How’s that shopping going?

According to USA Today, social media users aren’t happy with social media. Facebook is too argumentative and “judgmental,” Instagram is “over-curated” and “inauthentic.” So users migrate between social media options till they find one that fits them best. Until it doesn’t, then they change again.

Sounds like how a lot of Christians treat church… When things feel “judgy” or “fake,” or when we decide “we’re not getting anything out of it anymore,” we search for a new place to feel affirmed and comfortable, and “ministered to.”

The fact is “community-shopping” is a culturally constructed response we’ve all bought into. And, of course, the perfect community doesn’t exist this side of heaven—not on social media, and not even in church.

There are, of course, times to leave a church and look for another. But it’s not for the typical reasons we go shopping these days. What matters most is not what we get out of our church community. What matters most is that we give to it.