One-Stop Shopping

I have a love/hate relationship with Wal-Mart.

On the one hand, I love being able to buy everything I need in one place. On the other hand, it’s weird that I am able to buy everything I need in one place. Here is what was in my cart the last time I walked through those hallowed aisles: gallon of milk, loaf of bread, container of pasta, frozen pizza, and . . . a ZipDrive. Should there be a place where you can buy both bread and computer accessories?

Because this is the case, I have a rule-of-thumb when shopping at Wal-Mart: Grocery items last. I don’t know about you, but I find it odd maneuvering through the electronics section with a carton of eggs. Plus, at the 15th & Rangeline Wal-Mart, you have to walk through the ladies unmentionables section in order to get there. That’s just not right.

Churches who are trying to reach lost people often try to exemplify Wal-Mart by being One-Stop Shopping for people’s spiritual needs. Wandering aimless through life? There’s a small group working through The Purpose-Driven Life. Struggling with an addiction? There’s a support group specifically for you. Can’t figure out how to discipline your children or pay off your credit cards? There’s Saturday seminars on parenting and fiscal responsibility.

And we wonder why ministers are so tired. And why they only last a few years.

This essay is not meant to disparage those efforts by churches to meet the needs of people. Far from it. But we need to reconsider our methodology. Too many times we try to meet people’s felt needs with programs rather than with people. And there’s a simple reason behind this: it’s easier. It’s far easier to put together a six-week “professional” program to help people develop parenting skills than be constantly training people to help each other parent the way Christ wants them to. It’s easier to hand them a book than really getting into their life and mentoring them.

For a movement that speaks of restoring the ancient order of things, we are far too dependant on a methodology that is seldom seen in the New Testament. We need to trust people more than we trust programs. And the reason for this is simple: people can love; programs can’t. People can sit on a sofa, crying and praying with a parent whose child has fallen away. A Saturday seminar can’t do that.

Instead of seeing church programs as One-Stop Shopping for people’s spiritual needs, we need to recognize and train our people to care for and give godly advice to those with the greatest of needs. Near the end of his life, Paul tells Timothy to entrust the lessons he’s learned “to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim 2:2). The pattern of ministry in the New Testament is giving wise mature believers the ministry of teaching and discipling newer and less-mature believers. Paul mentored Timothy and then asked him to do the same for others. We ought to do likewise.