"O, Grow Up!"
We all remember hearing those words at some point in our childhood, don't we? Usually it was the annoyed response of an older brother or sister, or the older sibling of a playmate, after we had pulled some particularly childish prank (hey, we were kids, what else would you expect!) that targeted the aforementioned sibling. The words were always accompanied by a scowl that was a mixture of scorn and pity. Our typical reaction generally consisted of snickers and giggles, then off we went to plot our next, equally juvenile, prank.
While such antics provided some passing amusement at the time, most of us did indeed eventually fulfill the exasperated exhortation of our “elders” and we “grew up.” We outgrew (at least most of us) the childishness of our childhood and became mature, responsible adults. Sadly, however, it seems that this admonition has been singularly neglected in the one place where “growing up” should be both the supreme focus and natural result of our participation – the church.
The modern church has made perpetual infancy in spiritual things not just a tragic reality but has positively embraced and exalted the condition to a place of honor. Most churches (to use the term in its social context rather than strictly Biblically) in our day no longer seek to build up in the faith those under their care, but are content to offer a bewildering array of programs and activities designed to keep their members is perpetual motion.
In this model, doctrine and truth become secondary, and in some cases directly at odds with, the goal of keeping everyone constantly busy in the endless round of go-here, do-this, what's-the-next-activity brand of church life that has become the trademark of our modern day. Add to this the rise and current popularity of the “seeker-sensitive church” in which the unconverted are consulted as to how worship and church matters are to be conducted, and you have a toxic recipe for permanently immature believers and malnourished sheep. Consider but a few examples...
A large and numerically growing church in the north metropolitan Atlanta area recently advertised on a highway billboard that it could boast of more than 160 different “programs” that it offered to its members and the community. A bit of research identified such programs as musical training, an on-site coffee shop, a comprehensive sports program, and a web page for young adults that includes a variety of online video games for amusement, just to name a few.
Nor is this unique to one or even a handful of churches. Countless thousands, small and large, are nearly identical copies of this model of “doing church.” Another aspiring mega-church in north Georgia proudly informed potential visitors that it offered go-kart rides on its property after its Sunday morning worship services. Just the thing to help firmly ground believers in the “faith once delivered to the saints.”
Yet another true mega-church provides an advance warning to those who are attending the service that flashing lights are used during the event (we dare not call it worship) that may pose difficulties for those with epileptic conditions. Do you suppose it might ever have occurred to them that dispensing with the light show and simply preaching the Gospel could be a more effective means of maturing believers, especially in consideration of those with that specific medical condition? Probably not.
So we have come to this in the church – light shows, go-karts, sports programs, and video game web sites. We have substituted amusement for teaching and entertainment for declaring the whole counsel of God. Is it any wonder that members of these “religious organizations” are suffering from spiritual starvation? As one pastor put it (and this was more than thirty years ago), churches have become the poor man's country club where for an extremely nominal membership fee you can enjoy all sorts of pleasant pastimes and recreations.
We should not be surprised, then, that most church members of our day cannot define even the basic doctrines of the faith nor defend them in the presence of opposition. Nor should we scratch our heads when vast multitudes leave these “churches” to affiliate with blatant heresy in the form of Jehovah's Witness, Mormon, or countless other false prophets. They have not been taught the truth, they have been left spiritual infants, no great wonder then that so many soon shrivel like the plant that was scorched by the sun in the Lord's parable of the sower.
How different is this from the description of believers, and of the church as a body, given to us in Scripture. While we all enter the kingdom as infants, being born again (to use our Lord's own description from John chapter three), there is no commendation in the Word of God for remaining immature in spiritual matters. Scripture's constant and and consistent exhortation to believers is, to use our opening words, “Grow Up!” Just as we manifest natural life by physical health and growth, we display spiritual life by healthy growth in the things of God.
What saith the Scripture?
“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” Ephesians 4:13-15.
“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18
And even the apostle Peter, when speaking of believers using the metaphor of infancy, instructs us that we should “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word..” But why? For just this reason - “that ye may grow thereby” 1 Peter 2:2. Yes, spiritual growth and eventual maturity is expected and required of those to whom God has given new birth.
This is but a small sampling of all that God's Word has to say on the subject of Christians becoming mature in the faith. You see, the Bible knows nothing of saints in a condition of unending infancy. Either we are growing – in our understanding, our affections, and our desire for spiritual things - or the inescapable alternative is that we are dying. And that is the sad description of vast numbers who are fed a steady diet of the “baby food” that is the activity- and entertainment-driven churches of our day. Such things make for weak, sickly, infantile Christians (if they are really Christians at all) and we may well ask what shall be the condemnation pronounced by the Lord in that Day on the promoters and purveyors of such foolishness when He stands to render final judgment upon all the works of men.
We may rightly wonder and tremble...
John Gormley |
Older
Top
