Growing Up in Faith

This post will be a followup to my previous post on growing up in our society.  In it, I discuss the disappearance of adulthood, why growing up is still valuable, and a few thoughts on how one might go about growing up.  In this post, I'd like to consider the same principles as they apply to Christians and the Church.

How do we grow up in faith?  What's the road map for spiritual maturity in our Western churches today?  For the most part, there is a pretty consistent formula that is presented to us.  Come to church regularly, develop a personal devotion time at home, give more tithes and offerings, volunteer more at church, and be part of a small group.  These things are all excellent steps to growing up as a Christian.  But are they all that we have as a Church?

I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure it
never works like this.

The Bible has a few places where it talks about "growing up" in the faith.  Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3, talks about growing up from being infants to eating "solid food."  The author of Hebrews 5 may have borrowed this language, if he isn't Paul also, to talk about growing up from milk to solid food as a mature spiritual adult.  Other places that talk about spiritual development, such as Ephesians 4, tend refer to issues of good works.  Does growing up in faith and practicing these good works of the life of a disciple, then, refer to things like tithing and being active in serving the local church?

I don't believe so.  Just as our society may have traded a child/adult divide for a world in which adults act like children, is it possible that our Church has allowed spiritual maturity to be optional and even forgotten what it means to be a spiritual adult?

I was talking the other night with a youth worker who helped parents understand that their children having doubts about their faith wasn't a thing to fear.  Many of our spiritual forefathers struggled with great periods of doubt and pain and even anger at God.  Doubts may be one of the first, and most recurring, stages of spiritual maturing.  If we are afraid to enter even these stages, our growth will probably be stunted.

Sometimes churches may inadvertently limit the possibilities for spiritual growth by failing to offer sufficient challenges.  Most churches try to keep Sunday morning services approachable for new believers and guests of members.  Where, then, does the growth come?  Small groups are the obvious answer, but many churches struggle to find enough qualified small group leaders to lead groups, and many small groups focus on the common need for community as much if not more than the need for deep growth in spiritual maturity.  The new movement in small groups is to make them missionally-oriented, which is also valuable, but still not places for emphasizing the "solid food" of spirituality.

And what exactly is that "solid food" of spirituality?  I'm inclined to think that tithing and volunteering are more likely traits that Paul and the Bible authors would have considered infant prerequisites, not qualities of a mature disciple.  What other paths might be available for spiritual growth that aren't highlighted in our churches?

Spiritual maturity
probably requires great
amounts of facial hair.

My first instinct is to look to the past for examples of spiritually mature forefathers.  The giants of the faith that we think of, such as Ignatius, Hudson Taylor, St. Francis, William Carey, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, St. Patrick, Hildegard, and so forth are all quickly noted.  They were marked by radical devotion to the faith, prolific authors and musicians, fearless missionaries, and more.  They are excellent examples, and of course Hebrews 11 gives us a great introduction to the faithful even further back in history.  What types of paths do they show us?  Here's a few that jump out at me:

• Monasticism - When's the last time you heard that term in your church?  Have you ever heard your church encourage a young person to spend an extended period of time in isolation and devotion to rules to grow in spirituality?
• Liturgy of the hours, Celtic and Puritan prayers - Throughout history, people have taken "pray without ceasing" to mean to regularly interrupt yourself to pray.  The Celtics and Puritans have a great tradition of having prepared prayers for various occasions.  One could imagine having prayers printed above the coffee pot to pray every morning!
• Heart prayers - Some spiritual fathers have described meditating on simple prayers such as the "Jesus prayer" (Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner) to the point that they actually become as natural as breathing, and that each breath literally reminds them of the prayer.  Now that's praying without ceasing!
• Prophetic and charismatic - While many are afraid of charismatic gifts, I can't help but think that 1 Corinthians 12:31 is a key part of spiritual maturity.  Eagerly desire more spiritual gifts, even the scary charismatic ones!
• Friars and Clares - Founded by St. Francis, these orders emphasized poverty as necessary for discipleship.  We think that's extreme, but it sounds a lot like what Jesus taught...and yet voluntary poverty is never considered a virtue in our churches.  We don't even really challenge people on stewardship!
• Mysticism - Some Christians may fear cultish behavior when getting into mysticism and spiritual experiences, but they've been a part of Christianity for two thousand years.  Under proper guidance and spiritual authority, they could be incredible parts of Christian discipleship.
• Contemplation and Examen - Spending time in meditation can take all sorts of different forms, whether contemplating Scripture or, as in the case of Examen, contemplating oneself.  Self-awareness and charting one's own spiritual growth would fit in well with our society's love of to-do lists and strategic plans.

These are just a few - it's not meant to be an exhaustive list, and one is not more right than another.  They are all different paths, and people can go down separate paths and still walk with God on each of them.  My point is that they are all paths that we've largely forgotten in our modern Church, with its emphasis on "morning quiet times" as the primary objective in spiritual growth.  Many of them are challenging and audacious, but then again when has the easy route been the best one?  Those challenges that are hardest are often the ones that we get most excited about, and the ones for which we most rise to the occasion.

Some people lately have been kicking around the idea of the "Dones" as a subset of the "Nones" - as in those Christians who are quitting churches and not looking for new ones because they are "done" with church.  Nones as a whole are those who have no church affiliation or religious beliefs for whatever reasons.  This article is an example (although it blames "dones" on a lack of community).  I believe that part of the desire of those in my generation to quit church is because we aren't being challenged enough.  Even if the community is nice, it does eventually get tiring to keep hearing the same basic sermons over and over again, and keep getting solicited to volunteer for the same programs over and over again.  After a while it just gets boring.

If we're having the challenge of lots of Christians walking around whom our church fathers and apostles would consider to be spiritual babes, and we're having the challenge of Christians leaving churches and wandering on their own, perhaps it's time to revisit the idea of spiritual growth.  Perhaps churches could take a look through history at the ways that Christians have experienced spiritual maturity, and present some of them to their members.  I'd like to see church pastors and growth leaders becoming experts in leading spiritual growth.  Too many spend all their days planning church services and doing the logistics of small groups.  These jobs are of course critical and good, but where's the actual spiritual growth leaders?  If Christians aren't challenged, we will never grow, and we are likely to get bored and wander.