Spiritual Formation Paper

Meat and Milk: Spiritual Formation in Mature Believers

Dr. Billy O. Fleming, Jr.

Introduction

The Christian walk of the Spirit is not easy to define or track.  No two people ever have the same spiritual journey, nor do they arrive at the same place in exactly the same way or the same time.  Our individual faith journeys are as unique as fingerprints or snowflakes.  We follow unique trajectories like water drops over a curved glass.  Nevertheless, there are enough similarities of experience among Christian Believers that a general path of spiritual formation may be described.  We all start in carnality and flow heavenward, following the path of grace and redemption.  Our similarities make it possible to help one another along the way.

The purpose of this study is first to trace that track of spiritual maturity from initial conversion to spiritual maturity using Biblical, historical and contemporary patterns.  This author hopes to demonstrate that Christian discipleship is often ignored by the contemporary church, and when it is practiced it focuses only on the initial stages of Christian growth—milk, not meat.  Then we will attempt to develop a model of spirituality that will adjust to the changing challenges of living out a mature spirituality in an increasingly challenging world.  It is this author’s hope that this model will assist us all to continually grow and strengthen our relationship to God through a lifetime spiritual journey.

Biblical Stages of Christian maturity

The New Testament shows at least two passages which clearly indicate stages of Christian maturity.  One is found in 1 John 2:12-14.  John mentions three stages of the Believers’ lives—children, young men, and fathers.

12 I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.

14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.[1]

John repeats the phrase “I write to you” six times.  The use of “because” (hoti) may also be rendered “that,” which would suggest that what follows is not the reason he is writing, but the subject.  “I write to you that you have known the father.  .  .” and so forth.  John is writing these words as a reminder to the church of what they need to know in these particular stages of Christian maturity.

Children should know the Father and that He has forgiven their sins.  Young men should know that they have already overcome the Evil One, are strong, and have the Word of God.  Fathers should continue to remember the One they already known from the beginning of their spiritual walk.

In the first instance, John uses the word teknia for “little children,” a word which he uses in other places for all Christians.[2]  We all know the Father.  In the second instance, he uses paideia, which means “infants,” specifically referring to those who are new Christians.[3]

“Young men” in Greek is neaniskoi, which literally means “new men.”  Culturally it might be used for a man up to the age of forty, someone who has attained some aspects of maturity, but not others.  A young person is on the way to maturity, but not fully arrived.[4]

Neaniskoi have proven themselves strong in the faith.  They have overcome Satan and have the Word of God living in them.  However, their hardest days are ahead of them.  Only now are they beginning to understand how difficult the Christian walk can be in a world of temptation and hostility.

“Fathers” have reached both reproductive and emotional maturity.[5]  They are involved in some aspect Christian service.  They are capable of sharing their faith and discipling others.  They can bear the burdens of others, while bearing their own.  Even so, they have to be reminded to stay in a relationship with God.  The first truth is the last truth—fathers must know God, as they did when they were children.

Table 1.  Stages of Christian life, 1 John 2

Repentance	New Birth                                                                                      Eternity
Children	Young Men	Fathers

In 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 Paul refers to two stages of the Christian life.

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready.  You are still worldly.  For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?  Are you not acting like mere men?  For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?[6]

In this passage, the two kinds of Christians are carnal and spiritual.  The carnal, or “babes in Christ” in Greek are the neepioi—a term also used figuratively for the simple-minded or immature.[7]  These neepioi are contrasted with the pneumatikos, or “spiritual”, who are the mature believers whose orientation is towards the Spirit and away from self.

The carnal believer attempts to live in two worlds with two sets of values.  As a result, the carnal believer does not do justice to either.  The carnal believer knows Christ, and the central teachings of the Gospel, but the focus of the carnal believer is on himself or herself.  This leads to jealousy and strife within the church.

Paul describes the carnal believer as living on the milk of the Word, not the meat.  Spiritual “milk” refers to teaching designed for elementary believers, which would include the basics of salvation, rudimentary doctrine, and elementary instruction in spiritual disciplines and moral behavior.  The carnal believer is not ready for advanced doctrinal or theological instruction, for advanced teaching in prayer and fasting, or for dealing with ethical dilemmas beyond his understanding.

Milk is essentially predigested food.  Just as a mother breaks down complex proteins and carbohydrates into an easily digestible, uniform liquid for infants, so have teachers and preachers already done the hard work of study, interpretation, and application.  They break down complex doctrines, simplify Bible study, and smooth out thorny commandments into simple rules.  Spiritual milk is nourishing but incomplete, containing what infants need to survive, but not what young men and fathers need to maintain mature health.  In time, the carnal believer will grow tired of this, but only when she ceases being carnal and becomes spiritual.

The relationship between John’s stages and Paul’s stages may be seen in table 2 below.  John and Paul cover similar ground.  Both divide Christians into mature and immature groups.  Reliance upon God is the necessary knowledge that leads to maturity.

Table 2.  John’s and Paul’s stages of Christian life

	Repentance	New Birth	Eternity
1 John 2	Seekers	Young Men	Fathers
1 Cor 3	Carnal		Spiritual

In the book, Mapping the Christian Life, there is a similar division discerned from a study of the psalms of degrees—Psalms 120-134.  The book lays out five divisions of the Christian life.  The first three stages parallel the stages found in John and Paul.  They are Seekers, Servants, and Settlers.

The Seeker stage begins with disillusionment with the world.  Seekers have discovered that the world they have known is not what it appears.  Like Neo in the film The Matrix, they have begun a journey to look for something real.  Seekers lift their eyes to the hills seeking help. That help comes not from the hills, but the Lord.  This begins the Seekers’ journey to God.

The task for each stage may be summarized in one burning question which must be asked and answered.  For Seekers that question is—can I trust God?

The second stage is Servants.  Servants have undergone a reversal in thought and have realized that God is not their servant, but that they are God’s.  The servant must answer another question—how can I serve God?

Settlers are mature believers who have come to understand, after a process of discovery, calling, and equipping; what kind of service they are to render.  They have a general idea what course of service their lives will take.  Nevertheless, like the settlers of America discovered when they tried to shape a new world on a new continent, knowing what they are to do and doing it are not the same.  It is difficult serving God in hostile territory.  The settler must balance family, work, and faith, while fighting temptations that in the Servant stage he would not have thought possible.  The question that Settlers ask is—how do I build the Kingdom in the face of opposition?[8]

Looking at John and Paul’s stages, as well this pattern from the Psalms, we see a strong similarity, as we see in Chart 3.

Table 3.  Stages of Christian life adding Psalms pattern

	Repentance	New Birth	Eternity
John	Seekers	Young Men	Fathers
Paul	Carnal		Spiritual
Psalm Pattern	Seeker	Servant	Settler

There is an initial stage of discovery, a stage of growth, and a stage of maturity.  Maturity is not a resting stage, but the one of even greater challenge.

Ancient stages of discipleship

The ancient church seemed to be familiar with these stages, and trained new believers to face them.  We see this in an ancient pattern of discipleship written down by Hippolytus in the early Third Century AD.

According to Hippolytus, the first-stage Christians were called Seekers or Inquirers—people who sought to know Christianity, and whether or not they should commit themselves to it.  When Seekers committed, they were welcomed into the fellowship.[9]

Then the Seekers became Learners, or Catechumens.  The learner studied the faith for approximately three years.[10]  Not until this process had been completed was the new believer baptized and offered the Lord’s Supper.  This time period was not set, but was determined by the individual rate of progress of the student.  St. Augustine was catechized by Anselm of Milan for slightly over a year before his baptism.[11]

At the end of this catechesis, the learners briefly became Kneelers, or mystagogues.[12]  This lasted only about six weeks and was marked by prayer, vigils, and fasting.[13]  Ordinarily, all baptisms were done on Easter Sunday at daybreak.  From that time on, they were considered fully mature disciples.[14]

Becoming a disciple was not the end of the process, however.  The new believers were then initiated into the deeper teachings of the faith by the bishop—teachings not given to seekers or learners.  Hippolytus calls these teachings the “white stone of revelation.”[15]  Hippolytus does not reveal these teachings but infers that they were theological mysteries not given to initiates, but only to the mature.

Hippolytus never suggests that the seekers or learners were not believers.  On the contrary, they were included in most meetings as well as in the agape, or love feast, where they were given bread from the hand of the bishop, though they were not allowed to take the cup.  This process of spiritual formation was not intended just to prepare them for eternal life, but to equip them to withstand persecution, which the church presumed would be coming later.

Let us compare Hippolytus’ pattern with the others in table 4.

Table 4.  Stages of Christian life adding ancient church model

	Repentance	New Birth		Eternity
John	Seekers	Young Men		Fathers
Paul	Carnal			Spiritual
Psalms	Seeker	Servant		Settler
Ancient church	Seeker	Learner	Kneeler	Disciple

Modern Stages of the Christian Life

Modern discipleship differs from that of the ancient church in two significant places.  First, baptism is either performed in infancy or at conversion, not after an extended period of catechesis.  Because catechesis is performed either before baptism or not at all, many are baptized who never grasp the full significance of the faith, or the duties that are connected to the faith.  Second, when actual training is done, it is presumed to be complete in a relatively short period of time.  The contemporary church has programs for study and enrichment, but they are generally without a formal goal or direction.  Seekers, learners, and disciples learn together with the same material.  As a result, the seekers often are at a loss to understand what is happening, while the mature believers find it difficult to stay alert.  It is a “one-size-fits-all” approach to discipleship.

Modern church discipleship, when it is attempted at all, is a relatively short-term process, aimed at developing productive believers who serve the institutional church We hurry disciples though the steps at a pace the early church would consider insanely fast, turning out like-minded believers like cars off an assembly line.

One of the best and most effective examples of modern Christian discipleship comes from Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Church.[16]  Warren uses a baseball diamond model to illustrate his church’s disciple making process.  The bases represent knowing Christ, growing in Christ, Serving Christ, and Sharing Christ.  Moving through these four stages usually takes about two years.  Sharing Christ is the final stage and the apex of spiritual maturity.  At the end, the mature Christians are expected to evangelize and disciple others, and keep the chain going.

Figure 1. Rick Warren's baseball diamond model of discipleship

The Navigators, perhaps the best known and the most effective discipleship ministry in the contemporary church, has a wide variety of excellent materials for discipleship and Bible study.  Fruitfulness, in the form of making disciples, is generally considered the end of the discipleship road.  Lorne Sandy, former president of the Navigators, listed the three stages of Christian discipleship as Identified with Christ, Obedient to Christ, and Fruitful in Christ.[17]

Campus Crusade for Christ, founded by Bill Bright in 1951, uses eleven “transferable concepts”—“How to be sure you are a Christian,” “Experience God’s Love and Forgiveness,” “Be filled with the Spirit,” “Walk in the Spirit,” “Be a fruitful witness,” “Introduce others to Christ,” “Fulfill the Great Commission,” “Love by faith,” “Pray with Confidence,” “Experience the joy of giving,” and “Study the Bible effectively.”  Two transferrable concepts deal with assurance of salvation, two with the Holy Spirit, three with sharing, two with prayer and Bible study, one with love and one with stewardship.[18]  Each book is intended to be used in one or two weeks, for a total of between eleven and twenty-two weeks of discipleship—about six months.

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has a four week Christian life and Witness course.  The final lesson of this course focuses on sharing the faith. [19]

Let us put Warren et. al. into the same rubric as the others.

Table 5.  Stages of Christian life with contemporary examples

	Repentance	New Birth		Eternity
1 John 2	Seekers	Young Men		Fathers
1 Cor 3	Carnal			Spiritual
Mapping	Seeker	Servant		Settler
3rd C. Church	Seeker	Learner	Kneeler	Disciple
Warren et. al.	Knowing	Growing	Serving	Sharing

The last line of the chart demonstrates the difference between the modern evangelical understanding of Christian discipleship and the Biblical/historic/traditional understanding of discipleship.  Generally speaking, the discipleship of the evangelical church is directed at training people to share Christ and build up the immature believer.  Looking it in human terms, it would be like saying that the purpose of human existence is to have more babies.  While this is certainly a part of why we are here, that cannot be all.

This modern formula of spiritual formation is reflexive—that is, it is focused backwards upon itself.  We are not just called to make more disciples, but to make better ones.  If we only focus on the process of making more, and do not focus also on the process of making better disciples, then the quality of Christian discipleship will necessarily erode over time, and the church becomes more shallow and less effective.

The ancient church apparently believed that something more was necessary.  The mature disciples were trained in ways that were not even shared with the young.  Something was being passed down from mature believer to mature believer that was not part of the process of sharing.

This statement is not intended to suggest that the early church did not evangelize, or that we should not evangelize.  On the contrary we most emphatically should!  Nor am I suggesting that programs such as Warren’s, Billy Graham’s, and the Navigators’ are wrong or need to be corrected in their discipleship of new believers.  If there is a deficiency today, it is in the church’s deficiency to fully consider what mature discipleship entails.  It requires more than faith sharing, more tithing, more even than becoming good church members.  True discipleship means a whole life change and the maintenance of spiritual health for a lifetime.

The irony of our modern emphasis on making new members is that it has not worked.  No matter how much effort we put into evangelistic methods, the majority of our people never spiritually reproduce.  Even a highly effective evangelistic church draws more believers than unbelievers.  Christians who are supposed to be mature still cannot and do not share Christ.

The reason for our failure is not that we have not been told to share Christ, but that we have been told little else.  God requires Christians to press on to a deeper maturity.  In the Great Commission Jesus said:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."[20]

Going, making disciples, and baptizing are the first three stages of a four-stage process which also involves teaching people to behave like Jesus.  Our goal is not simply to produce new disciples but to produce better disciples—fully incorporated into the Body of Christ, trained to live as Christians, aware of the presence of God in their lives and capable of standing until the end of their age.

The Function of Faith

So how do we maintain spiritual health throughout our lives, in the face of opposition?

Faith is the key—not an idle or casual faith, the kind Bonheoffer called “cheap grace,” but faith that is foundational to our existence, our reason to be.  If we are to grow past the point of spiritual reproduction, we must grow in our experience of Christ through faith.

Faith performs eight basic functions:

1)      intellectual challenge;

2)      emotional engagement;

3)      behavioral reinforcement

4)      supportive relationships;

5)      higher authority;

6)      life interpretation;

7)      connection to history;

8)      and a realistic hope.

Figure 2. Eight basic functions of faith

A healthy faith system will involve all eight of these functions in a consistent, interrelated whole.  Many people, believer and nonbeliever alike, derive these eight functions from more than one source.  They may, for example, intellectually accept the doctrines of Christianity, but receive their emotional engagement from music, sports or entertainment.  They might experience an emotional high, but separate their faith from their intellectual life, becoming emotionally Christian, but intellectually brain dead.  Or to give another example, they may seek their community in worldly friendships, while going through the motions of Christian ritual.  When these eight functions are divided, we become practical polytheists, looking to a pantheon of worldly gods to cover up the deficiencies in our relationship to the true God.  Sooner or later, however, we will discover we cannot serve two masters.  In a time of crisis, divided faith cannot stand.

Let us look at these eight tasks of faith one by one.

(1)Intellectual challenge.

  There is a mistaken assumption that just listening to preaching or going to Sunday school will give the mature Christian all the spiritual answers he or she needs.  We may have the answers, but the questions keep coming.  If we rely on simplified versions of spiritual answers, and do not exercise our minds, we will be ill equipped to respond to the new situations life constantly puts before us.

In Habits of the Mind, James Sire offers this definition of a Christian intellectual:

“An intellectual is one who loves ideas, is dedicated to developing them, criticizing them, clarifying them, turning them over and over, seeing their implications, stacking them atop one another, arranging them, sitting silent while new ones pop up and old ones seem to rearrange themselves, playing with them, punning them with their terminology, laughing at them, watching them clash, picking up the pieces, starting over, judging them, withholding judgment about them, changing them, bringing them into contact with their counterparts in other systems of thought, inviting them to dine and have a ball, but also suiting them for service in workaday life—

—A Christian intellectual is all of the above to the glory of God.”[21]

Not all Christians are intellectuals, but all Christians are sometimes expected to justify and rejustify what they know to be true.  Every mature believer should be challenged to understand theological issues and have a comprehensive knowledge of the Bible.  Without these, the mature believer becomes ineffective in his own self-examination and in discerning how to counsel others.  Most Sunday schools and cell groups are not intended for this kind of study but for fellowship, worship, and many other things.  Christian churches need to rethink their curricula when it comes to the needs of mature believers.

(2) Emotional Engagement. 

David Goleman in his book Emotional Intelligence points out that emotional sensitivity rather than intellectual abilities are the best predictors of success.[22]  Goleman writes that the portion of the brain governing our emotions is much larger than the portion devoted to reason, that the path from the intellect to the emotion is like a cow path while the path from the emotions to the intellect is like a four lane highway.[23]  The heart influences the head more than the head influences the heart.  It does little good to strengthen our faith intellectually unless we concurrently deepen our passion for God.  Just as a relationship between a husband and wife becomes complacent, so does our relationship with Christ.  We need to be challenged to deepen our emotions toward God, just as we must with our spouses.

Pastor Peter Scazzero wrote of this in The Emotionally Healthy Church:

“Embracing the truth about the emotional parts of myself unleashed nothing short of a revolution in my understanding of God, Scripture, the nature of Christian maturity, and the role of the church.  I can no longer deny the truth that emotional and spiritual maturity are inseparable.”[24]

One only has to read the writings of the great intellectuals of the faith such as Luther, Calvin, the Puritans, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas to see that these men were as passionate in their writings on God as the wildest Pentecostal or Charismatic.  The deeper our emotional attachment the greater our intellectual understanding is likely to become.

(3) Behavioral reinforcement. 

Perhaps the greatest contribution behavioral psychology has given to the world is to demonstrate the link between action and emotion.  We do not just smile when we are happy; smiling makes us happy.  We do not just react angrily when we are upset; shouting gets us more upset.  The things we do and the rituals we follow reinforce our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.  The church’s emphasis on the “means of grace” helps us to deepen and enhance our relationship to God.  As James wrote “faith without works is dead.”[25]  Inward faith without outward behavior quickly disappears.  Richard Foster wrote:

“The inner righteousness we seek is not something which can be poured on our hearts.  God has ordained the disciplines of the spiritual life as a means by which we place ourselves where He can bless us.”[26]

Behavioral reinforcement of spiritual beliefs take three forms—inner disciplines, outer rituals, and the practice of a Christian lifestyle.

Inner disciplines include prayer, fasting, Bible study, confessing, meditating, praising, and silence.  Donald Whitner says “God’s people have always been a spiritual people.  . . . I have never known a man or woman who came to spiritual maturity except through spiritual discipline.”[27]

Outer rituals are practiced publicly in God’s house among God’s people.  The early church devised a wide variety of corporate disciplines—morning prayers, evening prayers, regular times of fasting, the Eucharist, confession, weekly worship, prayers before meals, family devotions, liturgy, litanies, and benedictions.  They enable us to fulfill the Scriptural command to “pray without ceasing”—not prayer every moment of every day, but prayer regularly performed throughout the days, weeks, and years.

Rituals and spiritual disciplines though are meaningless without a Christian lifestyle.  A Christian lifestyle is not defined so much by what we do not do, but by what we do.  Refraining from sexual immorality, intoxicants, gluttony, greed and sloth may fulfill the commandments of the Old Covenant, but it does not rise to the level of the New.  Loving others, feeding the poor, sharing our faith, showing compassion for our neighbor and turning the other cheek are the heavier duties that Christ called His disciples to perform.  Ethical Christian behavior is absolutely necessary for Christian maturity.

(4) Supportive Relationships.  

If there is one overwhelming deficiency in our cybernetic world, it is for intimate community.  We need a community that stirs us each to deeper spiritual expression.  Mature believers need to be with people who can nourish and encourage them while they in turn encourage others.  As Bonheoffer famously said, “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. . . . Let him who cannot be in community beware of being alone.”[28]

Being in a church, even serving in a church, is not the same as being in community.  Many of us serve on boards and committees so pointless and soporific that St. Peter himself would no doubt repeat his weakness at Gethsemane and once again fall asleep.  Churches are often the worst place to discuss struggles.  Even in churches with a well-functioning small group ministry, only a portion of the church are involved in small groups.

Church committees do not have to be this way.  Michael Foss describes the ministry teams of his own church:

Ministry teams are seen as a microcosm of the congregational culture.  Teams, no matter what their specific objectives and ministry goals may be, are garden plots for spiritual growth and the experience of a caring, committed community. . . . They are opportunities for spiritual growth through Bible study, prayer, and conversation.”[29]

(5) Life interpretation. 

Faith equips us to interpret our life story.  Whether our lives are on an upward slope or a downward slide depends entirely on which direction is up or down.  Whether our history is the work of a benevolent God working all things for good or whether it is a random accident determines our life course in the future.

The only way to know and interpret our story is to tell that story.  We must put it into words.  The simple act of talking or writing about events helps us to come to terms with them.

In 1 Samuel 7:12, after God routed a Philistine army bent on Israel’s destruction, the people of Israel erected a stone monument to the occasion, calling it “Ebenezer”—“thus far has the Lord helped us.”  A testimony is a similar memorial in our hearts, reminding us of the goodness of God in the past, which He has promised will continue in the future.  Mature believers should be encouraged to remember their personal past, so they may remain steady in the future.

(6) Connection to history.

The church that ignores the past also cuts itself off from the present.  The church may be faithful to the Scriptures (which is a product of the past), but its understanding has become disconnected and disjointed from the great thinkers of the past.  It need not hide from history by concealing denominational connections, or throwing out every tradition.  Believers need to understand their roots so they can understand where they belong.

We stand on the shoulders of giants, Sir Isaac Newton once famously observed. Connecting to history is a primary task of faith.  We need to understand how we fit into the historic continuum.  History assures us of our place in the universe.

Older believers are often upset by the rapid change in society.  We should not be—change is a part of life.  But if change does not help us reinterpret the past, it will be involuntary and unwelcome.  Taking time to provide mature believers with a historical perspective will make change more palatable and manageable.

(7) Unquestioned authority. 

For us to build and maintain a personal world view, we must have some authority we deem to be true.  Faith gives us something to believe and follow without question or compromise.

The rapid decline of the mainline church is not due to its unwillingness to change, but to its denial of its past authority.  For decades, theologians in mainline denominations have denied Scriptural authority, questioned the doctrinal underpinnings of the creeds, and compromised on authoritative moral standards, then wondered why the faithful are abandoning them for churches that accept the Bible without question, the creeds as absolute, and moral law as sacrosanct.  They have thrown out the authority of the past without an authoritative replacement.  People need to hear “thus sayeth the Lord.”  If they do not find unquestioning authority in the church, they will seek answers in the constantly evolving theories of science or the even more inconstant “isms” of politics.  The church must stand firm on what it believes, and stick by it.

The real issue is not authority so much as submission.  Christ gave us an example of voluntary submission.  He submitted Himself to the Father willingly and joyfully.  He submitted out of love.  Paul submitted himself to the corrupt authorities of the Roman empire and the Jewish establishment by choice, not by force.  In Romans 13, he encouraged Christians to submit to the Roman empire out of choice.

It is counterintuitive but nevertheless accurate to say that only unquestioned authority allows us to freely pursue what is greatest in life.  Scientists cannot do research without believing in empirical evidence.  A high court cannot question the standards of a lower court without some basis in constitutional law.  A grammarian cannot grade papers unless she regards dictionaries and grammar textbooks as authoritative.  The constitution may need changing and grammar textbooks may need to be rewritten, but until they are we need them.  We could not function without authoritative standards.  A church which does not speak with authority cannot provide a solid foundation for individual faith development in its members.

(8) A realistic hope.

 In his autobiography Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis shares an incident from his childhood.

“Once in these very early days my brother brought into the nursery a lid of a biscuit tin which he had covered with moss and garnished with twigs and flowers, so to make it a toy garden or a toy forest.  That was the first beauty I ever knew.  What the real garden had failed to do, the toy garden did.  It made me aware of nature—not indeed as a storehouse for forms and colors, but as something cool, dewy, fresh, and exuberant.  I do not think the impression was very important at the moment, but it soon became important in memory.  As long as I live my imagination of Paradise will retain something of my brother’s toy garden.”[30]

Later in life after his conversion, Lewis realized that this toy garden brought to mind a real garden, and that that garden brought him a glimpse of Eternity, that these childish pleasures we all know are not about nostalgia but hope, a hope that we can only glimpse in models and metaphors.  The reality behind the joys are not behind us, but before us, rooted in eternity.  The small joys of this world are merely samples of a greater joy to come.

The eighth work of faith is to assure us of a worthwhile future, making the struggles and privations of this world capable of being borne.  Without positive hope, positive change is not possible.  If we cannot expect a positive outcome for our labors, we will cease to labor.

Hope does not have to be a positive outcome for us personally.  A terrorist may blow himself up out of hope for seventy virgins in heaven, or he may do it out of hope of starting a political movement that will usher in a new Communist state.  A philanthropist may give money to be rewarded in heaven, or to make the future world better.  Either way, we do what we do for hope of something better.

For Christians to be balanced and healthy spiritually, we must take into consideration all eight of these works of faith in our lives.  As a church, we must make sure to meet these needs and to equip Christians to meet these needs for themselves.  If we want the church to be healthy, then believers of all stages—new, young, and old,—must be equipped for a lifetime of Spiritual growth and development.

Summary

The track of an individual Christian’s spiritual life is unique, but there are common stages along the way.  Seekers are new believers, who have just come to trust Jesus.  Learners or catechumens are those who are developing as believers, discovering their spiritual gifts, and discovering God’s direction for their lives.  Mature believers are Christians who have a sense of God’s vision for their lives, and are seeking to follow Him in a complicated, challenging world.

Historically the evangelical church has done a better job with the discipleship of new believers than they have with maintaining the spiritual health of mature ones.  By treating all believers the same, the church may either fail to reach new people, or sustain the old ones.  Christian discipleship programs aimed at leading new believers into maturity leave the mature believer desiring more.

Mature believers need to be challenged to go deeper into the faith, instead of repeating the same teachings again and again.  This challenge needs to come through eight aspects of faith—intellectual challenge, emotional expression, rituals and habits, intimate community, life interpretation, a connection to history, definite authority, and a realistic hope.

Clearly, maintaining our spiritual lives in maturity cannot be forced from without; it must be pursued individually with all zeal.  Nevertheless, the church must provide opportunities for continued spiritual growth, while not forsaking the lost, or ignoring the discipleship of the young.  The church must have a multi-leveled approach to discipleship.  Though this may be difficult, with God’s grace and the Spirit’s help it can be done.

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[1] I John 2:12-15.  All Biblical quotations will be from the NIV unless otherwise noted.)

[2] I John 2:1,2:28,  3:18, 4:4, and 5:21.

[3] Jameson, Faucett, and Brown Commentary, electronic database, copyright 1997 by Biblesoft.

[4] (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

[5] Ibid.

[6] I Cor 3:1-4 NKJV

[7] Strongs, op. cit.

[8] Author, Mapping the Christian Life, (RevPress, Bilouxi, Mississsippi), 2008, pp.  ix-xi.

[9] Geoffrey J Cuming  Hippolytus:  A Text For Students: (Grove Books, LTD.,Bramcote, Nottingham,England,1987), p. 16.  

[10] Ibid.

[11] The Confessions of St. Augustine, trans. By E. M. Blaiklock, (Thomas Nelson,Nashville, Tnn.) 1986, pp. 220-221.

[12] Hipplolytus, p 18.

[13] This is the probable beginning of the tradition of Lent.

[14] Hippolytus, op. cit. p. 19.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Mi.) 1995, p. 130.

[17] Adapted from Marks of a Disciple, by Lorne C. Sanny, © 1975 by The Navigators. The complete booklet is available from NavPress at: www.navpress.com

[18] http://www.campuscrusade.com/catalog/Transferable-Concepts-Bible-Study-Series.html

[19] Billygrahambookstore.org

[20] Matthew 28:19-20

[21] James Sire, Habits of the Mind (Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Ill) 2000, p. 27-28.

[22] Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books, New York, 1997, p. 35.

[23] Ibid.  p. 19

[24] Peter Scazzero The Emotionally Healthy Church, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Mi.) 2003,  P. 19.

[25] James 2:20

[26] Richard Foster The Celebration of Discipline (Harper One, New York) 1978, p. 7. 

[27] Donald Whitner Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Navpress, Colorado Springs, Col.) 1991, p. 17.

[28] Dietrich Bonhoeffer Life Together (Harper & Row, New York) 1954, p. 77.

[29] Michael W. Foss Power Surge (Fortress Press, Minneapolis, Minn.) 2000, p. 146.

[30] C. S. Lewis Surprised by Joy (Harcourt, Brace, and Company, New York) 1955, p. 7.