Self feeding is hard work! In a society that thrives on instant and “googling” everything we need to know. Self feeding is at a premium. We are constantly distracted by technology and many other things we have at our fingertips. Self feeding takes time. I was challenged by something I read that said we should work in 90 minute chunks. So I thought let’s try reading the bible for 90 minutes. After about 12 minutes I was looking for a distraction. After about 45 minutes I was in the groove and really enjoying it and getting a ton out of it. By the end I realized that this is the type of self feeding I need to do. I need to solely focus on listening to God for larger chunks of time and scheduling that time instead of just fitting it in here and there.
Pastors Jobs are to equip the saints, but that is not what most congregations want. Most congregations want from their pastors so many things that aren’t even the pastor’s responsibility that they don’t even have time to equip the saints. I totally believe this to be true and have tried to push our church and especially our pastor into doing more equipping rather than just preaching. I truly believe if we just focused on equipping the church to do the work of the saints churches would explode. I took a preaching class called the “Simeon Course.” It was great and I understood how to go through scripture so much better. We are offering more of these classes at church and trying to help everyone understand how to go through scripture. The pastor should not be like a momma bird giving us pre-chewed food. We should want to feast on the real thing, the word of God, and enjoy finding, chewing, and swallowing it whole ourselves. Let’s self feed and help others to do the same. We don’t need to leave it up to “professionals.”
