Lately, I’ve run across what seems to be a widespread misunderstanding among many Christian churches. Answer a couple of easy questions and you may see what I mean… Are there enough lay-people involved in the various ministries in your church, or do 20% do 80% of the work? What about discipleship? Have you been actively discipled by a more mature Christian? The answers to these questions are probably “no” in way too many cases. I think this leads us back to a problem that the author of Hebrews confronted in the early church. Many people never grow beyond “baby Christian” status, and a large number of those who do, believe that teaching and discipling is to be done by the proverbial “somebody else.”
“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” Hebrews 5:11-14
The truth of the matter is, if a few more folks were serious about their relationship with Jesus Christ, and less serious about playing church, this problem wouldn’t be so widespread. Who, with a genuine interest in learning and following our Lord doesn’t want to learn as much as possible, and teach everyone they come in contact with about Him? We are all exhorted to learn, and to teach what we’ve learned to our weaker brothers and sisters.
In Christ,
PastorJimKilby @Kilbin8er
Jim@JamesKilby.com