Spiritual Potty Training
How long would you allow your child to use diapers without learning how to use the toilet before you stepped in and said "this has gone on long enough!"?
2 years? 5 YEARS? 25 YEARS!!!!?
Why is it that we expect every physical infant to mature, but don't assume that spiritual children should as well?
There are countless books outlining early childhood development - what we should expect by a certain age, when they get teeth, crawl, start talking and just about every other behavior known to humanity! So why do we not expect the same kind of consistent growth from our spiritual children? Are God's designs for growth not universal?
If a student doesn't learn to read, and we simply pass them on to the next grade because we don't want to challenge their lack of growth we are not acting in the best interest of that student (or society).
If a child has not learned how to feed, cloth or bathe themselves by the time they are 25 we should consider that a parenting failure.
And yet, year after year we sit idly by while thousands of spiritual children are allowed to enter into their teens and twenties without any considerable growth in their spiritual maturity. (Many still require pastors and teachers to feed, bathe and cloth them).
I believe we have wrongfully concluded that adults who experience a spiritual rebirth live up to their level of physical maturity. That somehow, a 5 year old and a 45 year old person who both experience rebirth on the same day should have dramatically differing levels of spiritual maturity. We have assumed that the 45 year old will inherently know more about spiritual things then the 5 year old. She will be more disciplined, more able to overcome sin and naturally have mature spiritual practices. (After all, they are mature in every other area of their life!)
The truth is that they have no more experience or knowledge then anyone else - we all must undergo an intense time of learning. Learning to eat spiritual food, clean our lives of spiritual 'germs' and cloth ourselves with things like humility, love, patience and kindness. They must also receive diligent nurture and care from mature spiritual adults who can train them up in the way in which they should go.
In the end we must recognize that our physical maturity has little or no baring on our formative years of spiritual maturity, and if we are to become the people that God created us to be we must take seriously our role of being spiritual parents to newborn followers of Jesus. Followers who will require a lot of love in the form of patience, understanding, training and discipline.
posted by Jon Loeppky at
2:03 PM
3 Comments:
Who are the "we" who are not taking responsibility for the "spiritual children"?! What about mentors, friends (see Proverbs 27:17) and authors/teachers that are providing support and resources? There may be individuals "sitting idly by", but would that be a universal assumption? Based on what observations?
10:58 PM CDT
That's exactly my point! The majority of the training people get is from people who don't know them (authors) and professional ministers (pastors/teachers), not from people close enough to be called family!
I've been a "serious" follower of Jesus for 20 years and during that time have not encountered more then a handful of people who have been personally mentored by a more mature believer. Most, of not all of us have been responsible for finding our own teachers and resources.
My question is: What would our children look like if we did that to them? Would we be OK with sending our newborns to a giant rooming house were they would be raised by a house mother/fahter?
I think this is how we largely view our Christian development - let the paid minisiters do it so that the everyday person doesn't have to.
The truth is that parents learn a lot from raising children, it aids us in becoming better people. If we become spiritual parents we will experience a simialr growth dynamic - growth that I believe is integral for becoming spiritually mature.
2:17 PM CDT
I think we've made this problem ourselves by making it appear that those in "full time ministry" are more equipped or more holy. THe other shleps working at 7-11 CAN'T POSSIBLY be equipped to mentor...can they? (After all...if they were worthy...some church would have snatched them up and offered them a job!)
We model the "church worker superstar" thing to our kids too. How many young leaders just want a job in the church? (how many older ones?) They think that full time ministry will fulfill their longing. They chase after a position, and won't settle for less. I wonder how many of these people get positions out of their own human effort, and because of God's annointing on them?
Okay...this is a little off your topic....but my point is this:
We've helped create a system where we look to leaders. It's like a co-dependant relationship. We need leaders to do everything for us, and (some) leaders can't live without the affirmation and stroking of the congregation. They need to be needed.
Wouldn't it serve the world more if every anointed leader stepped down from 'church ministry' and head out into the marketplace? The world would be rocked! Hmm..sounds so very New Testement, doesn't it?
Perhaps with our "church superstars" looking and functioning like normal people, we'd learn that mentors are all around us. In fact...we ALL ARE mentors!
1:42 AM CDT
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