Some Christians love to be spoon-fed long after they pass the newborn stage. Correspondingly, some preachers love to keep spoon-feeding Christians even when they should have matured long past that stage (cf. Heb. 5:12-14)
We all understand that if a thirty-year-old is still being spoon-fed, something has not developed correctly. At times, this can happen because of mental or physical handicaps. However, if we were to see a grown man being spoon-fed and coddled by his mother, a grown man who was fully capable of feeding himself, we would correctly observe that something was not right.
Unfortunately, we have pews full of people who have been Christians for ten, twenty, thirty, or more years who are still holding open their mouths and taking in whatever the preacher gives. They do not test nor discern the words, they simply swallow. If someone does not feed them, they do not eat. Unfortunately, there are preachers who relish in this control and desire that members only listen to them, only filter knowledge through the preacher, and only digest what the preacher approves.
This system is much closer to the man-made religious world around us than to the New Testament. In the Bible we find ready preachers (Rom. 1:15); we find ready hearers (1 Thess. 2:13). We find preachers who desire to speak only the words of God (1 Pet. 4:13), and we find listeners who are willing to search the scriptures (Acts 17:11). We find preachers who are fallible (Gal. 2:11-18), weak (2 Cor. 12:10), and maybe unsure of themselves (2 Tim. 1:6-8). This is okay because preachers are simply the vessels who carry God’s precious message of salvation; we are not the savior (2 Cor. 4:7). Members, those who sit in the pews from week to week and serve faithfully, are not expected to sit with idle hands awaiting the sermon. Instead, we are to read (1 Tim. 4:13), learn (2 Tim. 2:15), grow (2 Pet.3:18), test (1 Thess. 5:21, prove (1 John 4:1), and teach (Heb. 5:14).
Preachers must plainly put forth the Word of God, but we must also allow members to read, struggle, test, prove, study, and grow – because we should be doing the same things! And members must open their hearts, minds, and Bibles as we encourage good and godly preaching.