Last time we started a series on people who say, “I’m not getting fed!” and I promised we’d start to look at the type of people who make that complaint.
Babies.
Babies complain that they’re not getting fed. When my kids were babies, my wife and I had to feed them. I had never been around babies and so this was brand new for me. Suddenly I was pretending a spoon was an airplane and a cheerio was a chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo! When we didn’t feed our babies on time, they let us know it. They cried. As they got a little older they learned not to cry about their displeasure but would verbalize it, “Ma-ma, I’m hungry. Da-da, feed me!”
Babies complain about not getting fed. My son is now nine and now when he’s hungry he asks, “Dad, can I get something to eat?” My answer, of course, is, “You’ll eat when you have a job and can pay for your own food!”
Only babies complain about not getting fed. There should be a progression in life, and in spiritual life, from needing to be fed, to feeding yourself, to being able to feed others.
And so when someone in a church says, “I’m not getting fed” my thought is, “Then you BETTER be a baby.” It never is. The people who complain about not getting fed are never new Christians. Never. Isn’t that funny? The people who complain about not getting fed are never the baby Christians, but always the older, supposedly more mature Christians.
Can you picture if I, at 37 years old, called my mother every month or two and complained, “I’m not getting fed!” Or if I e-mailed her and said, “Sorry, but I’m leaving this family because I’m not getting fed. In fact, I haven’t gotten fed in some time here.” Sound absurd? Well, it’s the freakin’ reality in most churches in America!
I illustrated this in a sermon once. I started my sermon by carrying a baby up with me, and fed it a few spoonfuls of baby food. At the end of the sermon I asked for a volunteer. One of the Navy Seals in our church raised his hand, so I brought him up, sat him on my lap, and got ready to spoon feed him baby food. It looked totally absurd. And, again, that’s the freakin’ reality in most churches in America!
- Featured on newchurches.com
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
“Waaaaa. I’m Not Getting Fed” (Part 2(a))
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4 comments:
True true true I wonder though if the people who do complain realize they can feed themselves. Yes I am sure some are lazy, but I think there maybe a good number that have bought into a lie that if a Pastor doesn't explain the Bible to them they can't understand it. If they have that idea in their head (and I know a bunch who do) then if the sermons are say series oriented and tie into life today the person may always feel that they are getting the same thing every week after awhile. I almost wonder if the people who complain under those circumstances would fair better at say a church that taught expositorially(is that a word?)I don't know maybe then they would take things differently if the Pastor just went through books of the Bible. Just a thought. Your never unfortunately going to please everyone, but maybe a good idea would be to have a network of Churches that taught differently and start studying how different people take things and then be able to plug them into a church that may fit their style better?? Knowing people complain and talking about their complaints isn't getting them any closer to a loving God that is willing to meet them complaints and all right where they are and then help them grow. Let's use this great little series Antonucci is talking about now to motivate us into finding solutions
Thanks for the comment, and keep the thoughts coming. This is going to be a rather lengthy series (I think 7 parts) and I'll talk through more ideas, including some of what you're saying here...
I think I lay up treasures in heaven every time I resist the urge to shift into stupid baby voice when I hear this:
"Awwww, wook at da wittle baby, needs to be fwed, awwww, how cute"
grace
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