B.Y.O.F. week one

i have been looking forward to starting this series for quite a while.  my preparation started way back at the beginning of the summer.  it was good to finally arrive.

last week while i was away on my yearly youth pastor’s wilderness trip, we focused our attention on reading the entire book of john.  it is something that most people don’t get the encouragement do…let alone have the time to do.  seven chapters each day for three days.  we read.  we contemplated.  we chewed.  we thought.  we prayed.  we journaled.  we questioned.  we discussed.  

bottom line.  we fed ourselves.

nobody told us what to believe.  nobody directed our thoughts.  nobody spoon-fed us doctrine, practice, opinion, commentary, or their corner of the truth.  we just prayed and asked god to teach us from his word.

it was bold.  it was refreshing.  it was exactly what each one of us needed.  we all came up with different insights and personal applications of scripture.  we saw things we had never seen.  we grew deeper.  i couldn’t help but think that that’s what should be happening all the time.  for all of us.

i am more convicted than i have ever been that the person who complains that their church or their pastor is not “feeding” them is either a genuine spiritual baby…or a misguided whiner that needs to learn to pick up a fork and start feasting!

i know there are churches and teachers that are shallow.  i know there are churches and teachers that only give a token acknowledgment to the word of god.  i know there are churches and teachers that warp the truth or fill up sermons and lessons with opinion, conjecture, or out-and-out falsehood.  those churches and teachers should be called out.  if not, they will eventually receive from god exactly what they deserve.  that is not what i’m talking about.

this is all about healthy (or reasonably healthy) followers of christ who are growing up in age, but are still wearing a bib when it comes to the meat of god’s word.

let me hear from you on this one.