Last night I sat on my couch wondering what do we challenge our people with? Why have we as Churches now a days focused so much on age being what shows spiritual maturity? How can we call ourselves leaders if our house is out-of-order? If I’m burning with a true passion, then my family follows right? I am the head of my house!
As I sat on the couch talking to my wife last night I began to think about where the Church was when it started and where we have taken it and our perceptions now. Our elders and leaders in the Church are chosen because they understand the vision that the Pastors have and they should set the tone for the entire body of Christ. Our Church does a great job of keeping its leaders accountable and knowing who they set in. But we can’t look at a single Church and focus on one doing it right and not the other. This is just something weighing on my heart so don’t take it as me saying that any one Church is messed up, but as me just making observations about how our pursuit is after Jesus, the one who made the Church.
When I look at people who I want to be discipled by, the first thing I watch about them is their children. Children tell a lot about someone and the way they are in their own private life. You can’t have children that aren’t disciplined and call yourself a leader. If you disagree with me then ask yourself how your going to be able to talk and discipline your disciples when you can’t even do it with the ones you train from birth. Most comments to this would be well they aren’t discipled in that area. Well as disciples aren’t we supposed to sacrifice our entire life to being discipled? We can’t be discipled in one area and not the other and call ourselves disciples. Now there is a time when children grow up and make their own decisions, but by the time that happens I should have devoted all of my energy into building them up with their eyes focused on Jesus and being a disciple.
How does being religious make you a good leader? Now when I say religious I’m talking about someone who can’t move any where other than what they have done in the past. If your worship doesn’t change as God challenges you to grow, if your Bible reading is nothing more than reading, if your prayer life and language never changes. Where are you actually growing? Because you are allowed to have your voice heard doesn’t make you a leader. Passionate pursuit is what creates you or makes you stand out as a leader. My wife and I have had dozens of people between the ages of 18 and 30 come up to us and say how much they admire our passion for Jesus and that our children are so awesome. Now that doesn’t come from just being there or from us forcing leadership on any body. It stems from me being the leader in my house! I set the tone for my family to constantly be finding more of God.
Humans are creators of habit, is what most of the world would say. I do think that this has taken the Church to where it is now, but as followers of Christ, we should be changing and growing as we find more of Him in us. If the Church is doing the same thing now as they did in 1999, then how are you going to change a world that is constantly changing? You can’t! If we tried to talk about abstinence the same way we did in 1990, then you won’t affect anything because the world has become more acceptable of sex in our generation. We have to let God change us so that we can change the world.
Spiritual maturity should grow as you get older and experience more things, but the key word is experience! I am a very strong believer that experience is what brings maturity. The more experiences and relationship you build with God the more mature in the spirit will grow. It isn’t from knowing God longer, but from building yourself in Him longer. You could know God for 50 years but unless your letting God work through you to reach others, than where have you grown? Jesus told us to share His love with the world! Having gray hair doesn’t make you more mature in the spirit. Now the way God has formed us, it should, but we have gotten to comfortable with just being the voice in other Christians lives.
Most children who are in a home that experience divorce mature faster than other children. This is not a healthy maturity but it can be formed into spiritual maturity if you know how to disciple them in certain areas. The point I really want to hit is, age doesn’t determine leadership, however it does determine honor. What I mean is, if we look at David the shepherd, we will see that he honored his brothers deeply. But he was the one chosen by God because of the passionate moments he had spent with Him. The day he walked out and slayed Goliath, I’m pretty confident in saying that all those older guys standing on the ridge line where making fun of him as he walked out into the valley that none of them would go. It didn’t cause David to doubt what God was going to do through him, but everyone else doubted that David could lead them to victory because of age and size. What about Joseph, his brothers hated him so much because his father loved him and gave him great things. But his brothers despite the fathers love sold him into slavery. There came a time where his brothers found themselves bowing down to him and out of honor for them he embraces them. These where both young men in a house of older men. I’m not saying that God chooses young people all the time, but I will say that God has a heart for young people because of their passionate zeal, and He can work change into them. They aren’t set in their ways and have a we have to do it this way mentality. God doesn’t care about age, gender, race, or even your past. He wants to take you to a place of spiritual maturity. Unless you allow him to make changes in you, your growth will be limited to what you keep as a habit.
These things are pouring into my heart for a reason. God is challenging me and in turn, I’m challenging you! Sit down and examine your relationship with the Alpha and Omega. Ask Him where you are lacking in growth and relationship. I’m not saying to sit down and pray about it, I’m really saying ask Him. God is not so stuck up that you can’t just talk to Him. I love having Q and A time with God. It’s so awesome that He loves us so much that He will just answer our questions. Leaders and Elders ask how we can pursue Jesus more passionately so that where ever we go people notice God in us. Not just because you give someone a holy God Bless You, but because they see our passion oozing out. Our pursuit after Him should have the world pursuing after us to find out what separates us from everybody else. If people aren’t pursuing you to find out what is different about you, then ask God why not.
This isn’t written to make you feel bad or feel good about yourself, I’m writing it to let people know whats weighing on my heart and what God is doing in me. God wants to do something in His Church that the world has never seen and it will drastically change the way we form the Church for our children. inheritance is a vital piece to growth in the Church and letting God be the deciding factor in where His Church is going.
