I’ll be teaching a new member class here in a bit, and one of the things I always talk about during that class is pledging.

I mention some numbers. Our pledge drive team asks all the members of the congregation to move toward a 5% pledge, starting where they can. And I tell them what our average pledge needs to be to make budget.

One of the other things I’ve learned to point out is that the congregation doesn’t provide any consumer services. A pledge is not a purchase, and there’s no customer service desk. Outside our walls, the purchase economy is in full swing. But inside our walls, we have a different economy at work, an economy not of purchase but of gift.

Everything that happens at a congregation happens because someone gave a gift, which was made possible by someone else’s gift, which was made possible by still someone else’s gift—gifts of time, talent, and treasure, as the phrase goes.

I go out of my way to point this out in class because it’s important to keep in mind that, because of our UU values, we practice a different economy when we’re together.

The problem with consumerism isn’t buying things—I have an iPhone as evidence that I’m a dutiful consumer the same as anyone else. The problem is when purchase becomes the primary frame of reference for our lives. Relationships can’t be purchased. Hope can’t be purchased. Stuff that can help you build relationships and that connects you to sources of hope can be purchased, but those same things can also alienate.

Consumerism is a poor substitute for hope and good relationships. It’s a good thing we have congregations to go to, places where we can put aside consumer pressures and focus on what’s most important in our lives.