A Typology: Part Five

Country Club Christians
I'm going to repeat my disclaimer: this is not about you.  No matter how closely you may identify with any of these groups, the reality is that no one is a pure example of any one of the categories, and all of us can and probably should be convicted by the faults we can identify through considering a typology like this.  In this category, more than all the rest, I really encourage everyone to identify and be convicted about the behavior that fits this mold.
Country Club Christians are people for whom the church is a community that exists to make them happy or satisfied, and who, by virtue of their efforts to make it so, prevent themselves and others from really becoming the church.  As a pastor, this category of people causes me more of a hassle than any other, and yet I know pastors who also fit this mold, and in some ways, I fit it myself.
We want what we want.  All of us.  We have preferences, we make assumptions and we think our way is the best way.  We know better than others, we know better than God, and if the universe would just get in line behind our way of thinking, everything would be perfect.
I know, it sounds ridiculous when you say it like that, it sounds ridiculous to everyone, and pretty much no one but a megalomaniac would admit to actually thinking that way.
However, we all act like we believe it's true.
No one will admit to the sentiment that the church ought to bend itself to their preferences, but especially in a democratic system like the Presbyterian way, people will complain, cajole, manipulate, threaten and even leave, when they don't get their way.
The insidious aspect of this is the fact that at the core of their motivation is the desire for the church to be "nice."  By nice, I mean attractive to others, pleasant and comfortable, a place where people can have fun, be entertained and on top of it all be involved in something charitable and spiritual.  It starts with the idea that the church should be a product that everyone should want to buy, like a really exclusive country club, where people will form a waiting list to actually get in.
There are certain modifications of the scheme that people will make to try and float around this jab:
"It's not what I want, it's about what will help the church grow."
"It's not just me, it's for 'a lot of people,' who are unhappy."
"It's not about me getting what I want, it's about the church being more effective in mission."
I could go on, and eventually I could probably offend almost everyone.  But I feel like this sin needs to be called out, and the offense is prophetic.
By prophetic, I don't mean prescient, and I don't mean I'm some sort of super christian telling you all what is wrong with you.  I'm saying that we need to name this evil and do something about it, because it's killing us.
I'm not being hyperbolic, this is literally the source of our decline and demise
It is our own selfish self-interest, it is the consumerist mentality, both within and without, it is our fundamental mistake that the church is supposed to be a provider of religious goods and services that is killing us.
If we are to find a way forward we need to be relentlessly conscious of this pervasive tendency.  If we simply change to decor and remodel the golf course of the country club, we are only making temporary, surface adjustments.  We need to change the guts and bones of what we think we are.
I'm going to round out my typology with a few of the more visible re-imaginations of church that have cropped up both as new communities and as subgroups within existing communities.  I'm going to poke at them a little, and most of it will be in this same prophetic vein.
The truth is: we all need to get convicted about this, repent of whatever grip it has on us, I am hopeful that the rest will actually begin to take care of itself.