The church had all the appearances of success. More than 2,000 people gathered weekly for worship, the music was cutting edge, the landscape was perfectly maintained, everyone loved the pastor's sermons, and the children's programs were creative and engaging.

But the pastor suspected something was fundamentally wrong. He asked me to take a look at the church. I asked people who attended to give me their general perceptions of the church.
"I love it here." "Things are great." "It's the best church I have attended."

What specifically made the church so appealing?

"The music rocks!" "The dramas make me laugh and cry." "The pastor's sermons are so relevant to my needs." "My teenager plays the bass in the youth band." "My children meet in rooms with jungle creatures painted on the walls." "Everything here is always high quality."

I wondered aloud what would happen if the pastor left or the worship leader resigned or the children's ministry declined in quality. Not one of them batted an eye. Without hesitation, one after the other, the responses flowed: "I would leave." "I'll take my kids wherever I can find the best program."

The members of this church and many others like it were part of a dysfunctional human system. They were "consuming" the church's products without connecting to each other in meaningful relationships or engaging the local community with the transforming power of the gospel. The "consuming" church springs from the soil of American culture. In contrast, the "transforming" church grows out of the transforming energy of God's creativity.

My consulting firm, TAG, recently conducted the Transforming Church Index national survey. Through it, we discovered five key indicators of church health. We labeled one of the five indicators "consumerism vs. community," and it has to do with how church members relate to each other. Unhealthy churches are a collection of people acting individually, while transforming churches relate as a community.

The quality of community is the quintessential test of the health of a church. Community begins to develop when individuals in the church experience deep, caring relationships; social connections; and a strong personal commitment to the church's mission. Unfortunately, few church leaders are skilled at developing an environment where meaningful and transforming relationships will occur. They desire community, but often don't know how to build it and fail to recognize the impact the American consumer culture has in the church.

By focusing primarily on meeting "market" needs, the church often functions in production mode—the endless creation of the best possible programs, products, and events. While such a search for excellence is, by itself, a positive—even biblical—pursuit, the machinery of endless production works against the development of community.

Consumerism is individualism on steroids. Central to consumerism is "me"; community is "we." "To consume" is the opposite of "to create." We are called to be a creative community.
It is a mistake to think that the church can adopt a consumer-oriented strategy, reach people, and then convert them into lovers of creative community. Too many churches succumb to this "bait and switch" type of strategy. In my work as a consultant, I have seen this strategy fail again and again. It has two inherent, fatal flaws. First, consumers resist change. You can lure them in, but a consumer-oriented strategy will fail to transform them. Second, the consumer is never satisfied. Rather than being transformed into a life of sacrifice and service, the consumer will demand more and more of others.

So how does a church move from creating consumers in the pews to transformed saints? Once this issue of consumerism has been framed and understood, we can apply practical steps to build community. Based on our research and experience, there are five essential building blocks for creating community: 1) Mentoring mission partners: Are we fostering a shared sense of purpose in our church? 2) Inviting input: Do we seek ideas from everyone? 3) Creating a structure for assimilation: Do we have a way to bring people into the fold? 4) Developing small groups: Have we created a way for deeper relationships to grow? 5) Building third place: Do we have space in our facility for developing relationships outside of worship and Sunday school?

With God's help—and strategic planning—we can begin to move our churches from the American "me" to the biblical "we."