Pip: If you’ve ever wondered whether your faith is a subscription service you can cancel when the benefits dry up, Eric McCrea has been writing directly at that question all week on Weekday Word.
Mara: The posts this week press into what it actually means to follow Jesus rather than consume him — covering church as mission, the pull of faith-for-benefits, and what self-denial looks like in a culture built on preference.
Pip: Let’s start with what the church is even for.
The Church Is a Mission Hub, Not a Marketplace
Mara: The core claim here is a simple contrast that reshapes everything: the church is not a spiritual marketplace designed to satisfy demand. It exists to form people, gather them, equip them, and send them.
Pip: And the picture of that comes straight from Acts 2, where the text reads, “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
Mara: That is participation, not consumption. Teaching, table, prayer, generosity, care — a people learning to live a new life together, not customers evaluating a one-hour experience.
Pip: Which is exactly the problem When the Word Becomes Entertainment diagnoses — drawing on Ezekiel’s warning that people can hear the word the way they enjoy a beautiful song, moved but unchanged.
Mara: The question shifts from “Did this work for me?” to “How is Christ forming me, and where is he sending me?” Demanding, but more life-giving. That formation question leads directly into what following Jesus actually costs.
Following Jesus or Following the Benefits
Pip: This segment is about a tension that runs through the whole week’s writing: the difference between wanting Jesus and wanting what Jesus provides.
Mara: John 6 puts it plainly. Jesus tells the crowd, “You seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.”
Pip: He saw through it. They wanted more bread, not more of him. Comfort without repentance, blessing without surrender — that is consumer religion in narrative form, and it holds up a mirror.
Mara: And the revealing moment comes when Jesus starts speaking hard truth and the crowd thins. It is easy to stay near Jesus while he is handing out bread. Discipleship begins exactly where consumption stops being comfortable.
Pip: What Do I Get Out of This? runs the same diagnosis from a different angle — Romans 12 and the slow, unnoticed way consumer habits migrate into worship.
Mara: The post names two sets of questions. One set — did I like the music, did the sermon hold my attention — puts me at the center. The other asks whether I worshiped, whether I was formed, whether I served. Same Sunday, completely different orientation.
Pip: Consumer Christianity doesn’t feel rebellious. That’s the subtle part. It just feels normal, because the culture trained us to ask “what am I getting out of this” long before we ever walked into a church.
Mara: Romans 12 frames it as formation in one direction or another: conformed to the patterns of the world, or transformed by the renewing of the mind. The question is which set of habits is quietly winning.
Pip: Sometimes the most loving thing Jesus can do is disappoint the consumer instinct so something deeper can be healed. That’s a harder gospel than the one that promises full stomachs. Which is exactly where the next theme picks up.
From Audience Member to Disciple
Mara: The final movement is the sharpest: Jesus never called people to be an audience. He called disciples. And discipleship sounds nothing like consumerism.
Pip: Luke 9 doesn’t soften the terms: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Daily. Costly. No customization options.
Mara: Consumerism says protect your comfort. Jesus says deny yourself. Consumerism says keep your options open. Jesus says follow me. Those are not compatible orientations — one disappears when the teaching gets costly, the other stays close.
Pip: Though the post is careful to say this isn’t a call away from joy. It’s a call away from the thin, fragile life that comes from centering yourself — toward a deeper freedom. Harder invitation, more beautiful destination.
Mara: Formation, mission, surrender — the week keeps returning to the same pressure point: what happens when faith stops being something we consume and starts being something that costs us.
Pip: Next week, we take on another distortion of Christianity – the prosperity gospel. Should be provocative. Until then, peace be with you.
Weekday Word w/ Eric 
Leave a comment