One of the texts I spent the summer meditating and memorizing is the account of Peter saying, “Never Lord” when Jesus informs him about suffering and the cross (Matthew 16:21-26). I understand Peter and his commitment to avoid pain. Don’t we all? So I am spending time with God, with our staff, pondering what it means, truly, to lead our people to Jesus. I am concerned at how I (we) too might be creating a Jesus I think I want or need. The following excerpt from Eugene Peterson’s The Jesus Way (Eerdmans, 2008) sums it up well:  If we have a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and most effective way to get them into our congregations is to identify what they want and offer it to them, satisfy their fantasies, promise them the moon, recast the gospel in consumer terms: entertainment, satisfaction, excitement, adventure, problem-solving, whatever…We are the world’s champion consumers, so why shouldn’t we have state-of-the-art consumer churches?  . Read more.