Dear Church Family,
How do you grow spiritually? I know the answer I (Bronwyn) learned in Sunday School had a catchy tune:
Read your bible, pray every day, pray every day, pray every day (x2)
And you’ll grow, grow, grow.
(Bonus points to you if you sang this in your head.) This kids’ classic—along with Jesus Love Me, This I Know—taught me foundational truths for life. We absolutely DO need to hear from God (Scripture) and talk with God (prayer) to grow our faith.
Those answers weren’t wrong, but they were incomplete. To focus on the bible and prayer alone for spiritual growth is like saying we need protein and vegetables for physical growth: true, but insufficient. We also need sleep and water for physical growth. And for spiritual growth, we need at least these two things also: meeting together and serving together.
Why meeting together? Because encouragement is at the heart of God’s purpose for church nourishment (Hebrews 10:23), as Skye Jethani so succinctly illustrates in his book What if Jesus was Serious:
The rest of the Scriptures agree. As we meet face to face to listen, process, and pray together, a deep inner work of transformation and growth happens. And… so does Science. My super smart neuroscientist friend Jessie Cruickshank (who is also an expert at discipleship) explains that sharing and hearing stories of one another's lives literally uses a different part of our brain to process those experiences than the part we use for information-gathering like learning physics or reading the news. And guess which parts of our brain we use to shape our decision-making and orient our hearts and hopes? Yup, you guessed it. The part of the brain we use to process one another’s story. So… if for no other reason than the science of spiritual growth, sign up to be part of a Home Group for this Fall.
Why serving together? Ephesians 4 describes it this way: as we serve together (with our ministry leaders equipping us), the whole church grows together in maturity and unity (Ephesians 4:13). We can read dozens of books, and watch hours of youtube tutorials about a thing – but real growth happens we actually give the thing a try. What would you like to give a try? Where would you like to lend a hand, try out a skill, or see a difference made? Whether it’s a first step or you just want to try something new - check out FBC’s Ways to Serve form. Filling it in isn’t a lifetime commitment, it’s an invitation to explore. One of the staff will get in touch with you to talk more… because we fully believe that ways to serve are also ways to grow and B.L.E.S.S our world.
Excited to start our Fall Focus with you this Sunday,
Bronwyn