Erica from Des Moines, Iowa writes and asks this.

During my years as a single woman and during my childless married years, I served in a

variety of volunteer roles and student and adult ministries in the local churches that

I called home.

Now I'm a stay at home mom and homeschooling mom to my two young children, one of whom

has an autism spectrum disorder and learning disabilities.

My husband and I are also expecting our third child.

Only I teach my children Sunday school class once a month, but that's it.

I feel right now like I'm a consumer in my church family more than I am a contributor and

I feel badly about that.

Pastor John, what encouragement would you have for moms like me?

I'm going to start right there on this consumer thing, Tony and maybe this will cause

a little paradigm shift for her, consuming the feast of God's word and the grace of God

with satisfaction, weekend and week out, with God's people is a great honor to God and

a great encouragement to pastors.

In other words, what I want from my people is that they don't come to church to give

me or to give God anything.

I want them to come starved for God, hungry for God, desperate for God and I want to spread

a banquet for them in the worship of singing and the worship of preaching so that they

can drink and eat and delight like at a great banquet and a great feast that ends with

cheesecake and strawberries and stand up and say, which is worship and go out feeling

like they have met the living God at the river of living water.

...