Guest Article by Christine Roush

America, it seems, is a nation of consumers. One has only to note the ever increasing numbers of storage units popping up across the countryside, the amount of stuff inside our increasingly bigger homes, or a list of the natural resources gobbled up just by those of us in the United States. Newer, bigger, better and more of it - whatever it is! Is it any wonder God talked so much about issues of stewardship! The case could be made that the number one competitor to God in our lives is "our stuff."  In America today, our stuff seems to be winning the battle.

As a nation, we have more than ever - more cars, more TV's, more phones, more choices for everything from cereal to shampoo. Where once coffee came in regular and decaf with a couple of brands to choose from, half a supermarket aisle can now be found devoted to the options. Mom and Pop markets on the corner gave way to "superstores."

So where does God and God's plan for how we live our lives speak into all this lust for consumption? Where do people hear about a different focus in life than possessions? Marketers shout the slogans  "go ahead, you deserve it," and "it's all about you." Car dealers reel people in with lines like "take this beauty home today, and pay it off over the next six years," and credit card companies exhort us to "use this check just like cash" to take that exotic vacation we dream of. Where is God's word spoken in the midst of such an inward focused culture? Hopefully, the church!

After much research and a great deal of soul searching, I have come to the personal conclusion that the church has done a poor job of sharing God's word on stewardship for several decades now, and the world is reaping the effects of that failure. I now believe consumerism is the number one problem facing Christianity today.

Somewhere along the way, we lost our voice as pastors and laity. Talking about money and wise financial management became taboo. Seminaries didn't train leaders to address the topic and churches avoided the conversation except when it pertained to church budgets. As more and more marriages fall victim to arguments over money, more families lose homes to foreclosures, more seniors enter retirement without any savings to supplement Social Security, and our air and water get more polluted by waste, I am forced to ask myself a simple question. Did I honestly think God's word was going to be harder for them to hear than the news their bad decisions have brought them? Did we, the church, think culture knew more about what was ultimately good for us than our creator?

The church needs to take back the authority to lift up God's word in regards to how we use all the things God has given us to take care of - our time, money, families, homes, mountains, our churches - everything! We have ignored God's word on stewardship too long, and as a nation we have the stress, debt, depression rates and health crises to prove it!