Are You Being Served?

Over more than a decade in ministry, I have watched an interesting phenomenon occur. There are a group of church-attenders who leave another church, show up at ours, stay for awhile, and then leave to go to a new church down the road. There, presumably they repeat the process.
Upon their arrival, they generally have something negative to say about their previous church and upon leaving, they generally have something negative to say about us.

The most common reason that I have heard is, “I’m wasn’t being fed.” This is then followed by some need that they have that wasn’t being met by the church: “no one came up to me and talked to me on Sundays” or “my marriage was in trouble and no one helped me” or I really want a small group for singles over the age of forty.”

Each of these reasons goes back to the original, “I’m not being fed.” Can you hear the selfishness and laziness of that statement? Several of the Proverbs speak of the ‘sluggard.’ My favorite is, "the sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.” I love the picture here of this lazy guy putting his hand in the bowl of food and just being too lazy to lift it back up to his lips. The application here is obvious. “I’m not being fed” translates to, I want someone else to fill my needs and I am too busy to do anything about it myself.

The writer of Hebrews says, “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.” Did you hear that? He says, “Quit being babies and grow up!” He tells them that they ought to be able to teach themselves and others by now, but they are so immature that they aren’t ready for it.

I cannot speak for every other church, but this one has some excellent teaching. Our preaching pastor is an expert in his field, he teaches other pastors how to preach. He is gifted at combining the art and science of hermeneutics and homiletics into an interesting and informative lesson. We also have small groups with good teaching in them. Also, almost every other church that I have visited falls into this category. The teaching is usually very good. It has been a rare occasion indeed when I have left a sister church taking issue with their teachings. This tells me that the food is there, it just isn’t making it to their lips.

The picture we need to get is of a giant Thanksgiving dinner. The whole family is there along with many guests. There is a spread of food on the table, enough to make it sag. There is turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce (the real kind with whole cranberries, nuts, and orange peels), green bean casserole, hot fresh bread with real butter dripping off of it, mincemeat, sweet potato pie, and all the other fixin’s that you could imagine. Much of the family and guests are eating, but there are a few that are just sitting there. Grown adults, salivating at the smells, their stomachs are grumbling, but they just sit there with their hands at their sides, their plates empty…waiting for someone else to put food in their mouth.

That is not what the Christian life is.

There is no call for servants of Jesus to sit there and let others do for them, in fact, quite the opposite. All of the New Testament is a call to action. It is full of verbs:
Make disciples, Serve one another, Be, Do, Love…

The message of God’s Kingdom is not, what has the church done for me lately; it is, How can I serve God and others. It has nothing to do with my own entertainment and everything to do with the sacrificial giving of my time, money, and self to God’s work.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul compares the church to a body. We are all parts (eyes, hands, feet, stomachs, etc) and all of us have parts to serve the body as a whole. It is time that we separate our consumer-driven culture from our church body. We are not a business, we are a Body, a community, a family.

Picture that Thanksgiving dinner again. This time, we work together. I’ll roast the turkey because I have a wonderful recipe for brining it that makes it extra juicy. Aunt Meg will bake the bread because that’s what she does. Dad will make the cranberry dressing using grandma’s old iron crank grinder bolted to the edge of the kitchen table. My friend Kris will bring over her fancy china and we’ll ask Denise and Hazel to make a beautiful centerpiece. Grandma Ruth Gonzeles will bring the giblet gravy and all the little girls will set the table while the boys bring in a bunch of mismatched chairs for everyone to sit on. Dan Vincent will make the pumpkin pies and Chip will say the blessing. Theo will show up bringing a homeless person that he just met and Earl will be ready to take the leftovers from the meal to the rescue mission. When the meal is done, we’ll all clean the dishes and then sit down on the porch and talk with each other while the kids play in the back yard.

That is the body of Christ, each person actively doing their part and all of us spending time in community…In communion.

If you want to be fed, pick up your Bible and start reading

If you want to be fed, volunteer at the church or at a service ministry.

If you want to be fed, begin introducing yourself to others at church.

If you want to be fed, join a small group Bible study.

If you want to be fed, stick around after church and get to know others.

If you want to be fed, you’ve got to do some of the work - feed yourself.

If you are one of those who tells me that you aren’t being fed, don’t be surprised if I don’t have a sympathetic ear. In this house, if you don’t work, you don’t eat! (2 Thessalonians 3:9-15)


Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 1Peter 4:10

On Hope

This blog originally published Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 6:00pm

In a recent blog, I was tagged by several people for what they saw as a lack of hope. So, I thought I would address the issue of hope.

There are two kind of people in the world: those that divide the world into two kinds of people and those that don’t. I am in the first bunch. I always seem to be dividing things into two categories.

For example, there are two kinds of hope… There is the hope that God provides. This is the hope of resurrection and new life. This type of hope is a gift to those that believe in Jesus Christ. This is a wonderful hope for those who believe.

The other kind of hope is the hope that God gives the world. This is the hope that comes from God’s Kingdom. It is a hope for all. And, it is this message of hope that is so very important, the hope that may lead some to believe.

The first hope comes with faith in God and Christ His Son. The second hope comes from community action by God’s people, the ones who have been changed by faith.

Now, it seems to me that the church has historically focused on the first type of hope. I for one am not a pie-in-the-sky, waitin-for-heaven type of Christian. I'm a man who believes that actions speak much louder than words. I believe that the Bible is quite clear in its message that God’s Kingdom is here and now. Jesus began it, the apostles spread it, we are called to continue it and someday, Jesus will return to complete it.

There must be some reason that God doesn't take us away from this world when we believe, and this is it - He wants us to bring hope. A little of God’s Kingdom travels with each and every believer who goes out and touches the world around them. It is this little bit of the Kingdom that brings some little light of hope in a dark world.

Christianity is rapidly growing everywhere in the world but in the United States and Europe. Here, it is declining. We have to ask, “Why?” These people need God just as much as the rest of the world. It doesn’t take much effort to see the spiritual darkness, moral bankruptcy , and emotional desperation around us. It all comes down to a lack of hope. This is the reason that the people of our culture self-medicate with entertainment, toys, ambition, and syncretic spirituality. They are looking for hope, but just don’t know where to find it.

Yet, you might say, “But there is a church in every neighborhood, so the lack of Christianity is not the problem.

Well, kudos on getting the first part right. We are swamped with churches.

But, I firmly believe that, though there are many churches, and many people in the churches; there is a terrible lack of Christians in churches. There are a lot of people sitting in churches who have missed the message of action.

The lack of hope in this world is due to a lack of Christian action. When believers move, amazing things happen.

God’s word spreads.

Hope grows.

I know several wonderful Christians, who, though life has not been easy for them, have taken God’s call to action seriously. Instead of focusing on themselves, they reach out to others. They make a difference. They spread hope.

I also know many others who call themselves Christian. Maybe they attend church this week and maybe they don’t. Maybe they donate a pittance to church or charity and maybe they don’t. These are the people who complain about the music in church instead of recognizing the worship is for God, not them. These are the ones who bounce churches, because they ‘aren’t being fed’ (more on that topic another time). These are the ones who rarely if ever do anything to bring God’s Kingdom here and now. There is much that could be written about these Christians, but fortunately, they are few.

The last kind of Christian is the real problem. This is by far the largest group. They are the rank and file pew-sitters. They don’t maliciously ignore God. There’s no ulterior motive behind their apathy. They just don’t have time for Him and His work. They are so polluted by the same busy-ness, the need for entertainment, the same ambitious drive for more stuff; that they have little or no positive effect on the world. They could bring God’s Kingdom, but they are just too busy. They never hear God’s call to turn their faith to action because they never turn down their iPod. They don’t kill hope, they just let it slowly die.

Where self-centeredness is high, hope is low.

Whether you like James’ epistle or look at it as Luther’s ‘right epistle of straw,’ the truth is that scripture calls us to put our faith in action. We are to be a light among men. We are to act justly and to love mercy. We are to care for widows and orphans. We are to do good deeds to bring praise to our Father in Heaven. We are to invest the talents He gives us. We are to spread hope. Hope.

Hope comes from us, from God’s people moving. The positive message here is that the few people who do act, accomplish some amazing things. They bring hope to lives by being a friend to the elderly, by adopting unwanted children, by helping a friend paint their house, by babysitting for a single mom, by giving to charity, by volunteering, by helping the homeless, by sharing from their larder with someone who is hungry…They bring Hope by doing.

There just aren’t enough of these people out there. We need more.

This is a call to action. This is a call to wake up.

If you are that Christian who is always too busy, this is for you. The simple message from God’s word is that He actually expects something from you. No, we can’t earn God’s grace, but that doesn’t mean He wants us to sit on our duffs, warming pews, but having no other effect on the world.

In case you missed the message, I am talking to you. As the song, 'Madly' says; "Let what we do in here, fill the street out there."

Let's get off our duffs, get our hands dirty, and get to work.

Bring the hope.