make sense. You see, the death of my dream was not the death of me – and for that, I am very grateful. I am living proof that failure – however catastrophic it feels at the time – will not kill. It will hurt, it will challenge, it may change you – but it won’t kill you.


Becca is a freelance writer & fundraiser who lives with husband Tim in London. She’s been around Soul Survivor forever, and you can read more of her thoughts on her blog: astoryoffailure.wordpress.com

HOW DID I END UP HERE?

Career paths are rarely all that straight forward so we asked a few people how they ended up doing what they do! Hannah Shaw is first up to kick things off!

Career paths are rarely all that straight forward so we asked a few people how they ended up doing what they do! Hannah Shaw is first up to kick things off!

What’s your current job?

I am a part-time sales assistant at British Home Stores.

Is this what you thought you’d be doing?

I never thought I would be doing this job and had never desired to! It came about as me and my husband moved from our hometown in England to Northern Ireland to be a part of a church plant. After moving we very quickly realised we needed jobs to pay the bills, so we applied anywhere and

asking Him to lead the way and pushing doors to see what opens. To date, I can’t say he has ever disappointed!

What has God taught you through this journey?

At first I found it hard to say I was a sales assistant - I’m not sure many people would say it’s their dream career. However, God has gently but very certainly taught me to let go of my pride, be thankful for his provision, (without the job we couldn’t do the church plant) and realise that even though life is sometimes tough, with Him it will always be exciting! God has also taught me the importance of loving and serving the church and loving and serving people outside of the church - it’s not meant to be one or the other, but both.

everywhere we could, and BHS was the first real option.

What would you like to do in the future?

Not a clue. I do have desires and passions and God knows them because he put them there. So at the moment, its just about going on the journey with God,

I found it hard to say I was a sales assistant - I’m not sure many people would say it’s their dream career!

Read more stories on pages 13 and 16...

Don’t misunderstand me - I love my kids; the woman I love is fortuitously also the woman I’m married to; my church, career and friends are all great. Yet I have itchy feet, and not the kind that can be addressed with anti-fungal powder. I simply cannot shake the feeling that there is a bigger adventure out there, tauntingly out of reach.

While I’m in confessional mode, I should also admit that I’m something of a workaholic. I enjoy being productive, both in a healthy way, and to a fault. I tend to ‘relax’ by writing; I attempt to rest and renew myself by engaging in further productivity. What’s more, I rather think that these two cracks in my personality weave together to create a more dangerous hole in my character. Impatient busyness is not a healthy trait.

So this is what my life looks like: I am trying to be a husband to Jo and a father to three small, irrepressibly cute but strength-sappingly spirited children. I work full-time in London, which means I travel for more than two hours each day. I help to run a youth

group; I write books in my spare time, and in my ‘other’ spare time I pursue that bigger adventure: I write movies. My life is a juggling act within a hamster wheel, rolling around on a treadmill.

I don’t think I’m the only one. In this time of financial downturn, most of us are busier than ever, either working longer hours to keep our employers sweet, or ploughing ourselves into education with a sense that final grades suddenly matter much more than social experiences.

At the same time, generational theory tells us that those of us who had our teenage years in the prosperous nineties and noughties have grown up with a sense of ambition; with heads full of dreams. So as I sit and write this confession, I wonder whether it might be one that at least half a generation might also be able to sign.

RESTLESS SOUL: By Martin Saunders

So what do we do? As I try to slay this beast in my own life, I’m going to try to divide and conquer these twin vices.

Busyness actually is unavoidable for many of us – but being a workaholic isn’t. If you’ve become the sort of person who lives to work, then your life is out of kilter.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon writes that ‘there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under

the heavens.’ We should throw ourselves into our work, but with the same vigour we should leap into rest – and not a junk-food rest of whatever’s-on TV and compulsive shopping trips, but a diet of deliberate, soul-feeding, God-soaked relaxation. What feeds your soul? Art galleries? Walks in the park? Meals out with friends? Turn away from junk-food

rest and throw yourself into these things with reckless abandon.

Restlessness is a harder nut to crack. The antidote, however tough it might at first be to swallow, is to look not to our plans; our timing… but to God’s.

Solomon continues: ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time’, and I read that as an affirmation that if God has put something into our hearts, he will bring it to fruition. But the

timing is his, not ours, and though impatience is the natural reaction, it’s not the one that I think makes most sense.

In the mean time, I know I need to train myself to be fully present in each moment; instead of spending it hungering after one still to come.

A friend was recently with a member of his church as she died in a hospice. For two hours they talked about eternity, life, and death. The moment had such depth that it provided a fitting end to her life, and will shape his life to come.

I wonder honestly, could I have been still enough, focused enough on that moment to enjoy the same richness? His challenge to me is the same Jesus makes to his disciples in Matthew 6:34. ‘Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.’ Who cares about what might happen a year from now? Let’s choose to live today.


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Martin Saunders is a husband, dad, writer and Managing Editor of Youthwork Magazine : www.youthwork-magazine.co.uk

Our good mate Paul Dixon has a good go at trying to work out how he got to where he now is and ponders where he thinks he might be heading in the future...What do you currently do with your life?

For employment I divide my time between I.T. support for small companies and individuals, and I’m also studying to be a Corporate Coach.

Is this what you thought you’d be doing? How did it come about?

No freakin’ way! When I discovered that I wasn’t the next Ryan Giggs, and that Chris Martin had taken the role of the next Bono, I got my law degree, fell into I.T. and have been trying to get out of it ever since. I’m 36 and

still searching!


Win the lottery and/or play Wembley. Failing that I’ll settle for becoming a really good coach who enables people to see their intrinsic value, and then watch as they engage with the potential they possess.

What has God taught you through the journey?

Humility. When you’re little you are often told you can do anything you put your mind to. I don’t think that’s true. When you’re older you’re told, more implicitly, that you’re nothing if you haven’t achieved ‘success’, whatever that may be. Again, I no longer think that’s true.

The truth is that we’re created in the image of God, and he considered us worth dying for. What I’ve learnt is to simply hold on to the fact that that God loves me, and it’s got nothing to do with what I’ve achieved or what I do to earn money. I reckon that’s kinda humbling.

Our good mate Paul Dixon has a good go at trying to work out how he got to where he now is and ponders where he thinks he might be heading in the future...


How did I end up

HERE?

Read another story on page 16...

Anne Graham Lotz, evangelist and daughter of the famous Billy Graham, was once speaking to a group of over 800 pastors. As she started to talk, the whole group turned their chairs away from her in protest at the fact she was a woman and was attempting to teach them. She had to suffer the humiliation of speaking to their backs. Hopefully most of us won’t have to face that kind of hostility but one thing that’s key as a leader is to be secure. At some point in our lives, the validity of our ministry as women will be challenged. We need to be secure both in our theology of why God wants women as leaders and secure in who we are so we know why God wants us to be leaders.

I hope that many of you are in churches with amazing leaders who recognise the role of women. If you are, do thank God for that! But don’t let that be enough. Get your theology straight – there are some great books that give you the ins and outs of the theology of women in leadership* plus you can have a listen to our Equal talks, along with a seminar from

Bishop Graham Cray on the Soul Survivor radio for free (www.soulsurvivor.com/uk/radio) and which cover the tricky Bible passages that are often used to discredit women as leaders.

Make sure you understand why women in leadership is biblical so that when someone opposes you – and they most certainly will – you will be able to answer well and you won’t find yourself rocked.

But it’s not only our theology that needs to be secure; we need to pursue God for his wholeness in our lives. Poor self esteem and insecurity (which is in no way just a female issue) holds us back from serving God to our full potential and being free to lead as he shows us.

Hebrews 12 encourages us to throw off everything that holds us back from running the race God has marked out for us. If we become aware of anything in our lives that is getting in the way – fear, anger, insecurity, selfishness, sin of any sort – we need to get untangled so we’re free to run our race. We can’t let go of these things all by

Anne Graham Lotz, evangelist and daughter of the famous Billy Graham, was once speaking to a group of over 800 pastors. As she started to talk, the whole group turned their chairs away from her in protest at the fact she was a woman and was attempting to teach them. She had to suffer the humiliation of speaking to their backs.


Ali Martin addresses some of the challenges female leaders may face in the world and church!

“I need to train myself to be fully present in each moment; instead of spending it hungering after one still to come”

ourselves; we need God’s help removing anything that might trip us up.

Years ago I was such a people-pleaser. I hated the idea of not being liked so I just went along with the opinion of the crowd. One of Mike’s phrases about leadership is ‘being a leader is like asking to be ugly’. I knew I didn’t want to be seen as ugly; I wanted people to think I was lovely but I realised if I didn’t deal with it, it would start to affect my ability to lead. I wouldn’t be able to make decisions other people didn’t like, or to preach messages of truth that weren’t 100% comfortable to hear if I was only worried about what people thought of me.

So I asked some wise friends to pray with me and teach me how to handle confrontation, and saying things people didn’t want to hear. They prayed for opportunities for me to grow in this and, sure enough, in the space of 10 days I had to deal with three different tricky situations where I had to say ‘no’, ‘that’s not happening’ and ‘I don’t agree’. It was awful! It absolutely drained me but I

started learning and changing. Now, years on, my preference is still to have others like me, but I’m at least aware of that and I can be difficult if I have to be!

Whatever your thing is, your issues are – and we all have lots (I’ve just mentioned one of my many!) – when God reveals things to you that might hinder or hold

you back from running your race, don’t ignore them. Deal with it, get free, get secure.

Of course God in his kindness will use us anyway despite our imperfections and during the process of us changing, but it is good for us (and the others we’re leading) to get this stuff sorted as soon as we can.

As well as the advice in Hebrews we also have Paul’s various letters which urge us to ‘stand firm’. We don’t stand firm in our

gifts (I’m sure Anne Graham Lotz was gifted but that didn’t help her that day when those pastors turned their back on her). And in any case someone else will always come along more gifted than us so we can’t rely on that.

We don’t stand firm in the opportunities that come our way

because seasons come and go. We don’t stand firm in people’s approval – we won’t always get it right and we won’t always get encouragement. Instead, we stand firm in God, because our position in him is secure.

We must make sure our theology is straight and that our lives are as unhindered as they can possibly be so that we can stand secure, run secure and be the leaders God is calling us to be.

STAY SECURE: By Ali Martin

“I need to train myself to be fully present in each moment; instead of spending it hungering after one still to come”

Ali is part of the leadership of Soul Survivor and is involved in running ‘Equal’ the bit of Soul Survivor that’s about equipping and encouraging women in leadership. Our next Equal one-day conference is on 2nd June 2012. Find out more at soulsurvivor.com/equal

What’s your current job?

I’m a writer, graphic designer and front end web designer.

Is this what you thought you’d be doing?

Not really. I’ve never had a major plan, other than try to find something that I enjoy (and believe in) and get paid to do it. In the last ten years, that hasn’t always been a successful strategy. I’ve tried to make it as a hip hop DJ, volunteered in a church, driven vans around Heathrow Airport, worked in a shoe warehouse, picked litter off the side of roads, somehow managed to get two masters degrees and after quite a bit of hard work, I fell into a job and sphere I really genuinely love.

Recently I’ve been really fortunate to have an employer that has let me develop and expand what I do. Before this role I was ideally looking to get into international

development, but - when given the chance - I quickly returned to an old love for design that I’d neglected since my GCSE’s.


I’ve actually just got a new job as a graphic designer and copywriter in a little design studio. I’m quite chuffed as I’m getting to focus on the two areas I really enjoy and I’m forging some kind of career path... which I never thought I’d be able to do without a graphic design degree.

My tentative plan is to get as much experience in my new role as possible and enjoy it. Eventually I’d like to take that experience back to the charitable sector and help some really worthwhile causes communicate what they do and why as effectively as possible. But we’ll see, other things might emerge!

What has God taught you through this journey?

In Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland writes;

“We barely have enough time to figure out who we are and then we become bitter and isolated as we age”.

Looking back, I can see I’m only just beginning to work out what I enjoy, and I’m fortunate to be able to do it as a job. Not everyone gets that opportunity, and because I’ve done jobs I hated, I’m grateful.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve faced disappointments, become more realistic in my ambitions and sensed my teenage hopes were a bit naive. God doesn’t hate a realist - but he does sometimes want us to trust him when no plan seems obvious. We might not end up fulfilling our childhood dreams, but, as life changes, we might have new hopes he wants us to focus on.


Books

Ashamed of your mobile? You may not be, but right there in that famous slogan is an encapsulation of the pernicious lie that coils at the heart of much contemporary advertising.

How could a rational human be ashamed of an object that enables them to communicate with a billion people within 1.2 seconds? But it is possible. Actually, in today’s world, there is hardly an object we own or an attribute of our physical person that doesn’t have the potential to become a trigger for shame.

By Mark Greene

ADS R US: By Mark Green

Often our sense of self-worth is tied up with the things we own and with the logos we display. If I wear a Nike logo, or use an Apple iPad I feel good, and other people comment admiringly. Pretty soon, subconsciously, I come to believe that my image is more important than my character, the logo on my chest more vital than the state of my heart.

I forget that I am valuable because of the biblical truth that an all-loving, all-powerful, utterly wise God created me in his image in my mother’s womb and loves me so much that he sent his son to die for me. And when a thing or a logo has the power to give me a sense of worth then it’s taken God’s place. It’s become an idol. I’ve put my trust in the tick, not the cross.

Now, at root, there is nothing wrong with the basic goal of advertising which is to communicate the benefits of a product or service. Those benefits fall into three main categories. Firstly, performance benefits; what the product actually does, washes whiter, shaves closer, flies to America.

Secondly, social image benefits – how other people will think of me if I use this product, drive a Skoda, wear Hollister. At one level, an entirely legitimate concern. We are, after all, created for relationship and do need to recognise that what we do/buy/wear will have an impact on other people – for good or ill.

Thirdly, self-image benefits – how I think about myself if I use this product. Again, at one level this is a legitimate concern, there are some things that we might buy or wear that might well be inconsistent with who we are.

So, for example, if you are a committed eco-warrior you would be unlikely to drive a gas-

guzzling, planet-boiling HumV even if someone gave you one.

The problem is that in much advertising the emphasis has shifted from the performance benefits of the product to the social and self-image benefits. Increasingly, we don’t buy what the product does we buy what it says to others about us. And what

it says about me to me. I don’t buy a four wheel drive Land Rover because I need to drive around my Cumbrian farm in the middle of winter, I buy it because the ad shows a picture of a black Land Rover at night being pursued by a helicopter and I imagine myself to be an MI6 agent with the blueprints for a weapon of mass destruction embedded

“The problem is that in much advertising the emphasis has shifted from the performance benefits of the product to the social and self-image benefits. Increasingly, we don’t buy what the product does we buy what it says to others about us.”


particularly appropriate – girls in our culture do need affirmation about the way they look because the culture makes them anxious about it from the age of about 3 to around 96.

However, if this is the dominant conversational theme, what do girls learn from the church? They learn that what matters most to adults is the way they look and what they wear. Exactly the same message that they receive from the world.

We need new questions to ask, questions that more accurately reflect the values of the kingdom. What have you been doing this week that you enjoyed? What are your enthusiasms? Who are your particular friends?

And the same applies to our conversation with people our own age. How much time do we actually spend thinking about, evaluating, talking about things and gadgets and clothes and fashion? The Lord does not look “at the outer appearance but at the heart”. (1 Samuel 16:7) And that’s what we should value too.

One response to this idolatry is to recognise and expose the utter absurdity of the idol fulfilling its promises, as God, for example, mocks the idols in the book of Isaiah:

‘No one stops to think, no-one has the knowledge or understanding to say “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”’ Isaiah 43:19

Shall we bow down to cotton threads on a shirt? Or letters on plastic?

Still, the area where we perhaps most need to consider whether we are tainted by consumerism is in our conversation. Think for a moment about what adults tend to say to girls between the age of 5 and 14 that they meet in the church hall. Well, most adults, whether male or female, tend to comment on the way they look or on something they’re wearing. Of course, at one level, this is entirely fine and sometimes

in my left nostril fleeing the malign attentions of the KGB, SPECTRE, SHMERSH, the Moscow Mafia and the Yakuza. In reality, I am going to use the Land Rover to drop my daughter at her ballet class.

So, the acid in much advertising is not that it creates false needs but that it seeks to meet real needs in false ways – our real God-created needs for relationship and significance, our real need for a sense of worth. Indeed, in Western society the great rival to the gospel of Jesus is not Allah, or Buddha or the gods of Hinduism but consumerism – I display the logo, therefore I am. Ads ‘R Us.

Of course, we have to wear clothes and some of them have logos on them. Sometimes the logo represents a genuine enthusiasm – Manchester United or Spurs or even Gillingham. Sometimes it’s a question of quality – Nike do make good shoes. Sometimes, however, we know it’s neither a healthy enthusiasm, nor a quality issue, nor an aesthetic issue, it’s an idolatrous issue. So we need to consider the motivation behind our choices.

Mark Greene is part of Soul Survivor Watford and is Executive Director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity: www.licc.org.uk

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