How often have you heard this?
“Yeah, we like the people and everything, but we’re just not gettin’ anything out of it. We’re lookin’ around for another church.”
Or maybe you’ve said it yourself because the social buzz is starting to wear off.
On the other hand, your congregation might be thriving as an institution where trained leadership is as skilled at drawing the crowds inside the walls as it is fishing money out of pocketbooks. The activities are fun and the food is good. You meet a lot of people. It’s a nice place where nice people go to do nice things.
And the more the merrier.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with developing social skills in a Christian fellowship setting. In fact, it’s crucial to growing as a disciple of Jesus Christ. But when did the apostle Paul ever encourage his apprentice Timothy to build membership in the assembly at Ephesus?
If he did, he would’ve had to done it in person because there’s no record of it in the Bible or any other historically relevant document. Instead, he urged him to stay in Ephesus primarily to “…instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines…”[1Tim. 1:3, 6:20; see also: 2Tim. 2:23, 4:1-4]
But what about spreading the Good News of the kingdom of God?
Perhaps that went without saying, because evangelism has always been an effective tool of discipleship given the right time and situation. Nevertheless, Paul wrote two different letters to Timothy instructing him to focus on rebuking, teaching, training and emboldening other men in the Body of Christ.
That’s because his mission to bring the Gospel to the outside world would have accomplished nothing without those things:
“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” [2Tim 2:1-2]
Our congregations are cells of His Body which, just like the human body, function on different levels with different purposes at different times. Coming together as a group helps the Body to grow in certain ways. [see: Acts 2:42]
But individual spiritual growth in Jesus Christ is rarely accomplished in a corporate setting—it has to be one on one.
Not only that, men who belong to Christ must become FAT men in order to grow spiritually. That is to say, faithful, available and teachable. There are plenty of faithful men who are eager to make themselves available with their gifts. Yet, too many of them are unwilling to be taught themselves.
The man who makes provisions to learn and grow is courageous, allowing himself to be challenged both intellectually and personally by his peers.
But the FAT man doesn’t gain Biblical insight looking in the rearview mirror.
He knows that learning is the chance of a lifetime.