Last week, I shared the healing journey God has been taking me on over the past months. If you missed it, you can read it here. That same week, I offered an extended perspective with my church family, Overflow Church, including what I sensed God saying to me about our church and the places I had put on a superhero cape, subconsciously believing the fidelity and fruitfulness of our congregation was up to me. I repented for my pride and for forgetting that it is Jesus who brings forth fruit. Our only responsibility is to abide in him. (For any interested, you can watch that full video here.) Both the blog and sermon were presented from my perspective as a pastor within a local church congregation for the past 25 years.
After sharing, I received the most beautiful letter from a dear friend in my church family, sharing her perspective as a member of the local church, to her brothers and sisters, both in our church and across the globe. It is a humble, yet passionate call to all of us. I asked her permission to share it here, as I believe the words to be deeply challenging and beautifully healing, if we will merely let them be.
Much love to you all, friends. Here is “A Letter to the Church.”
To my church family,
For those who were not here last Sunday, our Lead Pastor stripped himself and stood before us, the church, heavy with confession. Now, before you get too concerned, please know: he only took off his shoes and outer shirt—it was all very PG! Pastor Chuck announced that he had been sick for a number of months and undergoing testing with concerning yet inconclusive results due to chronic fatigue, dizzy spells, and some abnormalities in blood tests. Only his family, select confidants, and the pastoral staff had been aware of the gravity of his unexplainable illness. He shared about months of sudden energy crashes that would send him to bed in the middle of the day (or even a few days), and how it caused him to constantly have a “Plan B” when preaching or doing anything, in case he could not finish the task.
After sharing this, Pastor Chuck confessed his heart posture over his role in the church. He explained that he spends most of his time trying to keep the church unified—sharing vision, building deeper relationships, prayer and counseling, keeping community groups meeting and growing closer, helping with needs in the community, stopping families from leaving, helping to steward and cast vision for church finances, and trying to get others involved in volunteering because only a few families are shouldering most of the church's weight, with some rarely getting to sit in the service. All the while, he had personally been helping each person he could to be a healthy and fully engaged believer in Christ, recognized for their unique gifting that only they can bring to the table. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted just typing it! He expressed that after months of unexplained illness, God hit him with a hard truth. Pastor Chuck had been bearing a burden he wasn’t meant to carry. He saw the church as his responsibility.
When he accepted what God was revealing, Pastor Chuck began to heal. Then, miraculously, at a conference, he had a full divine healing during prayer and laying on of hands. PRAISE GOD! At this point last week, our Pastor announced that there was something else he needed to do — something he needed to let go of that wasn’t his in the first place — and he ceremonially gave us, the church, back to Christ, with Jesus as the head of the church, placing himself under Christ. Hallelujah!
But, my church, there is more. While Pastor Chuck was confessing all this, I had a strong stirring in my spirit. The Lord was speaking, and it is to all of us! Please read this with an open heart. I am not speaking to new believers or anyone who has just joined Overflow. I’m also not speaking to every person, as there are many who are faithfully running at the pace and in the manner God desires. God alone knows the heart, so please take these words as intended: not to call people “out,” but to call all of us “up”!
God was very clear to me that WE also must own up to our responsibility. As new believers, we were given milk. Our pastors and church leaders had to feed us and show us how to walk. But we were never meant to stay as infant Christians, being carried and fed each week!
If we all show up starving every week, how can we ever grow? How can new believers come and be fed when we are taking all the plates?
We exhaust our church staff when we come each week, begging to be filled, yet are never satisfied, and never stepping into the arena to feed ourselves. If we treat church like a weekly “fill up” to tide us over for the week instead of an equipping station where we sharpen our clarity, encouragement, and strength to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling and to do our own works of ministry, we will unknowingly expect the pastors to carry us on Sunday and evaluate how they’re doing with how their ministry makes us feel.
Hebrews 5:12 says, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.”
God shared the analogy of milk because babies cannot feed themselves; they are fed milk around the clock. But as they grow, they move to soft and then solid foods. Eventually, when fully grown, they feed themselves meat.
We are supposed to be deep-rooted and growing in the Holy Spirit EVERY day—in our homes, in our secret places, with our families, in the community we choose to belong to. When we come to church, we who are grown in the Spirit should be coming ready to ‘pour in,’ welcoming our city and worshiping together in celebrating, bringing heaven to earth through praise. When we first ask Jesus into our hearts, there is a filling of the Holy Spirit. But as we grow in Him, we receive a second gift, and that is the ‘flowing’ of the Holy Spirit—and so many people miss out on that second miraculous gift God is offering us!!
John 7:38 says, "Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
The rivers of living water are the Spirit of God flowing out of the life of the believer! This cannot be taught; no one on staff at any church can give it to you. You can only experience this flowing in your secret place when you are seeking God. This place is wherever you go to be alone with God, and it must become our priority. The Bible says we are to seek God's face ALWAYS (Psalm 105:4). It is a daily and personal communion. I want to encourage every person reading this to commit yourself daily to the Lord. Grow in the Spirit in your secret place all week long. I promise you, God will show up, you will be full, and you will lack nothing! And when you come to church, you will be ready to pour in and have much to celebrate. Remember, our pastors and our church are only appetizers. Sunday service is meant to whet your palate; it was never meant to be the main course! That belongs to Jesus alone.
Love always,
Your sister in Christ
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