Landfill Repentance

Orginally published on Monday, June 04, 2007 at 7:08 AM
by Earl Creps

As Janet and I work through the application process to become church planters we continue to transition our lifestyle, mainly by throwing or giving things away. Our goal is to downsize radically in preparation for spending a lot of time on the road raising support (that’s how our system works) and for moving to Berkeley, where the housing makes Ikea stuff look too big...

The process of changing your life in this way is about choices. In our case, the first choice is whether an item has value, and, if so, exactly what kind of value. The junk (like dozens of old CD cases) will head to the landfill. And the good stuff (like some rocking chairs) will end up with our friends.

That’s the easy part. Clearly, I don’t need the 4 ounces of maple syrup I was given in Vermont ten years ago, and I’m also not about to put our intermittently functional CD player into the trash. But what about all the things that are in-between, things like clothes, and broken iPods, and the stuffed alligator in my office? Discerning degrees of value and utility is agonizing work.

Part of the agony is the realization that the ministry can be just another way to accumulate the icons of the middle class. The fact that I have all this stuff is, in one sense, just an artifact of the culture in which I was raised (suburban Boomer), but this fact only amplifies my disquiet.

It’s not that I can point to a car, or a house, or a DVD and say, “there it is…that’s where I went wrong…if I only hadn’t bought that, I would not have fallen into the trap of consumerism!” As appealing as that sort of exercise would be (especially considering that it would really preach!) I don’t think that culture always infiltrates us or our ministries (what missionaries call “syncretism”) in such overt ways.

As I haul loads of stuff to our three destinations of choice: curbside rubbish collection, Goodwill, and friends’ homes, I sometimes feel as if I am involved in a cycle of repentance. How did I end up with five white shirts, anyway, especially when I virtually never wear them? Why did I bring home dozens of tiny bottles of shampoo from hotels? Am I keeping score?

My lifestyle is medium by American standards. But if I really needed five computer bags, why am I planning on giving away at least three of them?

I fear the answer is simple. There is something inside me that tends to discontent, a level of need fostered by self-absorption and cultivated by media for decades to want just one thing out of life: more. This is the difference between consumption and consumerism. The “ism” indicates that this way of living is both an ideology and a spiritual stronghold with little regard for how God’s presence in my life should condition what I have.

I am aware that the New Testament does not recommend a vow of poverty, and that God often blesses people in material terms (something I hope to encounter). Also, I don’t appreciate the self-righteous edge of those who always claim to know what’s best for my planet and me.

But all that being said, I still have to make hundreds of tough calls about what stays and what goes. The decisions are hard because all this stuff has somehow come to matter so much to me. So each trip to Good Will is a journey of repentance in which I am being freed, in which I am prospering in a very different way.

I wonder if those we lead seem like consumers, because that’s how we seem to them? 

About the Author:  Earl Creps has spent several years visiting congregations that are attempting to engage emerging culture. He directs doctoral studies for the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri (http://www.agts.edu).  Earl and his wife Janet have pastored three churches, one Boomer, one Builder, and one GenX. He speaks, trains, and consults with ministries around the country. Earl’s book, Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders, was published by Jossey-Bass/Leadership Network in 2006. Connect with Earl at http://www.earlcreps.com .

 

 

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