Please sir, I want some more!

I went to a church service recently as just one of the crowd.

The welcome was warm, the building inviting, the seating comfortable and there was a good cross-section of people creating a positive atmosphere.

We were called to order and the service began. The music was well presented, with competent musicians, a non-intrusive song leader, singable tunes and solid lyrics. The kid’s talk was a little self-indulgent by the presenter but, once again, Biblically solid.

The sermon was announced as the first in a series that would take the congregation through a particular book of the Bible. It was well enough presented (and with good slides to watch) and not unfaithful to the text. But I’m not sure what the take-away was: what was I to know, believe or do in the coming week? We heard about the context and structure of the book, a summary of a scholarly issue, the breakup of the coming series and what the home groups were to do with it in the coming week. But I heard nothing much to feed me then and there.

I went away with certain warmth from the gathering but still hungry. It was like being at a meal where you are served starter snacks, shown the menu and then served nibbles with coffee, but no main.

Meanwhile I was reading ‘The Work of the Pastor/ by William Still. Still may overstate his case that the main and (almost) only work of the pastor is to feed God’s sheep with God’s word. However, his point is well made for any age and certainly for the ‘Sunday light’ mode that seems now widespread. What else he does, a pastor needs to feed the hungry ones.

In the words of Oliver: ‘Please sir, I want some more.’