Scale makes food —and faith— cheaper than ever before. It is convenient and can be custom-designed based on our wants, desires, and lusts. Mass-market bread costs almost nothing. Get up close, though, and watch bread being made, and its value increases exponentially. Get your own hands covered in dough and invest precious time watching it rise and bake, and bread will be worth even more to you. The same is  true when it comes to the community of faith. —John J. Thompson, Jesus, Bread, and Chocolate

At the 2018 Wild Goose Festival over a year ago, I gave a talk on the importance of taking time in community formation (and whiskey because that’s my schtick), and following the talk, one guest walked up and handed me a book. “I think you might enjoy this,” he said with a smile, “I know you’ve got another session right after this one, but let’s catch up sometime.” That man was John J. Thompson, and I didn’t realize it at the time, but he had just blessed me with his memoir/manifesto, Jesus, Bread, and Chocolate: Crafting a Handmade Faith in a Mass-Market World.

John‘s book hooked me immediately. His unconventional upbringing involved pain and trauma, yet John funneled his creative energy into a passion for all things artisanal. Independent music, homemade bread, fresh roasted coffee, home-brewed beer— John has become an expert in all things craft and small batch. As a casual beer nerd and home bitters infuser myself, I immediately gravitated toward John’s romantic descriptions of the crafts underlying bread and coffee and chocolate and beer. John speaks of each with an aficionado’s passion, but he keeps his work accessible to even the most novice reader.

Of course, the book isn’t only an appreciation of these art forms; Jesus, Bread, and Chocolate also explores how the theme of artisanship can touch every aspect of our lives. John notes how commercialized and artificial products like Wonder Bread and Bud Light and Starbucks dominate modern marketplaces, and he suggests the same thing has happened to Christianity. As John sees it, Jesus’s message of radical love and sacrifice been replaced by a creed of convenience, comfort, and conformity in the modern church. As such, Jesus, Bread, and Chocolate calls on readers not only to embrace the more traditional hands-on methods of making bread, beer, etc., but to take a more active role in crafting our own faiths as well rather than succumbing to the forces of mass-production.

Though deep in its content, the book is a quick read. John poignantly weaves his own tumultuous journey in among the vivid depictions of artisanal craft, making the whole book flow like a conversation over coffee. (In fact, I only took so long to finish the book because of my class/work schedule; otherwise I might have enjoyed it over only a week or two. Sorry about the delay, John.) The book both enthralls and inspires, motivating readers to approach not only the products we buy but the faith we cultivate with an eye toward true value over speed and convenience.

If you have questions about how the mass-marketing of Jesus has affected American Christians’ faith, I can’t recommend Jesus, Bread, and Chocolate enough, but I also suggest you take John’s message to heart: read it with a small group. Talk through it. Pray through it. Look for ways to apply this message of small batch faith to your own context. And hopefully enjoy a cup of locally roasted coffee or a craft beer with some other people asking the same questions. Faith should be something we spend time crafting; we should get our hands dirty in the process. Jesus, Bread, and Chocolate is the perfect invitation to do so.