It
is surely an endearing thing to see a baby with its nappy on and dummy in the
mouth, but what would you say if you saw a twenty-year-old with a nappy and
dummy? How about hundreds of these "babies"
together? The New Testament teaches
without any equivocation that God desires to see all His children come to
maturity. "Until we all...become
mature" (Eph. 4:13).
Unfortunately
the reigning church culture of our day is almost preprogrammed to maintain its
members in an infantile stage of spiritual development. When a church culture
is primarily focused on numbers it is not surprising to see multitudes of
"babies" together in one building in a permanent state of juvenile
leader-dependence. Sómething has to be done to grab the attention of
these fidgety little ones. Consequently
programs and entertainment almost always take precedence over discipleship
within this culture. To be sure, seeing so many babies together looks
impressive and even successful, but we have been called to be a growing
"body', a living temple, and an army of God - not a daycare facility.
According
to the New Testament the purpose of the gospel and church life is bringing us
to spiritual maturity in order to move our focus away from ourselves and onto
those we need to disciple in all the nations of the earth (Mt. 28:19), with a
view to théír maturity in Christ. If we remain in the same dependent
relationship with leaders and teachers for decades we have a serious problem! It is imperative for the health and future of
the true church that we reach a maturity that enables us to fellowship with one
another on equal terms as those who have received a "like precious
faith" (2 Pet. 1:1). Our roles and
responsibilities will always differ, but our relational reality múst mature
into the rich enjoyment of our shared heritage in Christ. The alternative is scary - relationships that
stagnate in a static and lifeless structure.
Something that moves and yet has no life in itself we call a
machine. God is looking for a living and
growing organism, not a machine.
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