Have you ever considered how our “supermarket ” society has shaped our faith?  Sounds strange doesn’t it?  But many Christians have more in common with supermarket shoppers that they do with the disciples we read of in the Bible.

In Jesus day, almost everyone was much more closely connected with the land.  Lifestyles, labor and even menus were governed by growing seasons.  People handled products in their primary form not in the processed and prepackaged form we are accustomed to.  As a result, most everyone quickly understood the concepts Jesus taught.  It was not difficult to apply His teaching because it corresponded to their life experience.

Today in contrast very few people know how to take a measure of wheat, then winnow, grind and

bake it into bread.  Unless we tend small gardens, none of us handle seeds, pull weeds, cultivate, worry about weather, harvest fruit and make something from it.  The varied processes, combined with multiple threats of insects, animals and storms tended to bring one to the point faith and the place of prayer.

Our lifestyle and culture is one of comfort and convenience.  (Not that I have a secret desire to suffer want and deprivation.)  However we lack some basic building blocks of hardened, tested faith.  When was the last time you spent time praying that the supermarket would have a good crop of potatoes?

We make the trip to the market knowing what we want will be there.  It is not a matter of faith, it’s a matter of experience.  But faith and experience diverge when the desired outcome is not natural.  When we need a miracle, I’m glad it is because of the Word of God and not because of personal experience.

Churches also try to fulfill the supermarket model by providing every possible flavor of service, program and activity.  This may be one way to increase traffic, but it also decreases effectiveness.

If we base our model on Jesus, we will experience more without any loss of effective evangelism.  He had a clear, directed and Spirit led plan: spend time with people both in Synagogue and homes, speak in language easily understood, and stay on task neither dwelling in comfortable conformity, nor demanding constant convenience.  After two thousand years, it still works!

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