ChurchDash

Over the last fifteen years of meeting in homes, once in a while someone would suggest getting Costco pizza, Chinese food or KFC. It gives everyone a break and people chip in a few dollars to help cover costs. However, this is usually the exception. It’s a lot better and healthier when people contact each other during the week and plan the meal together. Someone usually takes on the responsibility of providing the main dish and everyone else discusses suitable side dishes. It actually becomes quite fun. Before the meal I usually proclaim, “Every time we meet it’s like Thanksgiving!”

It’s also a lot better and healthier when people prepare a spiritual meal during the week. Over the last fifteen years, in my experience, the hardest mindset to overcome is the need for people to bring something to the meeting. They come expecting those more gifted to teach or share. If they are asked what the Lord has spoken to them during the week, they get on the phone and call ChurchDash and hope God will deliver instantly. And yes, you aren’t fooling anyone; we can tell the difference between home cooked and store bought.

Of course, there is always Holy Spirit inspiration and spontaneity in the Lord during a meeting, I’m not referring to that. If we gather once a week we should engage with Him during the week. Reading our Bible, listening to worship music, reading a book or praying. Something should be quickened in our spirit, something so tasty we want to share it with our family. If you’re not engaging during the week with the Lord or you don’t know how to hear from the Lord, discuss that. It’s an important issue that needs to be resolved.

I came across this while reading Biblical Church by Beresford Job and thought it was worthwhile to post.

The simple truth is that in the New Testament, and therefore in a biblical church, we actually find the exact opposite of a church ‘service’. Rather than a ‘led from the front’ format where the design, by definition, breeds passivity and hence spiritual atrophy, we see a format positively brimming over with opportunities and challenges for all present to actively participate. Wholesome activity, with its subsequent growth into spiritual maturity, is the watchword here, in contrast to the sterile and repressive inaction of the spiritually stultifying passivity of religious ‘services’ as practiced in unbiblical churches. When all are free to take part and face the challenge of being duty bound to be reaching out to the Lord for whatever he wants them to bring to the gathering, then no longer is it a question of just coming along and asking, “How can I be blessed and what can I get out of it?” That is spiritual selfishness from which the only outcome can be ongoing spiritual immaturity. In a biblical church the question is rather, “What can I bring today? How can I give and be a blessing to others?” It is the complete opposite! It is the way of growth, of spiritual maturation, and of believers moving ever toward the full stature of the Lord.

Let’s all bring something we caught during the week. We need to share with others so each meeting will be a spiritual Thanksgiving meal!

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