BYOF – a final thought

(my apologies…but i am posting this same thing on my other blog for today…just to make sure it gets read.  it’s that important)

for the uninitiated, “byof” stands for “bring your own fork” and that was the title and content of my most recent sermon series.

…and it was a good series.  i see more and more people opening their bibles during the sermon and a new awareness of the need for taking personal responsibility for feeding oneself.  mission accomplished.

i am continually amazed at our ability to understand (and even act on) the concept of taking responsibility for our marriages, for our personal health and well being, for our education, for our front lawns, for our baseball swings, for…well, pretty much anything…

except our personal spiritual lives and our experience with god.

we are so quick to complain about how boring church is…or how we aren’t feeling close to god…or how we are struggling with sin or doubt or anger or forgiveness or lust or temptation or any number of other things…but we won’t do anything about it.

people just drift away into ambivalence about their faith.  or they go looking for a better church.  or they complain about not being fed well enough.

why doesn’t it occur to people that the answer is sitting right on their nightstand?  why the reluctance to open the book, take out a fork and start shoving it in?

man, it’s time to wake up!

we start a new series next week.  i’m pumped.  don’t forget you can listen to the sermons online at www.npcc.cc (click on resources).  pass it on to a friend.

A balanced church – three

giving the proper place in our lives to the study of god’s word is a discipline that takes a lifetime to learn.  as i look back over my journey, there have been seasons of great focus and times that were so dry i could spiritually choke.  it’s funny, though…

sometimes, the seasons of focus come during the most difficult times in my life…while the dry periods come during the times of greatest blessing.  to make matters worse, the times of difficulty are sometimes created by my ignorance of the word (or even outright disobedience)…while blessing from god comes not from my obedience, but wholly from the mercy he gives my miserable self-centeredness!  go figure…

do you ever have similar experiences?

 

A balanced church – two

there is no question that the foundation of a healthy church comes from its commitment to the word of god.  to begin with, the word is where we get our understanding of what the church is in the first place.  i realize that every church studies the bible.  some study it a lot.  some study it very little.  some take every page literally, others have a more generous interpretation.  some stress the gaining of knowledge, while others place emphasis on application.  most every church believes they have a special corner on the truth.

other than the home church movement, and a few other fringe groups, orthodox churches have pastors that carry the primary responsibility for preaching the word and being sort of the voice of spiritual authority for that church.  some of those pastor-teachers have authority and influence that extends far beyond their church walls.

here’s a question for this morning.  does having a pastor-teacher-preacher inspire you to take responsibility for your own study of the word?  or do the weekly sermons and bible studies provide the bulk of your time and insight into god’s word?

be careful how you answer.  i’m not soliciting a compliment…nor am i looking for sermon criticism (go to the other blog if you want to do that).  i just want to know about your personal study of the word and if what we do in our church program helps or hinders…