I thought I’d share a few thoughts on the battle cry of my least favorite people, the church hoppers, shoppers, floppers, and stoppers … “I’m not getting fed.”
We’ve heard that quite a bit over ten years of Forefront, and I’ve gone through kind of an evolution of my thoughts on this topic.
For a long time I blamed myself and felt guilty about not being “deep enough” and thought maybe it was because I only attended seminary for nine months and can’t read Hebrew or Greek. (One ironic thing, though, is that I would sometimes “use” (i.e. steal heavily from) other people’s sermons, and often it would be guys considered “deep” preachers, or it would be a series from a church’s mid-week or “deeper” service, and people would still say it wasn’t deep enough.)
Then I started to blame the Forefront context. When you’re trying to reach people who are far from God it’s obvious. So, for instance, on a Sunday morning we’ll have some goofy videos (mostly for people who aren’t Christians) and we’ll carefully explain communion (mostly for people who aren’t Christians) and we have a rockin’ style of worship music (mostly to connect with people who aren’t Christians) and then we have a sermon. And even if the sermon is “deep” and really good for Christians, I think some Christians simply cannot see past the context it falls within. They realize that several other aspects of the service were not primarily intended for them, and that this church is passionate about non-Christians, and so it’s impossible for them to believe the sermon IS for them, even if it is. They’re wrong, but I understand it – it’s difficult to take anything seriously when it’s preceded by a dancing gorilla.
But as I talked to other pastors I realized almost everyone hears this complaint. Even preachers who aren’t as shallow and uneducated as me, and even churches that don’t feature iPod Suppository commercials before the message. So I used to totally think it was I was to blame, or my church was to blame, and to some extent I still believe that’s partially true, but not as much as I did.
This caused me to take a closer look at the types of people who complain that they’re not getting fed, and increasingly I believe the problem lies in them. In the next few posts, I’ll explain why. Until then, leave big tips for your waitresses.
- Featured on newchurches.com
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
“Waaaaa. I’m Not Getting Fed” (Part 1)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I often wonder what Church should even be for a Christian who supposedly gets it. Should they even be in the seats or should they be serving? Do you get to the point that you should be feeding yourself? If so what does Sunday become?
I admit that I used to complain about "not getting fed." One day it occured to me, through God's prompting, that if I call myself a mature Christian, that it is not my pastor's job to "feed" me. It is my responsibility to develop, to work on, to treasure and mature in my relationship with Christ. How dare I expect a pastor, whose job it is to shepherd a flock, to be responsible for feeding me? Shepherds lead their flocks to green pastures, but the sheep eat the grass on their own. Shepherds lead their flocks to water, but the sheep do the drinking.
Sorry for the long response...this :)
Vince,
I love your thoughts and the outside of the box approach you take. Think about this though. I know how to feed myself and in fact I regularly gorge myself on my own home cooking. But every once in a while I like to eat out and enjoy someone else's cooking.
I'm looking forward to the book. Keep up the good the good work.
It's weird, I think "I'm not getting fed" can actually become a self-fulfilling prophecy for some people. They focus so much on what they feel they're NOT getting from their church, that they miss out on all the good stuff God has for them there. Connecting with others, effectively serving, listening and applying the sermons...it all goes out the window when you're obsessed with what you're missing. So in the end, it's true, they're NOT getting fed. But it's not because of a pastor or sermon; it's from their preoccupation with finding "the perfect church."
Does it really matter? if a person says I'm not getting fed? aren't they coming into the whole thing with a consumer mentailty? If the church is no different than Applebee's then maybe we should worry about those folks. BUT if the church is out to help the broken and give refuge to the lost then maybe we should focus on that, We worry toooo much about being the latest greatest thing in order to be attractive to the world. Let's focus on being a place that people like the hooker from Philip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace opening story run to instead of from. If the church shows grace and continues on it's God given mission then people will be fed and those that complain will still complain. Sometimes Chrictians over think things
dang Chrictians.
Post a Comment