Are we in the church being educated beyond our obedience?
The idea of being 'educated beyond obedience' comes from Neil Cole's book Organic Leadership and it struck a chord this week. Last Sunday evening my congregation began a series on the Minor Prophets. Week 1 was Joel, from which I suggested that in response to the world today we might need to gather the church and declare a fast from all that is harmful ...to us and to others and the planet herself.
This week is Jonah ... and I'm thinking to myself .... why are we moving on to another prophet when we haven't really wrestled with what the last one said. So it struck me that maybe I and others should be fasting from preaching ... (at least on Sunday evenings) ... and instead of moving on to something new, acutally stay with Joel for a while, at least until we have not simply heard what he has said but put it into some kind of practice. Otherwise people will have been educated into knowing what the Word says, but not led into the obedience of it.
2 comments:
It's a great idea. Juan carlos Ortiz, the argentinian church leader who was prominent in the late 70s, did something similar, refusing to move on in a sermon series until he was convinced his congregation had grasped the message and started living it.
I think we say too much; our teaching programmes are crammed with good things. But we don't have learning programmes, so we have no idea what our people are taking on board.
I'd be interested to know how your resolve holds!
Simon
i wish i were so resolved ... truth is though i had another sermon on Jonah ready and I preached it ... but not befOre sharing my thoughts with the congregation ... who knows what will transpire.
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