Conversation with a Pastor

I talked to a pastor the other day. I was asking him about his church. He explained that the basic premise of his church was three-fold: Glorify God, edify the believer, testify to the world. I was happy about that. I think that is the biblical order of things for the Church. God first. Build believers second. Share the gospel third. Good stuff. Then I asked him what his church did to edify believers. More to the point, what did they do to make mature Christians out of new believers? "Oh," he told me, "we have lots of things for that." He listed several. They were currently studying Mark Devers' book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. One group was going through a Francis Schaeffer video series. Oh, and the men met every other Saturday to study Tim Keller's book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Lots of stuff! Why, in the coming month they're going to go through a great book on Christians and finances! "We have lots of ways to build more mature Christians."

I asked a question. "What about the Word?" He was genuinely puzzled. "If they need more of the Word than they are getting from the preaching, then I honestly do not understand why they would not find themselves DEEPLY challenged by the Francis Schaeffer video series we are showing at the same time as the teaching on the 9 Marks." I tried to explain. "Where would I go to find out more about the Word? Where would I learn how the imagery of Revelation is tied to the Old Testament imagery? Where would I get to hear an exposition of Romans as an entire thought rather than individual chapters? Where would I get an understanding of how a Hebrew Christian would have understood the book of Hebrews? That sort of thing." I tried to clarify further. "What is being offered in most places is third party ... an elder or someone else's perspective on a video perspective about Francis Schaeffer's perspective." No help at all. He told me he had no idea where I was coming from. He suggested that maybe his church would not be a good one for me. He did tell me, though, that most of the good churches he knew of in our area were the same as his.

I, too, am baffled. I'm baffled that a pastor couldn't understand my question. I'm stunned that all the other churches were the same. "Sure, we're preaching the Bible, but we're not teaching it. We're discussing each others' views on other people's views about things related to the Bible." I'm at a loss. Am I too far out there? Am I asking something bizarre? Or maybe I haven't expressed myself well enough? Is the question too obscure? Or am I just asking for something that would be an odd request of a church? This pastor was a good man, a fine preacher, in fact, even a Reformed pastor. All good things. I thought I was asking fundamental questions. Where did I go wrong?