Maturity vs. Immaturity
John Wimber was a key leader in the Vineyard movement. One of the things that I appreciate about his teaching was his practical approach to ministry. In a teaching about developing disciples, John shares some thoughts on mature and immature faith.
We measure disciples by the way they think. Following Jesus should affect our thought patterns. Are the people you are training thinking in disciplese? The fundamentals of the gospel become more important to a committed disciple’s spiritual life as the heart and lungs are to this physical body. The following statements contrast the differences in those who have an immature faith with those who have a mature Christian faith.
IMMATURE FAITH: Good Christians don’t have pain or disappointment.
MATURE FAITH: God uses our pain and disappointment to make us better Christians.
IMMATURE FAITH: God helps those who help themselves.
MATURE FAITH: God helps those who admit their own helplessness.
IMMATURE FAITH: God wants to make us happy.
MATURE FAITH: God wants to make us into the image of Jesus.
IMMATURE FAITH: Faith will help us always explain what God is doing.
MATURE FAITH: Faith helps us stand under God’s sovereignty even when we have no idea what God is doing.
IMMATURE FAITH: The closer we get to God, the more perfect we become.
MATURE FAITH: The closer we get to God, the more we become aware of our own sinfulness.
IMMATURE FAITH: Mature Christians have answers.
MATURE FAITH: Mature Christians can wrestle honestly with tough questions because we trust that God has the answers.
IMMATURE FAITH: Good Christians are always strong.
MATURE FAITH: Our strength is admitting our weakness.
IMMATURE FAITH: We go to church because our friends are there, we have great leaders, and we get something out of it.
MATURE FAITH: We go to church because we belong to the body of Christ.
We want to engender a deep spirituality in our disciples that rejects a facile triumphalism. Disciples realize there will be hard times ahead. The journey we’re on is fraught with pain, difficulties, and the onslaughts of the enemy. Mature Christian’s also learn we can benefit from trials. From my reading of the Bible (and church history), Christianity doesn’t guarantee heaven here on earth. We’re going to Heaven- But we may go through hell here on this earth!
Maturity doesn’t not automatically come with the passage of years; some of the people we work with may be spiritually much younger than their chronological age. A prayer I pray often is: “Lord, let me grow up, before I grow old.”