As I was reading a particularly helpful book recently (“Revolutionary Work” by William Taylor), I was reminded once again of how faith-building it was to read good Christian books regularly.
So often today we hear people lamenting about how ‘under-fed’ they are in a particular church, but that is such a consumer mentality, isn’t it?
We go to church to serve and learn together, to testify to one another and remind each other to walk closely with the Lord, hear His word being exhorted (that we should already know and study on our own) and spur one another on to good works outside the church, loving because He first loved us.
It’s not supposed to be about how good a preacher is, or how well-fed we can be. Good biblical expository teaching is important of course, but so many times we are looking for eloquence in delivery (and for our ears to be tickled) instead of faithfulness and consistency in the lives of our preachers.
Many a time I’ve thought (and told others) that I don’t think we need to expect a lot more from a preacher than to preach biblically and for his life to reflect what he believes and what he says.
And because we do not expect to be spoonfed in church, we need to develop the rigour of seeking out a regular diet of Christian books on topics and books of the Bible to imbibe regularly for the state of our soul.
As in many circumstances and certainly not least in church, we should seek to serve rather than to be served. Hence, it is jarring, if not galling, to hear folks talking about how they want to change churches because they “need to be fed” better. Feed y’selves, folks.
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