Spiritual Day Off part 2

I need to take a break from thinking. So I thought I would mindlessly blog ;-)

As I came to Panera earlier this afternoon I bumped into a couple who used to come to our church but stopped coming several months ago. They didn't leave the church because they were mad (go figure) they actually left to do ministry at a church closer to their home (their home is about 40 miles from our church). Both the husband and wife are actively ministering in this new church. I love it when people leave our church to GO and serve in God's Kingdom. It sure beats the people that leave because their seat at church got moved, someone didn't like their idea, the music was too loud, they didn't like a policy that was changed, someone looked at them funny, or they just weren't getting "fed the meat of the Word". If I had a dollar for every time I heard "we just want some meat."

Which brings me to the funny and encouraging thing this lady said to me at Panera. She said, "We sure miss coming to Farmland Friends because of the meat we were being fed. I've been trying to get your sermons over the internet because we loved being taught by you." I told her, "That's funny, I'm generally told that my sermons are too basic/simple for the spiritually mature. Rarely is the word 'meat' mentioned in relation to my messages". So it causes me to wonder am I not deep enough (as some would lead me to believe) or am I really sharing deep truths.

Ultimately, I really don't care what people think because I'm going to preach exactly what God leads me to preach and my goal is to preach in such a way that unbelievers and new Christians can understand, and challenge believers to get off their bums and do ministry. I think it's generally those that aren't "doing the sermon" but want a bucket full of head knowledge, big words, maybe even a different preaching style, and a bunch of stuff they can't apply to their lives that will find me "too simple" and they "just need to be fed" somewhere else. To which I say, "God bless you in your search; meanwhile I'm going to preach exactly the way God has called me to."