November 23, 2005
Class potential cure for Affluenza
Potter's House church offers six-week course on issues of spending and spirituality
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
How much is too much? What is an individual's duty to others? How do you stop endless spending and start living?
The Potter's House church hosted a six-week course on Curing Affluenza to wrestle with the middle class problem of material overabundance, climbing debt and spiritual desolation.
Meeting every Tuesday evening, with the final session last week, ten participants first watched a 20-25 minute video by Tony Campolo, an ordained minister, speaker, commentator and educator. Guided by Corey Sanderson, co-minister of the Potter's House, attendees then discussed the week's topic - which each week moved from money and time to stuff and support - and how the issues raised related to their lives.
Both the tapes and discussion addressed the problems of over-consumption and solutions from a Christian perspective. Using the Bible for support, Campolo asserted that the Christian lifestyle is a simple one that should de-emphasize material temptations and emphasize service.
Sanderson noted that both the timing and content of the course was meant to help people questioning the traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping seasons.
"I know a lot of people have a lot of difficulty with the holidays and shopping and consumerism," he said. "I wanted to give people the tools and information to not get swept up in it; to just provide this as an opportunity to think about how we spend our money, our time and why do we buy the things we do."
Victor Dinsmoore of Traverse City said that the series made him rethink a plan to remodel his kitchen. This idea grew as he reflected on the concept of enough is enough.
"You know this course might save me $20,000 if I don' remodel my kitchen and just learn to use it as it is," he said. "I'm staring at my counters and saying, 'You know, if I could get these handles I've been dreaming of I could make it work.'¡"
For Dinsmoore, the central message of the Curing Affluenza course was the need for balance in relation to money and possessions.
"[The Bible] is not saying we all must be poor and destitute, I think the key word is balance," he said. "I don't know if they had that word then but that's what I think we need to do now, determine what is our balance between being sensible and having an insatiable appetite for materialism."
Sanderson and his wife, Robin Long Sanderson, share the leadership of the Potter's House, which formed a year ago and holds services at the Friends Meeting House in Traverse City. Notably progressive in their outlook and leadership, Sanderson wanted to share the video series by Campolo despite its evangelical foundation.
"I love him because he's a very strong mix of conservative Baptist yet still has a very progressive approach to things," added Sanderson of Campolo. "One of the things we try to be at the church is open and inclusive about all kinds of things."
The video series also reflected an underlying commitment of the Potter's House for their own version of simplicity: sharing space with another church for the long term.
"I never want to own a church building, I love sharing space with the Quakers and then your money can go to things that really matter," said Sanderson. "The idea of having a $1.8 million dollar building campaign is not even on our radar screen."
"People automatically assume you're going to create this giant compound, but church is about people not property," he added.