Surfing the Inner N8

On Wednesday night, we had 16 people present for the fourth session of CrossWay On Purpose, our church-wide Bible study. We started out with a brief review of last week, then watched a video segment from an Ed Young message.

Ed Young is the pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas. In a series called “The Table,” he talks about how a healthy church should have three groups of people: mature Christians, new Christians, and non-Christians. But unfortunately, as he points out, many churches have a fourth group as well: lazy, overfed Christians who only want to be fed, only focus on their own wants, and never do anything with what they’ve been given. It’s all diet and no exercise.

While the other three groups sit in chairs around the table, this fourth group sits in their high chairs–or as Ed Young puts it, their “I” chairs. They sit in their I chairs, away from the table, and whine and cry and fuss about what they want. “I want to be fed,” “I want more worship,” “I want to go deeper.” Pastor Young points out that many pastors will be tempted to turn their backs on those at the table in order to placate the overfed, whiny, self-absorbed Christians. He warns not to do this, pointing out that these people can either be loved back into following Christ or find another church with an adult nursery (so to speak).

Sound harsh? Not if you’ve seen it happen in a church! It serves as a great reminder of what a healthy church should look like and what it should not look like.

After watching and discussing the video, we jumped into the Bible study. We looked at Romans 12:1-8; 15:1-7; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31; 2 Corinthians 5:17-6:1; Galatians 5:13-15; 6:1-2. Here’s what we found those passages taught us about what God wants His church to be and to do:

• use our different gifts
• exercise faith
• be living sacrifices
• not conform to the world
• be transformed by renewing our minds
• test and approve God’s will
• not think too highly of ourselves
• understand that we don’t all have the same gifts and functions
• we all belong to the same body, though we’re different
• we (all churches & individual believers) belong to each other
• put others first
• consider others
• form one body in Christ
• have different gifts
• we are given our gifts through God’s grace
• prophesy
• serve
• teach
• encourage
• give
• lead
• show mercy
• love
• bear with the failings of the weak
• build up our neighbors for their good
• be strong
• study Scripture
• have unity
• have hope
• have patience
• endure
• be encouraged
• accept what God gives us as our Source
• glorify God
• have one mind
• have one voice
• follow Jesus in a spirit of unity
• accept each other
• bring praise to God
• we are one body
• we have many parts
• we are all in the same Spirit
• be baptized in the Spirit
• drink the one Spirit
• we are different but connected
• we all belong to the same body
• each part is needed
• use our gifts
• let each part strengthen the whole
• appreciate one another’s gifts
• have no division
• be content with the gifts we’ve been given
• not be jealous or envious of others’ gifts
• use our gifts to please God
• we are a new creation
• beg (“plead with”) people to receive the grace of God
• we are reconciled to God through Jesus
• reconcile others to God (the ministry of reconciliation)
• be sensitive to the hurts and needs of those estranged from God
• share the message of reconciliation
• we are the righteousness of God
• we are God’s fellow workers
• see others through the eyes of God
• we are free
• serve others in love
• be selfless
• love our neighbors as ourselves
• watch out
• gently restore those who are caught in sin
• watch ourselves
• not be tempted
• carry each other’s burdens
• fulfill the law of Christ
• love

We closed our time together in prayer. Next week we’ll continue with the Bible study, and we’ll set aside part of the time to share about what God’s been saying to us regarding the actual implementation of what we’ve been studying. I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say, and to sharing the vision that’s becoming clearer and clearer in my own heart and mind.