Emphasis Preaching Journal

I learned a lesson about thanksgiving while working as a parish pastor. One of my duties was to call on inactive members of the church. As I listened to the tales of why seemingly good people had quit coming to worship, I found only one common denominator. All of these inactives insisted, for a wide variety of reasons, that they just weren't getting out of church what they expected. They weren't being sufficiently "fed" or helped or inspired.