"I'm not getting fed at this church."
"What? No Sunday school? How do you study the Bible?"
Ladies and gentleman welcome to the world of feeding yourselves. As we mature as Christians we need to move away from the "spoon fed" from the preacher/Sunday School teacher and move to feeding self. When we are spending time during the week feeding from God's Word on our own our focus on Sunday moves from "serve me" to "I want to serve". When we feed on our own during the week our personal worship flows into and affects our corporate worship.
Now don't get me wrong. I do think we get fed, perhaps even challenged in church by the preacher man or by our Sunday School teacher. God does use others to impact us. BUT when that becomes our main way to be fed we become weak.
I was reading in Psalms 25 this morning and these couple of verses jumped out at me:
- 4.
- Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths;
- 5.
- guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long
David was a man after God's own heart. If David realized the importance of one on one time with God shouldn't we? I think, and no offense to my pastors, I would like to learn from God, to have Him teach me. (I know he uses others in my life to teach me and I see the importance of discovering Him and His ways from Him directly) God reveals Himself and His plan and His ways through His Word. It's all there, I just need to pick it up and feed myself.
11 comments:
If you are someone who has walked with our Lord for a while I agree with you, that is spiritual maturity.
If you are new to Gods word and uncomfortable around new people it can be confusing to hear someone tell you to "feed" yourself.
I remember after giving my life to Christ being so excited and wanting a Bible all my own. I went to the book store with a big smile on my face, and headed for the "Bible isle". As I stood there overwhelmed, because I thought there was only one Bible had no idea there where so many different versions the tears started and I left without buying one. I would have been grateful if someone had at least shown me which fork to pick up. That's why I love NHC so much, there are people who will do just that.
Well said Andy.
Well said Debbie.
It is also very important WHAT you are being fed in your church environment. While self feeding is vital to our growth, it is imperative that we have a church home. A good bible based church home.
It is very very important that what your church leaders are teaching you is in line with the Word of God and the Truth. You can self feed a well balanced diet at home but if you go to church and are fed junk food week after week after week, eventually you're gonna get a belly ache or worse! I'm just sayin'.
Debbie, I like the way you put that, " I would have been grateful if someone had at least shown me which fork to pick up." I can totally relate to that when I first stepped foot into my first church. I felt so UNwelcomed, that it took me 4 years to get enough courage to step foot into another church and to trust that it would be a comfortable place for me to worship. I got lucky that time, and thankfully found a good fit.
Since Andy and Nate probably won't say what they'd really like to say, I will jump in and tell 'anonymous' that it's no wonder you're remaining anonymous. Those cruel comments would only come from someone who won't identify himself. Praying for a huge dose of common courtesy [and common sense], conviction, grace and God's forgiveness on you. Ditto for you, booboobear. Inappropriate to say the least.
...and you can consider my comments to be from your mother, since I have grown kids. If they ever made such comments, well... they know better!
Good thoughts, Debbie.
Jesus commissioned His followers to "make disciples". Most evangelical churches emphasize the evangelism side of discipleship, but neglect the maturity side.
Then there are churches that "go deep" to the delight of supposed mature Christians (even though they're typically the ones who can't/won't feed themselves) but to the detriment of babes who need to be given milk.
It's the church's responsibility to teach newbies how to read, study and apply the Word. The essential that evades most churches is balance.
And here's what makes that so hard to achieve: Selfishness. The "super-spirituals" lobby for "in-depth" stuff on Sundays. And since they're typically the ones funding the church (new Christians aren't usually great givers yet), their squeaky wheel gets greased.
Balance means there's enough depth to challenge the maturing (note I didn't say "mature" - it's an ongoing process)yet enough basics to challenge the young to want more. Few churches/pastors are very good at achieving balance. I'm continuing to try to figure it out. It's certainly my goal.
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