How often have you heard the phase " I go to church, but I am not "fed"?  Our often is this used to invoke unhappiness with a particular preacher's sermons?  Where does this attitude  of " I need to be fed" come from?  Of course elders, not preachers, are told to "feed the folk.".  But this attitude is clearly one of passivity.  If a congregation doesn't have the "right program", enough "motivational" sermons, or .... whatever the person's felt needs ( as opposed to real needs) are, the excuse is "I am not being fed.  

Perhaps the following tale from communism gives us some insight.

"You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. "When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. "They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. "The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."  'So it is for people to have accepted communism as well  as those that accept  benefits  which are seemingly free.

Clearly our people in the U.S. are becoming more dependent on the largess of the government and less dependent or what they can do for themselves.  Has this attitude carried over into our "church life".  Do members now expect the church to cater to all of their felt needs?  But Eph. 4 tells us all have been given gifts from God.  Those gifts were given for "works of service."  No where is the Christian life tied up in the passive activity of listening to sermons or attending classes.   It may be the attitudes developed as a citizen carry over to expectations that the church is there to serve them.  In reality, they as citizens of the Kingdom of God are here to serve others.  What do you think?