I'm reading a book right now to prepare for a series we are doing this summer about growing in your spiritual life. Also one of my favorite bloggers is writing this week about the constant complaint of American church people. You know the one - "I want the church to feed me." So I'm thinking a lot this days about this question - what does spiritual maturity look like. When a person becomes a Christian and they grow what does growth look like? How do you tell if someone is still spiritually immature? Okay now, these are not rhetorical questions. I really want to know what you think.
About Me
- Ed
- Sharpsburg, GA, United States
- Blessed to have three great sons and a beautiful wife, to be pastor of a great church and to get to work with some of my best friends.
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5 comments:
Several short answers:
I would say growth begins with discipleship. Dallas Willard has said it well (a paraphrase), "Apprenticeship, following Christ, is being with Him, learning to be like Him." It is inward transformation into the likeness of Christ. A phrasing of Romans 12:1-2 I heard says "be transformed by the re-glueing of your mind." There is where it begins, after the first step of being saved. It is in the mind and heart where transformation begins and then comes through to the outer man. That is where the growth is seen by others. (too much to say about that here) The mark of the Christian is love as Christ has loved us. The single greatest indicator of growth is in our live for one another. God has put us on display before a watching world. "all the world will know that we are His disciples,if there is love for
one another." Maturity is demonstrated in the fruit of the Spirit. Immaturity is demonstrated by the deeds of the flesh. This may sound very simplistic, but then, why does it have to be complicated?
As far as people complaining that the church does not feed them, that is a problem that I have dealt with myself. I feel that a mature believer does not rely solely upon what the Sunday sermon is about. I think the complaint can arise from a desire for the church to be a tool that moves a person forward along with that person's own growth, that "being with Him" part of things. My personal experience has been that sermons can be so geared to the lost or un-churched, that those who are growing rarely hear a penetrating, thought provoking message that can be an aid in their deeper level of the pursuit of Christ. This is not an indictment of your preaching.
These are just a few thoughts made, maybe, too quickly this early in the AM.
As an aside: The earlier comments from anonymous about how you walk through scripture were actually from me. I am new to this blogging thing and had no online account set-up. (edit out this last "aside" comment since it is not relevant to this posting)
A great question. There is a period of David's life where
he was very down, it is in 1st Samuel. He has lost his job, his wife, and he is an outlaw, running and hidding from the King. His life was in the pits. It could not get any worse. Then the 1st Samuel
30:6 says David encouraged Himself in the Lord. David found encouragement in God.
There were a lot things David could have done, but he chose to turn to God for ENCOURAGEMENT. He did not stay down but lifted himself up by turning to God.
I believe somewhere in that experience is a key to Spiritual Maturity.
73 - it was easier to leave your aside in than edit it out. Hope you don't mind me doing it for the sake of speedy posting.
Ed-We have only to look at the day to day life of Christ to see what a mature Christian ougnt to look like. Christ had essentially three years and thousands of people to reach, touch and affect. There was a sense of urgency to his life. Until we are living everyday with that same sense of urgency to reach the lost, I don't believe we are truly mature.
An additional thought in relation to your question(s) came to me the other day. I was reminded of the passages in Hebrews 5:11-14. That took me on into Hebrews 6:1-12. I read it and was thinking about it later in the day. In the context of the surrounding passages the writer is pointing out a situation that was happening then and is all too common in many churches today and witnessed in my own personal experience as a believer for 30 years. These things relate directly to growth and maturity for believers.
The typical message in a lot of churches is a salvation only type message. I understand the reasoning for this but also feel that it is also a great reason that people are not growing in the things of God. They are not being taken past those basic fundamentals. It is not that we are to forget those things but that they are not supposed to be the only thing being taught.
In relation to the complaint that the "church is not feeding me", it goes back to what I am saying above. Many people want to grow in their understanding and application of God's Word and many do. At the same time, many do not. There are too many churches that stay on the simple message described in Hebrews. People who are growing would like the church to be part of their progression in a forward direction but because of the mind-set of the preaching do not hear much that helps in that area.
To be sure, some are lazy and/or have a wrong idea of what it means to follow Christ. Could this also be due to the level of the message(s) being preached? Too much emphasis is placed on doing and not being. When leadership does not see people getting involved (the doing), they chide their flock for that shortcoming. I have heard this too many times over the years.
Could it be that leadership cannot take people where they themselves have not gone? Are our activities in the church complicating our lives to where completing a task becomes the focus to the exclusion of time with God? We are too busy doing things "for" God when He really wants our hearts and minds and the doing will naturally flow out of that. We sometimes get it turned around and think that doing will produce growth. It usually only makes believers grow into busy people.
I cannot here cover all aspects of the issues involved but feel that what I see and am thinking do bear significantly on this topic.
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