Meeting in the Marketplace

There are 168 hours in a week. For an adult, about 49-56 of those hours are spent in sleep. Up to 40-60 of those hours are at work. That means unless they work from home 40-50% of waking hours are spent in the workforce, and that doesn’t even count drive time.

Does Jesus Christ want to meet people where they’re at in the marketplace? Wouldn’t it be beneficial for people to connect with them on their turf to feed their soul, which affects every other area of their life? Why isn’t the marketplace on the radar for the church?

Jesus Christ didn’t spend most of His time in the church service (called synagogue in His day). He spent most of it in the public square. He trained His followers to do the same. There was no compartmentalization from the weekend and the workweek. Have we forgotten this concept?

Many people have to work when the corporate church gathering is in session. What if they are looking for answers, have prayer needs, or just want to develop a sense of community with others but don’t know where to get started? We must go to them. We must be creative about developing the souls of individuals where they spend most of their waking hours.

We know that five out the twelve (Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Levi a.k.a Matthew) close followers of Christ were literally called out from their workplace when they launched out on His mission. It was like Christ walked right past the cubicle and the showroom instead of yelling from the church parking lot “come to me!” Plus, He left heaven to go to us in order to show us He means business (pun intended).

The least we can do for people is pray for them. That can often be done at their work and sometimes may be the most conducive time for them. We can also form a simple Bible study with two others looking at a few stories about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. We are looking to form groups in the marketplace right where “you” are. Would you be interested?