“ and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,”
Hebrews 10:24
Over the years I have heard my share of criticisms and reasons for why certain people think the church is weak, ineffective, and deficient. These often come from the ‘sideline’ with supposedly good intentions, but I rarely see these same people become willingly involved in fixing the problem. That’s why I refer to them as ‘sideliners’! These folk, generally speaking, have a consumer mentality about church. They come to church to get - they are only interested in having their needs met. This type of thinking is a blight on any local church.
Mark Dever and Paul Alexander write in their book - The Deliberate Church;
“Each member is not simply intended to be a consumer. We are all intended to be providers. We are co-laborers with God Himself in the work of the Gospel (1 Cor. 3:9)! Some of us may well be introverted or less talkative. But none of us are designed merely to be ministered to, as if the whole church revolved around our own felt needs and desires. We are all called to “stimulate one another to love and good deeds” and to “bear one another’s burdens” (Heb. 10:24; Gal. 6:2).