"With good intentions but misguided theology, the church spends most of our time, energy, resources, prayer, words, programs, sermons, conferences, Bible studies, and attention on the feast, our own feast to be exact."
Truth? Our churches in American are mostly about serving ourselves. Yes, we say we are about serving others, about bringing others in to know Jesus. And I do think we do that. But I also wonder if we were to create a pie chart of just how much of the church's time was spent meeting the physical needs of others, what we would see? I'm guessing just a small sliver would represent that, while the largest pieces would be dedicated to Sunday morning worship, Bible studies, kids' programming, etc.. Useful tools to bringing people to Jesus and for discipleship but some how that seems disproportionate to the amount of time we spend meeting the physical needs of the people around us.
I really struggled to read this because I know there has to be a balance. I think discipleship within the church is huge. But service should be a hallmark, something that sets us apart. And too often we eat off of the feast of our church's discipleship programs while there is a famine of service.
"God may we be focused on the least, a people balancing the fasting and the feast."
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