by Rev. Mark E. Tidsworth, Founder and Team Leader

How did you feel reading last week’s article on Life In The Consumer Church?

Tired and stressed… that’s where consumeristic church culture takes me. Trying to keep people in church happy… that wears me out just thinking about it. It’s hard enough keeping myself in a good place, let alone trying to please all the people in church, too. The exhaustion in church leadership we hear so much about… part is due to this dynamic: church consumerism.

Before you flee away, there is an alternative… besides chucking the entire thing.

The transformational church — churches who have discovered the pearl of great price and the treasure in the field. These churches recognize their salvation is not in trying to gain for themselves, but rather in giving themselves away. They are laying aside self-focused mindset thinking in exchange for pursuing the mission of God to transform this world toward the kingdom or reign of God.

Transformational churches change-up the driving question.

Every church is driven by questions, pursuing the answers. The consumeristic church is laser-focused on how to make its people happy and pleased with their church. But here is the question transformational churches are pursuing:

What kind of faith community forms disciples who join God’s mission to transform this world toward the reign of God?

Transformation is all over this question; transformation of individuals, the church body, and the world around us.

Transformational churches are paradoxical.

Consumerism encourages us to focus on ourselves, consuming everything we can that will please and help us. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a radically different approach to life, encouraging us to forget ourselves, focusing on giving ourselves away. Transformational churches have discovered that when we lay down our lives, we find life. When we release our control, clutching, and grasping, that’s when we come alive. When we stop trying to please ourselves, joining God in transforming this world, life becomes abundant, so to speak.

“When commissioning the disciples, preparing the disciples through parables, training, and modeling… Jesus did not appear overly concerned about pleasing his disciples. In fact, the disciples often asked Jesus to tone it down, afraid he would run off potential ‘members’ with all his talk about denying self and taking up crosses. Instead, Jesus held up the picture of a way of life which is the pearl of great price, a treasure in a field, worth everything we value.”

Transformational churches challenge their people.

Of course love is foundational. Transformational churches regularly invest in relationship formation and care for each other as the body of Christ. AND, based on their understanding of the paradoxical nature of the gospel, they call each other up toward a better, alternative way.

You know what’s somewhat remarkable? When transformational culture takes hold in a church, few people threaten to leave or withhold money or presence when challenged. Perhaps the people who think that way leave as a church progresses from consumeristic to transformational. However it happens, few people throw religious temper-tantrums when challenged in these churches. They accept the fact that transformation includes challenge, expecting the teachings of Jesus to upset their reality from time to time.

“Jesus takes captive the imaginations of his followers and then replicates himself in them. In fact, we can sum up the task of discipleship as the life-long project of literally becoming like him, of becoming a little Jesus. But the whole process of becoming more like him moves quickly beyond the individual to the group and from there to a movement. Even a superficial reading of the New Testament indicates that it was Jesus’ strategic intention to create a movement consisting of Christlike people inhabiting every possible nook and cranny of culture and society.”

—Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch, ReJesus: Remaking The Church In Our Founder’s Image, 2022

Transformational churches are moving from fear to faith.

This is huge… moving away from fear toward faith. You may notice I’m describing this movement as ongoing in the present tense; always a work in progress. At the same time, we can describe the culture of churches more in the fear-camp than not:

Scarcity mindset
Playing not to lose
Failure avoidant
Conserving effort and energy
Working to avoid discomfort
Dwelling on mistakes as terminal
Driven by fear of failure and loss
Blaming others for their woes

Isn’t it odd that we are talking about churches who may be more dominated by fear than faith? This is a strange and uncomfortable way to describe local bodies of Christ. And, this is a realistic way to describe way too many church cultures in existence here in 2025.

Here are a few descriptors of faith-based church cultures:

Abundance mindsets and practices
Playing to win; forward movement oriented
Missionally-focused
Proactive mindsets and actions
Looking for missional progress and “wins”
Sees mistakes as normal opportunities for growth
Practices grace while pursuing excellence

So, where is your church by now? Certainly no church is fully faith-based. Yet, becoming more faith-based is our siren song, calling us forth. Perhaps your next church staff meeting or lay leadership team meeting might contrast these two church cultures, considering where your church is in its development. Courage, faith, and love be yours O Church, through Jesus Christ our Lord.