How Consumer Christianity Turned the American Church Into a Machine

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When faith becomes a product, pastors burn out, truth gets rationed, and Jesus slowly gets pushed to the margins

Remember "The Little Shop of Horrors?" A harmless little plant. Fed with good intentions. Until it grew teeth… and demanded to be served.

That’s the modern American Church—from large churches to small.

We didn’t set out to build a monster. But we fed it. We structured it. We budgeted for it. And pastors slowly became enslaved to it.

Somewhere along the way, serving Jesus became secondary to sustaining the monstrous machine built in His name.

And pastors—hear this clearly: This isn’t an attack. It’s a plea for courage.

I’ve seen good, Jesus-loving pastors burn out—not because they lost faith, but the job became something Jesus never called them to do.

Because once the machine gets big enough, it must be fed.

Payroll. Buildings. Programs. Optics.

And when donors start functioning like stakeholders, truth starts getting weighed against the offering plate.

I once asked a lead pastor what he believed the greatest threat to our faith was right now. Without hesitation, he said conservative politics and Christian Nationalism. Yet later, at a leadership retreat with pastors—he said we needed to be delicate addressing it. He didn’t want to “throw people off the carousel.”

Too much truth, too fast, he warned, could cost us members.

And fewer members meant less money. And less money meant real consequences. Maybe even our jobs.

That wasn’t discernment. That was strategic lukewarmness. And fear makes a terrible shepherd.

But this isn’t just a pastor problem. We built this machinery together.

We became consumer Christians—shopping for churches the way we shop for clothes:

What do I like? What’s easiest? What makes me feel affirmed? What aligns with my politics?

So the Church pastors adapted.

Intentionally safe sermons. Engineered worship. Carefully calibrated courage. Often preaching community more than Christ.

Millions of dollars poured into branding, production, and expansion—while Jesus’ red-letter commands were quietly labeled “off-brand.”

Because when the red letters offended the red hats, they diluted them until no one felt challenged — and everyone left satisfied.

That’s consumer Christianity.

A healthy Church wouldn’t have been swallowed by rage, tribalism, and power worship. But we weren’t healthy. We tried to serve two masters—Jesus and the marketplace. We tried to follow Jesus inside a system that survives on approval.

And approval doesn’t make disciples.

So yes—I’m going to challenge the system. Not because I’m bitter. But because I still believe in the Church.

I believe in what it can be when we stop feeding the monster, and return to the Way of Jesus. I’m Brandon. A pastor without a traditional pulpit. I left the machinery of Christianity to feed the Kingdom instead.

I’m done feeding the monster. Maybe you are, too. So, let’s find our way back.

Because imagine what our churches would look like if they actually resembled Jesus.

Everyone would have a seat at the table. No stones in our hands. Neighbors loved instead of feared. Truth spoken with courage — not calculation. Grace offered freely.

Less performance. Less appeasement. Less feeding the monstrous machinery.

More courage. More following Jesus.

And if that ever happened — there wouldn’t be an empty pew on Sunday mornings.

Because people aren’t starving for entertainment. They’re starving for hope. For a Savior. They’re starving for Jesus.