If the gospel is the pastor's bread, the pastor will always have bread to give away.
-- David Hansen, The Art of Pastoring
Last week I read another church leadership guru's rant about Christians who "complain" they aren't being fed in church. I won't link to it. It sounded the same as all the other orders to "grow up" and demands to "feed yourself." And it's not so much the person I have a problem with anyway; it's the sentiment.
As I said in an earlier post, For I Was Hungry and You Told Me to Self-Feed, "There are some lazy, consumerist, adultolescent Christians whose 'I'm not being fed' is nothing more than a whiny excuse for growing bored with their church's programs and not serving, but there are also some mature, self-sacrificing, wise Christians whose 'I'm not being fed' is a sign a church has gone off the rails."
As I read this latest indignant polemic against the beggars for bread, a verse came to mind. It is not just Jesus' command to Peter "If you love me, feed my sheep" that is in play here. "Feed yourself" strikes me also as an echo of Cain's "Am I my brother's keeper?"
(Cross-posted at Gospel-Driven Church)
- C.S. Lewis
Trackback URL: http://thinklings.org/bloo.trackback.php/4384.
When Willow Creek announced that the results of their study showed their members were poor at self-feeding (leading Hybels to announce that finding as the new initiative), I just sighed.
Jared, you're absolutely right on this. We're always looking for someone to blame when stuff doesn't work. The new bogeyman in today's church is the person who doesn't self-feed correctly, and that's just a huge cop-out.
The economy of the Kingdom of God necessitates that those who have more help those that have less, no matter what that more or less might be. The truth is simple: the more spiritually mature must help the less spiritually mature grow. End of story. The only variable is how that plays out in each case.
Is it true that some people need to be self-feeding instead of complaining about not being fed? Sure it is. But my experience has been that many of those complainers will find the feeding they are looking for if they actually do the work of the Kingdom. It's amazing what you'll learn when you actually evangelize others, teach, and serve.
And in those cases when the church leadership is stuck in "Let then drink milk!" mode? Yes, the leadership needs to revamp its ministry model to understand that you don't water down Sunday sermons to reach the lost, but challenge the mature and watch the less mature (and even the lost) find their own level of challenge in the words.
It seems pretty obvious to me, so I don't know why this whole issue is so contentious. It just goes to show our leaders are out of touch with the Head. And that's too bad for everyone involved.
Oh this is awesome! Passing it on to pastor hubby for his files of great stuff!!! :)