Feeding Time
Our offices used to be up the hill from our current location. The view looked out on a forested landscape. Up there, I could glance past my computer screen and occasionally see a beautiful doe (a deer, a female deer) just outside my office window, grazing on the abundant shrubbery adorning the exterior of our LOC administrative building. “Bambi” (of course, what else would we call her?) always provided plenty of excitement, videotaping and picture-snapping to break up the workday. Our four-legged visitor was just one wildlife reminder, of the many that came to feed outside my window, that church is primarily a place to be fed.
We didn’t have to do any “deer demographics” or employ slick marketing strategies to entice Bambi to visit Living Oaks. She was hungry, and there’s food for her here, so our deer attendance increased by 100%. The same was true of our rabbit, squirrel and coyote congregations. They came to be fed. It became a regular animal “sanctuary” around our church offices.
The trend in ecclesiology (the study of church) in recent years has been to get outside the walls and creatively serve the community. In recent years, popular church-growth books and seminars have emphasized engaging the culture and being “missional” on their turf. It has been a movement away from programs, pulpits, personalities and buildings. Many have moved toward being “incarnational,” fleshing out faith through action outside the church walls. It’s no longer about just going to church, or doing church, but being the church.
There are aspects of this movement that are helpful, even biblical, and Living Oaks will incorporate the best pieces. But as with most attempts to make sweeping changes, good things can be swept out the door in the process. In some cases, one such good thing appears to be the importance of feeding the flock (of sheep, not deer).
We cannot be the church without spiritual nutrition provided by gifted teachers any more than Bambi can continue to function as a deer without a place to eat. People are hungry and though we provide donuts on Sundays, the flock can’t survive on donuts. We need healthy helpings of the Word of God in generous portions.
We can never minimize or take for granted the importance of Bible teaching. Along with that, we must never let doing good deeds edge out the dissemination of sound doctrine. Christians can get addicted to doing and then suffer “anorexia of the soul.”
Models, paradigms, strategies, methods and novel approaches to ministry will come and go. However, at the center of how we worship and serve Christ on earth is what Jesus prayed in the garden: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” (John 17:17).
Nothing else can really set us apart from the world. Absorbing and applying God’s Word is the digestive process that God has ordained to build us into healthy, effective believers. Our deer friend munched on foliage I would never dream of even tasting. But deer eat deer food and become stronger deer. Satan would love to weaken Christians by distracting us even with noble causes away from the only food that can make us strong.
It should come as no surprise that Paul’s letters to pastors (the Pastoral Epistles: 1&2 Timothy and Titus) emphasize the pastors’ responsibility to “preach the word”! (2 Timothy 4:2). According to surveys, the No. 1 reason—by a wide margin—that people choose a church is the pastor’s teaching. That’s good as long as the pastor is teaching the right stuff the right way: good, solid biblical exposition. Be assured that here at Living Oaks, no matter what else we do, your pastors will always preach the Word!
“But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion…” –1 Timothy 1:5–6