Mark Beeson, (I saw it on Tim Stevens site actually) just posted a little something on mature/immature believers. It is a must read. It really got me thinking. I believe that Church by the Glades is on the edge creatively and is doing everything within our power to reach the lost of South Florida. Because of this, we have A LOT of new believers roaming our halls.
Occasionally, we have flaming arrows thrown at us by, what I would call, “the super-spiritual.” They look at some of our folks who are in their spiritual infancy and accuse us of not discipling these people, teaching a “soft” gospel (whatever that means), not teaching repentance, etc…It seems to me that these spiritual elitists have forgotten that they were new believers walking around in spiritual diapers at one point too. I think they have also forgotten that ministry is messy and takes time. You don’t go from spiritually dead to spiritually mature over night. It is a process. In Paul’s words, it’s a race requiring discipline, training and endurance among other things. In my opinion, we are in the process of teaching these baby Christians what it means to be a follower of Christ. They are immature now. But, through the power of Jesus, they won’t stay that way!
Final thought: The sad part is that many of these “super spiritual” elitists have never come to hear/experience what we teach to make the accusations they do. I think they have stereotyped us based on what is out there and what they believe about those other ministry’s…that is sad…If they took the time to check us out, I think they would find that although our methods are different, our goal is the same-connecting people with Christ.
I think I would perfer a church full of immature believers who are teachable and have a hunger for Christ rather than a church full of “mature” believing na-sayers…again, just my opinion…
Thanks for the post Mark and Tim!
