Spiritual growth and spiritual maturity are much less
about what you know and much more about who you are.
Just this past week my wife sent me this quote from
Henry Blackaby. "Christianity is not a set of teachings to
understand. It is a Person to follow. As he walked with Jesus, Andrew
watched Jesus heal the sick, teach God's wisdom, and demonstrate God's
power. Andrew not only learned about
God; he actually experienced Him! Moments will come when you stand at a
crossroads with your Lord. You will have a hundred questions for Him.
Rather than answering the questions one by one, Jesus may say, "Put on
your shoes, step out onto the road, and follow Me." As you walk daily
with Him, Jesus will answer your questions, and you will discover far more than
you even knew to ask."
In fact, though by this time you ought
to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s
word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on
milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about
righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by
constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews
5:12-14)
Spiritual growth and maturity cannot be measured but spiritual
growth can be observed. Just ask a few questions.
How well you know and understand God? How open you are
in your relationship with God? How much control of your life and decisions have
you given God? What is the time span between something happening and your
turning to God? How you treat others? How is your temper? What do you spend
your time and money on? How much time do you invest into the lives of others?
We are
navigatingh some very difficult terrain on this journey of the Christian life.
- The Christian life is not a spectator sport or a reality TV show.
- Too often we think we know something because we have heard about it and too often we think we have been somewhere because we have seen pictures of the place.
- Spiritual maturity is not just how much you know, it is how much you know that you are doing.
- In churches I pastor we don’t often offer strictly Bible content classes.
- In a Bible Study you learn things about the Bible. That is good but that is not enough.
- I don’t think my experience is unusual in that some of the most immature and meanest people I have ever met know lots about the Bible.
- That is because too often I have seen people take a class, hear some information and think they know it.
- We must understand that we don’t know it until we are doing it.
James puts it in these words. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what
it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do
what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and,
after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks
like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law
that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard,
but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:22-25)
In attempting to produce mature disciples growing,
healthy churches are more interested in Bible application classes than in just
Bible information classes. We call these Life Groups. As you learn more about
how God wants us to live, in the safe confines of your Life Group, you also learn
how to do it. The Life Group provides a safe place to try and fail and try
again surrounded by people who love you and will not judge you but will help
you.
One must be motivated in the journey to ask, “Where am
I in the process?” We must be willing to discover and follow some of the
signposts along the way.
Several years ago a pastor friend shared with me a
conversation he had with one of his church leaders that caused me to think what
we are doing as a church is not necessarily producing spiritually maturing disciples.
Scott told me this. “The elder I am telling you about was responding to my
challenge to the Elders to become a part of a Life (Small) Group. His
response to my encouragement was, ‘Getting to know God is admirable, but we do
have lives outside of church you know.’” What that elder was saying was he didn’t
have time to invest in spiritual maturity. This is not a response I would
expect from an Elder.
Along the same lines I read an interesting article in
a church newsletter. It had to do with the resignation of one of the church’s
Elders. The Elder was resigning for some, to me, rather curious reasons. The
Elder stated, in his letter of resignation, that he was leaving the Elder Board
to free up more of his time so he could lead a Bible study and invest time in
mentoring some of the younger men in the church. From my perspective it sounded
like he was resigning from being an Elder so he could have the time to be an
Elder. What, I wonder, do Elders do in that church?
So what are some self-tests can one use to measure
one’s spiritual growth and find where he or she is in the process. To do this
we can look at the journey in stages much as we look at our physical maturity:
Infant; Child; Young Adult; Mature Adult.
Infants
Things they
say:
- Why do I need to go to church?
- I was hurt at church so I will never go back.
- I didn’t know the Bible said that.
- Jesus is real but so is Karma.
- If I pray and read the Bible occasionally that should be good enough.
Children
Things they say:
- It is just me and Jesus. I don’t need the church.
- Don’t branch my small group into two. I like my group and don’t ever want it to change.
- The church is getting too big and I don’t know everybody.
- No one is helping me enough.
- I didn’t like the music in worship today.
- I’m not being spiritually fed.
- The pastor doesn’t pay enough attention to me.
Young Adults
Things they say:
- I love my group but there are others who need a group so perhaps we should start a new group.
- With some help I could lead a group.
- I couldn’t find a close parking space Sunday morning. Awesome!
- I noticed there isn’t a ministry to care for older members. Do you think I could start one?
- I missed Randy at church. I think I’ll call and make sure everything is okay.
Adults
(Mature Disciples)
Things they
say:
- A friend at work has a Biblical question. Pray for me as I attempt to answer it for him.
- The church is having a mission trip. I think I’ll volunteer to lead it.
- A member of our small group is getting baptized. I will ask him if he needs a mentor.
- I have come to realize that spiritual growth happens at home. I need someone to hold me accountable for discipling my children.
These are some
great questions to ask yourself to find where you are on the path toward
spiritual maturity; to find where you are and dedicate yourself to the process
of maturing.
Copyright © 2015, William T. McConnell,
All Rights Reserved
Bill McConnell is Senior Minister at
Lindenwood Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee and is a Church
Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent
speaker at Church Transformation events. His latest book on church
transformation is DEVELOPING A SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at Westbow Press. He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com.
Connect with him on Facebook @ William T. McConnell or on Twitter @billmc45053
or visit his Amazon Author Page @ Amazon
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