On Being a Good Church Member Part 3: Listening

Every week our pastor gets about 30 minutes to communicate with us. These are extremely important minutes because once we leave the church, there is a good probability that the majority of us won't get a chance to listen to him again for at least another week. Whereas in times past I was the one speaking, these days I find myself in the audience.

The Bible says that "faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God." Listening to the prophetic voice of our shepherd is nothing to take lightly. Our pastor has to do a number of things in this short amount of time.
First he has to "rightly divide the word of truth." That means that the hours he has spent in prayer and meditation, reading and studying Scripture, determining context and bridging the gap of 20 or more centuries between today and when it was written, must now be stated clearly and concisely for the average church attending, non-biblical scholar. It is a humongous task that takes relying on the Holy Spirit in order to accomplish. I have to give the same kind of diligence to listening that he has given to studying if communicating God's message is to happen.

Second, our pastor has to take advantage of this short amount of time to communicate the vision God has given to him for leading our church. It is imperative that we members be on the same page in order to fulfill God's destiny for our church. God reveals his will to the leader, and the leader must now communicate to the members. It is imperative that we both be tuned to the same frequency in order to hear what God wants.

Third, pastor has to compete with the hundreds of voices that are speaking into the heads, hearts and souls of our membership. Chores that need to be done, work projects that clamor for our attention, the tiff we may have had with the children or spouse as we piled into the car on our way to church, bills that need to be paid, dental appointments that need to be made, etc. You get the picture. It is easy to be preoccupied with life to the point of missing the most important voice that can bring direction and purpose to our lives.

As a listener I've only got 30 minutes or so to capture what God is speaking through the man he has appointed as my shepherd. It is imperative that I give the best attention that I can to that short period of time.

Being a good church member means I have to prepare to hear. I must attend church in a fit state of mind, purposely tuning out the competing voices. I must be rested and focused. I know a little bit better now of how hard that can be. But I also know what can be done to make that time fruitful. I want to be a good church member, I will cultivate listening skills in order to make all of my pastor's time in the study worth his commitment.