I had a fun Sunday yesterday as it was the first Sunday where I co-taught with Becky in all 3 worship gatherings. We have done panels together in the past as a married couple - and Becky has taught in our ministry to women. But today in our "Context" series, I taught the first half and she taught the second half (thanks Matt Corley for the photos of Becky!).
We are spending 5 weeks teaching about biblical hermeneutics and the importance of becoming a "self-feeder" of Scripture. Starting next Sunday we are going through the letter of Philemon verse by verse. Becky wrote a study guide for the three weeks so she walked everyone through the heart of how it was written and how to use it.
Becky quoted Bill Hybels as part of her point on the importance of people not depending on their Sunday worship gathering to be "fed" each week - but how church leaders should be setting a culture for teaching people how to be studying and learning from Scripture on their own through the week. Bill Hybels said in retrospect about Willow Creek: “We should have taught people how to read their Bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”
I sometimes think that local church culture can be set up to have too much dependency and subtle fixation on the pastor(s) on Sunday vs. focusing energy and time on teaching people to feed themselves through the week. Back when I was youth pastor and you can do more crazy things - we were teaching about this very thing and had one of our college interns come out wearing nothing but a very large diaper (looked like he was wearing white shorts but it was a diaper we made). He then sat on the stage and was crying out "feed me!.... feed me!" I pointed out how weird and unnatural that looks with a grown adult wearing diapers needing someone to "feed them". Now if he was truly an infant (or in the biblical metaphor a new Christian) of course you would need help to learn to feed yourself. But over time and maturity and it is a weird thing if adults are dependent on another to have to "feed them". We then brought out a muscle guy I was friends with who then sat next to the diapered guy and he sat and ate a steak on his own, so we showed that this is healthy growth. An adult feeding themselves. Those two images stick in my mind almost 20 years after we did that. We've fortunately been striving for that since we began Vintage Faith Church in 2004, so it isn't a turn we have to make - we are just just being all the more strategic and focused about it. All of our Community Groups this Fall are going through the book of Philippians and using a study guide and commentaries to develop those skills.
So in this series we are intentionally putting energy into the church being a training center for helping Christians learn basic hermeneutical skills and how to "correctly handle the Word of truth". I am all for teaching/preaching on Sundays. We do it every week at Vintage Faith Church and I believe that is totally important. But Sundays should be simply one part of someone's diet not their primary "feeding" time. Could it even prohobit healthy maturity of a believer if we have the come to church to get your "feeding" mentality for Sundays for mature believers? I am hoping Sundays for Vintage Faith Church creates a hunger for people of all maturity levels to want to know more. I pray and hope what we teach is valuable and a good part of one's biblical diet. But our bigger hope is that people will then be doing self-learning in the Bible and discovery throughout the week in Community Groups, in our women's groups etc.
I once had a discussion with a preacher who said that Sunday's was the most important day for people to be learning because that is where they get "fed" (from him). Which I disgreed with and we had a discussion about that which is what I am writing about here. There is a definite mentality of how we view this and even how a leader sees themselves. Which in turn impacts how people of the church view it. Do we view ourselves as one who is the "feeder" or as the one who "teaches others to feed themselves". Big difference. Do teachers use their teaching gifts to help others learn to feed themselves or do they see themselves as the never-ending source of being the feeder? Which way do seminaries teach pastors to view their role?
I am teaching the next 3 Sundays and am really looking forward to it as Philemon is a letter not preached through too often - and we challenged the church to read it 5 times this week. Then the study book we gave out has daily study for people to do as we teach through it. So I am teaching but we are giving out a commentary and a study book which guides people into self- learning of Scripture during the week.
So, a fun Sunday it was and proud of seeing Becky do what she did. And now she also got to go through the whole teaching 3 times on a Sunday and what that is like what I do. She normally comes to one gathering and then goes home. Becky is now fast approaching Victoria Osteen status.
