ht: Scot McKnightEvery pastor has heard it from someone. Sometimes you catch it when they’re coming and sometimes when they’re going... Have you ever really thought of what imagery accompanies the 'fed' metaphor?...
- " 'We just want to be fed.'
...We need a new metaphor and fast, because too many 'mature' Christians are making a fool of themselves by walking around saying they just want to be fed. It’s time they take off the bib, grab a spoon, and start feeding themselves.
What if one day the chief complaint from church going Christians were to be something like this:
- 'The problem with our old church is that we weren’t being exercised. We’re looking for a church where we can work, serve, and maybe even suffer. We want to pay a price for something other than adding a new education wing to our building. We want to put it all on the line and do something crazy for God. We’re tired of being fed. We’ve been fed so much, for so long, that we’ve gotten fat. We’re spiritually obese and we can’t take it anymore. We want to be exercised!'
Now that’s a metaphor."
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I was going through blog posts I put on my Evernote for later perusal and came across this post again. Such a great metaphor! I agree that "feed me" is such an immature and sad state of affairs if that is what mature Christians see church as. I love the exercise metaphor way better. It gets me thinking on how do we teach this to kids and families so that when they grow up, they are wanting to be exercised and begin feeding themselves rather than gorging themselves on more feel good information.
ReplyDeleteI like how Erwin McManus put it one time. He said he preaches not to feed people but to make them hungry for more so they go home and feed themselves.
Nicely said by McManus!
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