From Spiritual Consumers to Kingdom Farmers: What Following Jesus Truly Means
- Jack Selcher
- Sep 19, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Summary
Many professing Christians live as spiritual consumers, focused on receiving blessings rather than advancing God’s kingdom. Jesus calls His followers to be fishers of people and spiritual farmers who sow, water, and cultivate God’s word. True Christianity transforms both destiny and daily purpose, producing a spiritual harvest through obedience and faith. Believers are collaborators with God, called to explain and demonstrate how to follow Jesus.
The “Blueberry Picker” Illustration
In July 1994, I traveled to Bear Meadows in Centre County, Pennsylvania. I went to pick high-bush blueberries.
They were growing in a 325-acre alpine peat bog. I wore hip boots to keep my feet dry.
I picked about ten quarts but had no part in producing them. Like the black bears that feast on blueberries at Bear Meadows, I was a consumer. Nothing more.
Consumer Christianity vs. Biblical Faith
How many professing believers are merely "blueberry pickers" and spiritual consumers?
Their religious focus is the blessings they expect to receive by being a “Christian.” They hope their religion will protect them against foes seen and unseen.
When they or someone they love is sick, they pray earnestly. In a fiscal crisis, they pound insistently on heaven’s door for deliverance.
They relate to God like immature children with no responsibilities to Him or the other members of His family. That is not biblical Christianity.
Cultural Christianity and False Assurance
I overheard a person say, “I am a Christian. I was baptized. I attend church services on Christmas and Easter.”
Does being baptized automatically make one a Christian? Is a two-Sunday-a-year commitment to “Christianity” really following Jesus?
What Following Jesus Truly Means
Is it seeking first God’s Kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33)? Is it denying self to follow Jesus (Luke 9:23)? What following Jesus truly means is that our character and conduct become more Jesus-like (Romans 8:29). If we are not changing, we are not following.
Fishing for People: Our New Occupation
Jesus said that those following Him fish for people (Matthew 4:19). Becoming a Christian changes our eternal destiny and earthly occupation.
We are fisher people primarily, no matter how we earn our daily bread. The purpose of our born-again lives is to maximize God’s Kingdom harvest. Those who are not born again have no such passion.
Spiritual Farming and Kingdom Harvest
All obedient Christians are spiritual farmers. We have complementary roles in the harvest based on our gifts and calling.
God Gives the Growth, We Do the Work
But in one way or another, we plant, water, and cultivate spiritual seeds as a way of life. God is behind all spiritual growth (1 Corinthians 3:7), but has chosen to use us to extend His Kingdom.
Jesus told a parable about a farmer who sowed seed in his field (Matthew 13:3). He said that the one who hears and understands God’s word produces a crop 30, 60, or 100 times what was sown (Matthew 13:23).
Producing a spiritual crop is our purpose. That is light-years beyond being a “blueberry-picking” spiritual consumer.
The Sower in the parable is Jesus, the Son of Man (Matthew 13:37). He has passed the responsibility of sowing to us, His followers.
“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you’” (John 20:21 NIV).
Sowing, watering, and cultivating God’s word is normal Christianity. That is our occupation after becoming God’s child by grace through faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for us (John 1:12, Ephesians 2:8-9).
Collaborating With God’s Saving Purpose
We are collaborators with God in His saving purposes. Our job is to explain and demonstrate what following Jesus means. Spiritual farming is our first-order business. See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.
God has empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship e-book. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead 7,590 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 17,681 people. I invite you to explore and use it in your setting.
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