10.06.07
“…tired of feeding fat sheep.”
I received an e-mail from a friend who is looking at ways to revitalize his ministry. A quote from the e-mail states that he and his wife are “…tired of feeding fat sheep”. Interesting choice of words and for those of us involved in the Lord’s church for quite a while I’m sure that they strike a chord. How often do we have to deal with folks who are happy “playing church”? You know, the ones who are there every week (or so) and who join in the singing and praise time enthusiastically - but can never be bothered to minister to others, whether it be in teaching a Sunday School class or visiting someone who is ill. They want fed, and fed, and fed, but don’t want to take that next step of feeding others. I’m reminded of Hebrews 5:11-6:3
We have a great deal to say about this, and it’s difficult to explain, since you have become slow to understand. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of God’s revelation. You need milk, not solid food. Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature–for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil. Therefore, leaving the elementary message about the Messiah, let us go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God, teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And we will do this if God permits. (HCSB)
I’m reminded of a chicken we had years ago. We got her along with several other chicks. They’d been hatched in an incubator and we bought them when they were just a day or so old. We put them with a broody hen to take care of them and raised them just like “normal” chickens. One by one they succumbed to various diseases, the inbreeding inherent in their background did not prepare them for the tough life of barnyard fowl. They were bred to be quick growers in a sterile environment. But despite the difficulties that little chick grew, and grew and outgrew her mother. The night the neighbor kid hopped into the chicken pen to steal dinner for the next day, Sheri saw him pick her up (she was white, easy to see and a tempting target for a thief) and then set her down, apparently deciding she was too heavy to run with under his arm. So she escaped dangers from disease and thieves and became a regular member of our flock. She’d come running at meal times and crowd right in with the rest of them. The ol’ rooster would breed her, just like the other hens. And yet, she never laid an egg. She never reproduced. It was strange, but since she was a favorite we let her run around and eat like crazy and enjoy life to the fullest - even though she did nothing productive at all.
And then, we had an upcoming trip to the US. We’d be gone for quite a while (just over a year) and our plan was to lock everything up in the house, entrust it to the neighbors who were good friends and head to the US for “furlough” (hilarious term that, but subject matter for another post). And the chickens had to go. There was no way to keep them while we were gone so we started “thinning the herd” and enjoyed a number of chicken based meals. When that one white hen’s turn came we finally understood why she was so unproductive. After we killed and plucked her I cut her open to finish the processing. And I’ve NEVER dressed out a chicken that was as fat as she was. Huge yellow masses of fat crowded her abdomen, packing her intestines and other inner organs so tightly that it was no wonder she never laid an egg. The fat had simply shut down the normal reproductive processes. She ate and ate and never reproduced - in other words she lived an unproductive life.
And many Christians are like that too. They are content to feed at the Lord’s table of bounty but never take the important step of reproducing their faith in another. For all intents and purposes, they are spiritual infants, not mature sheep at all. And they submerge themselves in such rich spiritual food that they become fat and complacent, afraid of venturing out and losing their rich repast. And so, time after time they are fed, and fed, and fed… just like that crazy chicken. We never got tired of feeding her, but couldn’t understand her non-reproduction.
Many of today’s preachers specialize in making fat sheep. They teach prosperity and abundance and comfort, somehow having forgotten that the Apostle Paul himself knew what it was to be hungry, naked, abused and shipwrecked. Somehow I can’t imagine the Apostle Paul being a “fat sheep”. He knew what it meant to use spiritual food for his own growth - and yet provide sustenance for others so that they too could grow and mature and reproduce themselves. He wrote in I Corinthians 4:11-13:
Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless;
we labor, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we entreat. We are, even now, like the world’s garbage, like the filth of all things.
That doesn’t sound like soft, fat sheep living to ME. And yet, too many of those he labored to teach did not understand what it means to grow strong and reach out to others - reproducing one’s self spiritually and helping them to mature and reproduce as well.
Do fat sheep need fed? Yes, they do. And yet they ALSO need to be stretched and exercised. They need to be challenged and perhaps even driven from the table to the surrounding community so take some of the banquet to those who are starving from want of spiritual food. How do we manage to do this? I don’t have all the answers, but will continue to seek them - starting with myself as we seek ways to take the message of God’s good news to a dying world.