Feed Me, Seymour, Feed Me!

Great post over at CRN.Info today in response to an article by Jim Bublitz at OldTruth.com. First, I want to post the comment I left at CRN.info, and then I want to expand on this a little more, so here goes:

It was not so long ago, in our College and Career age Sunday school class, that one of the ministry leaders (ministry is led by a husband and wife team who are not paid by the church, but do receive financial assistance from the church for things related to the ministry) made the point that the Sunday (and possibly midweek) services should not be the only times you get fed. They should be, as she said, “the icing on the cake.” Yes, we are referred to as sheep, and sheep need to be taken to a place where they can eat, but the shepherd can’t eat for them. As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. Same principle applies here. The pastor is called to act as a shepherd and feed his sheep, but at the same time, the sheep need to do the actual eating. Not only that, we are told to “grow up in our salvation” and move from milk to meat.

I’ll say it once more; the pastor can put the spiritual food in front of his congregation, and show them where to find more, but they have to make the choice to actually eat it.

I also wanted to expand on this, because the point that seems to have been made by Jim and others at Old Truth is that sequential exposition is the *only* way to properly preach the Word. However, as Rick Frueh (one of the commenters at CRN.info) pointed out, even expository preaching is topical on some level, because there is a topic to the sermon, and honestly, there has to be, or the sermon won't make sense. Go read the original article at Old Truth, and then read the response at CRN.info and the comments. There are some great points made on both sides.