A mile wide and an inch deep
The deeper life
Many churches that have “seeker” style services for the purpose of reaching the un-churched are accused of being a mile wide and an inch deep. In other words, “They reach a lot of people but the people stay carnal.”
They expect the Sunday service to save, deliver, disciple, and train future pastors…all in one hour a week! This is not possible no matter how good a communicator the pastor is. It takes more than Sunday to deepen the relationship that members have with God. Sunday is not only a day for Christians to learn and grow but a time to focus on the un-churched visitor.
Okay, so we have great Sunday services. There are lots of visitors. Christians and non-Christians alike come and feel safe and secure, but what about the deeper God-experiences that we crave? When can people experience the deeper life with God? How do we answer the charge, “Your churches, ‘Are a mile wide and an inch deep.’” How do we deepen our relationships with Almighty God?
Sundays alone are not enough to bring members into the deeper truth and life of God. Let’s face it, one hour a week is not going to bring much change to a person’s life. It can have an impact, but real change comes through discipleship. Sunday is not discipleship day. It is the most important day of the week to share the Gospel as it relates to the felt needs of the members and visitors alike. To try to make it the day to go deep with the believers is to ignore the under-churched that might be visiting. There are seven days in a week, one of those days should be specifically designed to reach the lost. The other six can be devoted to intense Bible study, healing services, and the discovery of spiritual gifts. There can be days for recovery ministries, intercessory prayer, small groups and anything else that brings people into a deeper more meaningful relationship to God. However, if they don’t get saved, or if they don’t feel comfortable in the Sunday service, you will never have the opportunity to bring them into that closer walk with God. Simply put, if they are not there, all the deeper life programs in the world can’t help them. Sunday can build up believers but not anything like small groups and personal one on one ministry.
Bottom line; Make your Sunday services as powerful and exciting as you can while realizing that Sunday alone will never be enough to bring new or existing believers into a mature walk with God. Focus on both evangelism and edification and provide other days of the week for discipleship, teaching and training.
So, the Christian life is not just attending a Sunday service, but living daily with the “Church,” the body of believers, in a growing and maturing relationship.
Q. Where do you find the “deeper life” in God?
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Comments
joey carmack
I have felt this need…for several years my wife and I attedned Seacoast in Charleston and then through twist of Gods direction ended up at Church of the Highlands…Loving the worship and the services with two very dynamic speakers and teachers….but she and I kept struggling through life fighting the current….Me trying to come out a crippling addiction to alcohol and drugs and her trying to let go of fixing me…Over the last couple years God has really been moving and dealing with us…We were really lacking the depth of the relationship with the Lord we wanted and needed…so we decided to quit talking about it and do somethin…Several months ago I decided if I was not moving God could not direct me…so we started moving….I joind cior and kelly started serving coffee….we started a life group and we have started to grow in our relationship with God because of it….I have to go to work now but thank you for the blog
Jeff
I appreciate this message. Too many churches lack these deeper connections. I pray more people realize true growth comes from daily interactions.
Billy
Jeff and Joey, thanks so much for your comments. You guys have realized that church is not just Sunday. As important as it is, going on to know the Lord through relationships in the Body of Christ is the key to spiritual growth…start moving in the right direction and God can guide you to maturity.
Chico Woo
When i grew up, we were poor so we grew up eating Spam. Later on, when I discovered what Spam was I was horrified. It was over processed meat parts which was molded into a square covered in gelatinous goop and put in can that you always broke the handle trying to open it.
The reason I say this is that many churches have messed up the priorities of the Kingdom. Which means they don’t understand the order in which things are important. The gospel’s priority has always been lost people and then discipleship. But many churches have reversed the order and made discipleship(small groups, intercession,gifts of the Spirit, Bible study etc…) the first thing so their resources are towards that goal. That is why their most hungry resource day – Sunday is devoted to discipleship. Unfortunately, by the time that they get to their second priority there is no resources available for lost people. So that means no new people in the church which results in discipleship of the same people over and over again – over discipled and over processed Christians. But to keep the same people being interested in being discipled requires for you to find new trends and methods. So now you have a mixture of trends picked from a couple of conferences you attended, a magazine article, a book, a discipleship consultant, to a methodology being used in a third world nation. Throw it all together and process it all together and you get SPAM.
Thank you for your post and your church planting movement to see churches be planted and grow.
Billy
Thanks Chico for your remarks….we will get it right one day.
Al Jennings
Excellent post. Transitioning people into discipleship and maturity in Christ is an ongoing challenge. I read a book called “Simple Church” which helped me deal with creating movement from Sunday morning to the next level of discipleship. It’s an ongoing challenge; but the process of finding ways to address this need is fun for me.
Billy
Thanks Al. We all have a lot to learn about bringing people from a surface relationship to a deep meaningful relationship with Him. When we do figure it out, what a difference it will make in our churches and lives.
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