GodReflection: Power Words

I run the risk of death by malnutrition at my local church.

Starting with such a statement calls for a disclaimer.

It is far too easy to place demands on the local assembly of believers that align more with my expectations than with Jesus’ design.

Church is the body of Christ’s followers who exist to worship God, to testify to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, while growing deeper into his image.

Hold that thought.

North American churches evolved into separate fellowships led in great part by the teaching and influence of the pulpit. Many pulpits in today’s world—especially so in older churches—speak to congregants born in ten different and distinct decades.

The reality of a person born in the 1920s or 1930s is light years apart from those born in the 1980s or 1990s. A single voice pulpit is limited at best in its attempt to provide a deep feed for everyone.

It seems to me that a near impossible expectation falls on the pulpit to deepen the faith of the church.

I find myself holding in a holy scream each Sunday as I receive more warm infant milk of the word. I wait for someone to give me a burp pat.

I want meat.

I shout an “Amen” to the one who wrote the letter to the Hebrew Christians, “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.”

Sure, pulpit proclamation of the word can encourage my growth, however only I can be responsible for growing deeper in Jesus.

There is a corporate aspect surrounding church as the body of Christ’s followers who exist to worship God, to testify to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, while growing deeper into his image.  The same description rests with the individual.

Thus, deeper become a power word of my life. I want to know Jesus at a deeper level. I’m tired of milk. In the words of the Hebrew letter writer, I want to be righteous. Righteousness comes about with meat.

To grow in Jesus is not the same as growth in minutiae. At his point in my life, the number of the Kings of Israel or the number of Old Testament Judges is irrelevant. Likewise, to grow deeper in Jesus has little to do with building a checklist of my perceived doctrines.

To grow deeper in Jesus has everything to do with learning to be Jesus in my life and in the lives of others.

I certainly have room to be more like the Jesus who declared his trust in the Father. I am nowhere close to reaching Jesus capacity of loving God with all of my heart and soul. To love my neighbor as myself is yet in the distance. How can I grow deeper in compassion since it was an obvious value of Jesus?

I like the imagery of growing multiple roots deep into the soil of Jesus heart. That makes my walk less focus less on identifying a body of doctrine and more on growing deeper into the likeness of Jesus.

The church cannot make that happen for me. I must claim deeper as an object of my faith walk. That is my work, independent of milk or meat served from the pulpit.

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – A GodReflection on Deeper.

Gary@GodReflection.org