I’m honored to be blogging in Hal’s place while he is away. As a guest blogger, I was given the opportunity to blog about whatever came to mind, so here are the results…
The Hollywood writer’s strike kind of has me down. I’m a big fan of a couple of shows that have now been in re-runs for about a month, NBC’s The Office and Saturday Night Live. While The Office tends to be just as funny (or more so) upon second viewing, SNL is really a time-sensitive type show. Except for the classic sketches, most of the dialogue and humor stays pretty relevant to the culture/mood of the day. I did, however, enjoy last week’s clip show “Thanksgiving Leftovers”, in which they included Thanksgiving clips that have aired over the last 30 years. One clip really stuck out to me and got me thinking. I remember seeing it before, and it was no less disgusting the second time around. If you have a weak stomach, don’t click here to watch the sketch I’m talking about. http://youtube.com/watch?v
For those who didn’t watch the video, I’ll sum it up like this: The sketch is called “The Bird Family”. Chris Parnell brings a date, Julianne Margulies, to his parents’ house for dinner for their second date. The small talk is going well until Parnell asks his dad, Will Ferrell, for some chicken. Ferrell then cuts the chicken, puts it in his (Ferrell’s) mouth and chews it, and then spits it into Parnell’s mouth. I read that the sketch almost didn’t make it to air, not because of the gross content, but because the actors couldn’t help but break character during the rehearsals. Can you imagine… a grown man asking someone else to chew his food for him? Disgustingly hilarious!
So why did this get me thinking? Because I’ve been in church all my life and I’m a reader of blogs. These combined experiences have exposed me to many grown men (and women) demanding that someone else chew their food for them. They’ll say things like “I’m just not getting FED” or “I want to go deeper”… the thing that sucks most about writing this blog is that you can’t see me roll my eyes right now…
I usually hear these grumblings from people coming from other churches, assuring me that their new church (my church) will be better. I’m never optimistic…
Here’s the thing: I have a 20 month old and a 5 month old. They want me to feed them. They need me to feed them. But already, my 20 month old wants me to feed him less and less. He wants to do it himself. Sure, I still help, but he is naturally growing to a more independent person. That’s part of growing up!
So the big roll of my eyes doesn’t come when a new believer is seeking nourishment. That’s our job, not as pastors, but as Christ followers: to feed those who need to be fed, mainly Christians still in their infancy. But I’ve never heard a new believer complain about “getting fed”. The complainers are typically long-time “Christians” that are just looking for someone to chew their food for them. And I’m sorry if this seems harsh, but that disgusts me much more than the SNL sketch.
Dave Ferguson, lead pastor of Community Christian Church in the Chicago area recently taught a series dealing with this subject. He produced some new insights for the “getting fed” conversation that I will now adopt into my own vocabulary. It looks something like this:
Spiritual Infancy= Getting Fed
Spiritual Adolescence= Feeding Yourself
Spiritual Adulthood= Feeding Others
That last one is my favorite. So often, spiritual maturity stifles at the adolescent stage. Churches all over are full are highly intelligent Christian pre-teens that are so impressed with themselves for knowing how to use a fork, they miss the fact that there are starving people all around them.
So, where are you? Are you feeding yourself? Are you feeding others? Leave a comment…start a dialogue.
December 5, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Nothing get’s me more upset then someone telling me “they aren’t getting fed.” We have had two couples leave Church of the Suncoast recently because of that very statement! All of them Christians. I have never had someone that crossed the line at our church tell me that. I tell people I am still working on love your neighbor as yourself… when I get that down maybe we will move onto something “deeper”
December 5, 2007 at 1:59 pm
I hear what you say Blaine and I am all for it – one of my favorite topics! but as in life, there are people born with disability likewise when it comes to Christians, some are spiritually disabled, either not able to grasp what they had been taught or even had bad spiritual upbringing or were left alone to feed themselves hence became “over the top”! They had been fed the wrong food or help was not there, therefore even after 30 years, they are still drinking milk. I personally know a lot of christians like that which is so sad. They don’t even know how to navigate the Bible or pray despite their years of being a Christ follower. For a Christian to go from milk to meat, one needs to be fed properly and if people come to CATB to grow, then it is our responsibility to feed them properly and encourage those who have been meat lovers for years to help them and feed them with STEAK!!! ( and fries!)
December 10, 2007 at 9:07 pm
I think I understand what Blaine means… most of the time, when people say “I’m not getting fed,” it’s really just Christianese for “you’re boring me.” What they really want is to be entertained. It’s not truly a request for more food, but rather an excuse to leave the table.
December 12, 2007 at 2:18 pm
great! i totally agree
December 14, 2007 at 6:55 pm
What do you consider justified reasons for leaving a church?
December 14, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Why leave a church? I really am not an advocate of leaving a church unless it just doesn’t fit and God is leading you somewhere else. But I would say this- rather than stay and be unhappy its probably better to leave and find a place where you fit. I do believe parents find purpose and grow when they focus on taking care of their children. A mature Christ Follower will see their greatest growth when they have the right Focus of feeding others. Then again some churches focus is to feed Christ Followers- but I have even heard those Pastor’s say people leave because they are not being fed (Chuck Swindoll said this). Does that help?
January 11, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I spend so much time seeking for myself that I forget to feed others. As a Christian my whole life I take my walk for granted. I helped last year work with the cubbies group at Church and was floored at how complicated I was making God to be to my children who were just learning. I had to teach pre-schoolers about the basics of Jesus and I was more fed through that expirience then ever when I went back to the basics myself so that I could teach it to them. I need to practice this again. A new goal for 2008
January 11, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Susan
Thanks for your honesty and insight. We are actually talking about how God grows us as we feed others this weekend. (Jan 12-13)
God’s Best