The Best Decision I Made This Year

Here is a snippet from a fantastic article by Mark Batterson, from the Catalyst online magazine. The article is called “The Best Decision I Made This Year.” The “decision” was to read through the Bible this year.

“One of the common complaints people make when leaving a church is this: I’m not being fed.  As a preacher, my goal is to nourish our congregation via a well-rounded diet of sermons. And I try to preach every sermon like it’s my last, but let me push back.  My kids learned to feed themselves when they were toddlers.  If you’re not being fed, that’s your fault.  I’m afraid we’ve unintentionally fostered a subtle form of spiritual codependency in our churches.  It is so easy to let others take responsibility for what should be our responsibility. So we let our pastors study the Bible for us.  Here’s a news flash: the Bible was unchained from the pulpit nearly five hundred years ago during an era of history called the Middle Ages.

If you are relying on a preacher to be fed, I fear for you.  Listening to a sermon is second-hand knowledge.  It is learning based on someone else’s words or experiences. A sermon is no replacement for first-hand knowledge.  You’ve got to see it and hear it and experience it for yourself.  It’s not enough to hear the truth. You have to own it. Or more accurately, it has to own you. Honestly, I’d rather have people hear one word from the Lord than a thousand of my sermons.  And that happens when you open your Bible and start reading.”

Great stuff. Thanks, Mark!