I’ll admit it. There are certain phrases that just rub me the wrong way. I try not to show it in most cases, but I can’t help but react on the inside when I hear them.
One of those phrases is, “I’m just not getting fed.” It’s typically said in reference to what goes on at church. The person is almost always wanting to put the blame on others.
Let me clue you in to something: anyone capable of articulating that statement is capable of feeding themselves. We’ve got to get past this idea that others are responsible for our spiritual growth.
We go to assemblies looking to encourage one another, looking for ways to spur one another on to love and good works. If we go with the attitude “I wonder what I’ll get out of it today,” we probably won’t come away edified. If we go with the attitude “I wonder what I can do to encourage others today,” we’ll probably leave the assembly with a feeling of having been edified ourselves.
I’ve said that it’s like putting 3-year-olds in charge of making sure everyone gets a Christmas present. Their only concern is whether or not they get one. When everyone is sitting around waiting to see what they’re going to get, no one gets anything. When everyone is focused on what they can give, everyone will be taken care of.
As for the feeding, well, the vast majority of us are more than capable of finding ways to be fed. We don’t need to sit back and wait for others to do it.
“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14)
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woot! (an enthusiastic amen!)
Another blog missing a ‘share this’ button!
…which is why everyone should have a bit.ly extension for their browser.
I agree & will readily admit I have been one who has made that statement, albeit I have often made it in reference to church in China (mainly because I generally have no idea what is going on) ;) I think it is actually an extra challenge to stay fed for those of us in ministry, but there are ways…we just need to be seeking them. I love opportunities to encourage others, & you are so right-we end up edified ourselves when we edify others. What a blessing!!
Thanks for your thoughts, Tim.
Yes, John, I’ve got something wonky with my database and most plug-ins won’t work on my blog right now.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
Thanks, Katherine, for sharing your thoughts.
Most people don’t know where to shop (chronicle the rise of the editor-bishop). The institution struggles to encourage the development of a personal and interactive relationship with the Master, because such relationships can become dangerously prophetic towards the institution. So the institution tends to encourage A&A behavior.
It is also deeply frustrating as a “pew-sitter” to try and feed others when they’d rather play Goldilocks. I recognize the challenge this also presents to those in ministry – Katherine’s definitely right – but I don’t know that those of you in ministry recognize how hard this word was to live out, week after week after week, in a congregation that was intentionally stagnant. The voice of those in ministry tends to drown out other voices.
Thanks for sharing that Nick. What’s A&A behavior?
I am sort of “in ministry,” since I’m not employed by a local church, but do teach and preach regularly. Up until 2 years ago, I was “in the pews.”
Some of it comes to the personality type of the individual minister (and the culture of the congregation, I guess). I’ve seen more churches that were driven by the long-time members than driven by the ministers. But I guess that’s just my experience.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
Attendance and Abstinence
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Disagree (I think). It is when the ministers collude with the Goldilocks members (either by submitting out of fear or just letting them have their way out of a misplaced desire for ‘peace in our time’) that these situations last.
but I don’t disagree with the evaluation of who is usually driving – sadly, it ain’t Jesus. We eventually left that congregation, and I hate that, too, precisely because the reasons we left could definitely be construed as us saying, “We’re not being fed here.”
The next time we here someone say “I’m just not being fed at church” we should ask the person “who are you feeding at this church?” I wonder if they’d get the point.
Grace and peace,
Rex
I agree – and would point folks to Wade Hodges’ recent rant (http://www.wadehodges.com/2010/09/15/feed-me/) expressing the same frustration with salad bar Christianity.
Keith,
I should read Wade’s stuff more often.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
Rex,
I’ve said something similar to someone who spoke of “not getting much out of church”? My question is: “What are you giving?”
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
I agree with this wholeheartedly. But, I bet this line can be used to excuse poor preparation for worship leaders or lack of consideration for what an audience may need for growth. I do not believe that is what was being done here, but I did want to throw that our for consideration.
I hate to be the lone dissenter but as someone who has moved about 20 times in their life, sometimes we have been members of a church where the messages seemed to have changed dramatically over time. I can think of a few churches where we WERE very active and involved yet sat through messages that made me want to pull my hair out!! I don’t want cute stories or heartwarming/breaking stories of other people. I want the pure, unadulterated Word of God that pierces my heart for good AND correction. Sometimes we just stayed because we were there before the messages changed and we only had a few months left to go before it was time to move again so we stayed for the kids. So I think there are two sides to this story. Just sayin’!
Amy,
I can’t judge the sermons you are refering to since I was not there to hear them but I do want to say that there is no such thing as the “pure, unadulterated Word of God”. That is an ideal, not reality. Every time we read scripture (even without any commentary) we become interpreters of scripture and that objective purity is gone.
Grace and Peace,
Rex
AMEN!!!!!
Very nicely stated! I think if we get to a point where it is socially unacceptable to say that phrase fewer people would use it.
Hello? Hello? Is anyone at home?
Who stands before the pew sitters and who plays the clergy roll as in “I” will edify you laity types?
Who stands in front of the Sunday School Class which is seated in nice little rows facing the Teacher and shows great disgust if others attempt to comment too much?
Who schedules assemblies so that only the Professional can edify the pew sitters?
When will we return to doing what the church did 2000 years ago when an Apostle was not visiting? When I ask? When will we heave church leaders that will schedule assemblies so that the church CAN edify one another? When?
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Therefore “encourage one another” and build “each other up,” just as in fact you are doing.
Hebrews 3:13
But “encourage one another daily,” as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Hebrews 10:25
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us “encourage one another”—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER
H Clay McCool,
I don’t know where you’ve been but most of the worship assemblies I have been a part of have been encouraging to me and to many others, regardless as to what degree those assemblies shared the same assembly forms of the first century. The problem isn’t with the assemblies, the problem is with the selfish mentality that typically lays behind the individual who says “I’m just not getting fed.” Such a person will rarely, if ever, be encouraged (fed) regardless of what goes on in the assembly because the assembly is all about the self for such a person.
Grace and Peace,
Rex
Yes Rex but the Word of God IS pure and unadulterated. That’s what I’m referring to.