What is maturity?

By -
Yesterday in a conversation I was having I heard this comment by a well-known pastor in Albania speaking with other pastors (freely translated from poor memory):

"The church may not have grown in numbers in the last few years, but at least the church has grown tremendously in depth! Remember a few years ago when you could prepare Saturday night and preach on Sunday morning? You just couldn't get away with that now! Our people have really grown."

Now he wasn't saying this, but what I heard clear as a bell coincides with these statements:
  • Maturity means I know more
  • When I am able to critique a pastor's sermon, I have become deep
  • Growth in knowledge equals Christian growth
I object to this idea at a very deep level. It is true that TRUTH is vital in our Christian walk and growth. But the fact is that the vast (!) majority of us Christians know far more than we obey already!

Why do we continue to emphasize know to the de-emphasis of obey or (even better) transform?

Now I understand that my pastor-friend was not saying obedience/transformation is unimportant. But I do believe that our heart-level understanding of growth is often far, far, far too heavily weighted towards knowledge and far too lightly oriented towards obedience and transformation.

What do you think? Where is your church on the spectrum? Where are you?

Comments

Post a Comment

I am very happy you've chosen to leave a comment here. If it's not too much trouble I would really appreciate it if you would either sign in somehow or else identify yourself in your comments so I know who you are... (Not required but appreciated.) Thanks! -Peter

Popular posts from this blog

Mark 2:1-12 (with poetic license)

By -
For those of you unfortunate enough to not have Albanian exposure, here's a quick "glossary of names". Each of the names are typical Albanian names, but each has a special meaning.  Alban="The Albanian", Shpresa="Hope", Kreshnik="Warrior", Gezim="Joy", Bekim="Blessing".  I won't be any more obvious than that... :-) Once upon a time there were 5 friends.  They were born in the same town in the same year, grew up together, went to school together, played on football team together, got in trouble together.  They were inseparable; you almost never saw one without the others.  After they finished high school they found various honest jobs around town and soon one of them, Alban, fell in love with a young lady named Shpresa.  Soon they were engaged and Alban was hard at work building another story on his parents’ home in preparation for the wedding.  But then one day the unthinkable happened.  Alban had been wo...
Read more

Protecting What Is Valuable To Us

By -
Image
I've always had this thing for nautical-themed decorations: old fashioned ships wheels, compasses, ship models, pictures with ships and lighthouses - it just feels like "me." Most of my life I've been prancing around the globe and so, necessarily, these decorations have been left in attics and storage boxes and often sent to thrift stores or (sniff) the dump, but I really do enjoy collecting these things and decorating my "man cave" with them. (a similar crystal ship, but not as intricate) I remember one year for a birthday in my 20s my parents brought me a beautiful crystalline ship, crafted in exquisite detail despite its tiny size. They traveled for my birthday and brought it from Pennsylvania to South Carolina (about 12 hours in the car) in a very carefully packed box. When I opened it at my grandparents' home it was perfect in every detail - incredibly fine glass forming each line and railing and porthole. I lived just over a mile away and so when t...
Read more

I WILL NOT be cheated! (Random personal thoughts on forgiveness)

By -
I WILL NOT BE CHEATED! I WILL NOT BE MADE A FOOL OF! I WILL NOT BE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF! I WILL NOT LET ANYONE TAKE WHAT IS MINE! (including my rights!) A peak into the soul of a controlling man... A recipe for bitterness and a brittle heart... I wasn't always this way. I remember as a teenager working on a repair job with my uncle. He stepped off the ladder next to where I was working on the floor and stepped squarely on my fingers with his workboots. It hurt! But my response was reflexive - I apologized for getting in his way and almost making him fall... The other people in the room laughed at me (who apologizes when it is their fingers that got stepped on?!) but it seemed quite natural to me... I remember maybe the day (?) when this attitude took root in my heart. I was in seminary but visiting at a relative's home. I had just had my car repaired and the mechanic had really hung me out to dry, overcharging and then not doing the job. I had worked myself up into a bit of a tiz...
Read more