There are many blessings that God has so graciously given me to experience throughout the years, one of those blessings is parenthood. My wife and I have been blessed with four wonderful girls: Missy, Regina, Nancy, and Alice. My oldest daughter Missy, is now fifteen, and even though my wife and I have spent years rearing her for young adulthood…the truth is…I hate to see her grow up so fast. It seems like only yesterday I was going to school and eating lunch with her, but now we are having discussions about buying a car. Even though this is saddening to my heart, the reality is: there comes a time when kids must grow up. Christians are the same way.
Once an individual accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, the bible refers to them as “babes in Christ” (I Peter 2:2). Sure, an individual who accepts Christ could be thirty years of age, however, the bible teaches, even at thirty years of age the individual has become “born again” (I Peter 1:23); a birth has just taken place -- the spiritual birth of their souls. Therefore just as children must grow from infants into adults, likewise, the new Christian must grow from spiritual immaturity into spiritual maturity.
As a child I loved ridding skateboards. I would climb the biggest hill I could only to race down it with everything in me. There was nothing like feeling the wind blow through my hair, and feeling my heart pounding in my neck because of the speeds I was reaching. I was young; I was living life on the edge. However, I was unaware of the dangers around me -- as I later found out.
My family would always take an initiative to warn me about the risks of riding my skateboard without safety gear. I would listen long enough to end the conversation; put on the safety gea...
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...all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:13-17). What is the armor of God? His Word.
Thus far, we have discussed three reasons why spiritually immature Christians are at risk. Now let us turn or focus to discovering ways the Christian can grow into maturity, and develop a close relationship with God. Throughout the rest of this book you will discover the Building Blocks of Christianity: Ways to achieve spiritual maturity. With your bible open, a pen in hand, and a receptive spirit, let us begin the journey.
Faith plays a pivotal role in our construction of religion. The work of Dr. Sharon Parks analyzes faith development throughout one’s life span but pays special attention to emerging adulthood. Dr. Parks has an extensive academic career which incorporates her attendance of Princeton University’s theological seminary. As well as her attendance of Harvard University’s divinity school where she obtained her doctorate. Through her extensive research in areas such as “developmental psychology, religion, theology, leadership and ethics” (Service Resources, 2014) Parks is able to focus her work on faith development. Her work is influenced by theorists such as Erickson, Piaget, Perry and Levinson but primarily it is based off of Fowlers work in faith development. Her background in teaching and counseling has allowed her close access to seeing students during this important portion of their lives.
Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling written by Mark McMinn and published by Tyndale House in 2011 notions towards the idealization that Christian counselors need to be privy in the most recent psychological methods as well as theological theories. “This is a book about counseling processes techniques” (McMinn, 2011, p. 150). McMinn also alluded that Christian counselors benefit from having a spiritual maturity. With having these attributes counselors are better prepared to take note of prayer, Scripture, sin, confession, forgiveness, and redemption. McMinn (2011) model flows in the direction of healing while equating to a more advantageous relationship with The Lord Jesus Christ as well as with other relationships (McMinn, 2011).
As Robert Frost once said, "Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired." This is the desire that both Frankenstein’s monster and Porphyria’s lover yearn for. Frankenstein’s monster wishes someone to be his companion, friend, and lover. Porphyria’s lover needs to know that Porphyria to never leave him, even though that goes against the boundaries for social classes. Both the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the poem Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning share the theme of the desire for eternal love and losing all morals when trying to obtain this affection.
and grow in the scope of their experience and understanding of their faith.1 All Christians engage
The church must strive to have in place a biblical foundation to discipleship that relates to the millennial generation. All of the churches discipleship efforts should strive to build and foster authentic relationships. We are at a precarious point in the life of the church where the Christian community must come to a conclusion to rethink the efforts to making disciples. “Some (though not all) ministries have taken cues from the assembly line, doing everything possible to streamline the manufacture of shiny new Jesus-followers, fresh from the factory floor. But disciples cannot be mass-produced. Disciples are handmade, one relationship at a time.” In today’s culture the church needs new architects to design a way in which the local church community can foster and build authentic relationships that lead to discipleship.
In the Christian faith, Confirmation, is a special sacrament that proves that a person wishes to “strengthen or deepen one’s relationship with God.” When a baby is baptized in the Christian faith, his or her guardians agree to raise them and guide them through life following Jesus’ example. “We became members of Christ's Body when we were baptized (Luebering).” Since the child is not old enough to understand the responsibility that being a follower of Christ entails, Confirmation is needed. When a child reaches a mature age of approximately 14, he or she, is invited to continue to accept Jesus and follow in his teachings. If the child wishes to continue to follow Jesus’ teachings and become a more mature member of the church, he or she must go through Confirmation and accept the responsibility of being a consenting and practicing Christian (Confirmation).
With this in mind, the following will focus on the spiritual formation process within the Christian community. The concept of Christian community stems from the Bible with the perspective of the body of Christ. The body of Christ is compared to the humane body, a whole comprised of numerous parts; each individual part is required and created by God to form a cohesive whole, no matter believer or non-believer or social status (1 Corinthians 12). Similarly, the spiritual community is also comprised of bountiful parts and can be customized to the individual as the formation. Ashbrook appraises the significance of individuals and community, “Our spiritual formation is designed by God to happen in the context of Christian community, the chu...
Christianity has its challenges. It places demands on us that set us apart from the rest of our world. The bible calls us a peculiar people, who navigate the challenge of living IN the world, without being OF the world. When we say ‘no’ to temptations that are enjoyed by the masses, we are labeled as self-righteous snobs, religious weirdoes, or worse. But we persevere, and we press toward that invisible line the Apostle Paul drew in the sands of time…for the high calling in Christ Jesus.
Growing in maturity as a Christian disciple is a process that occurs over time and in different areas or spheres of the Christian life. The Apostle John highlights this growth process in his first letter by identifying people in different stages of maturity in their Christian faith. John states, “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one . . .” (1 John 2:12–13). John identifies “children,” “young men,” and “fathers” in the faith; this is an indication that a Christian matures spiritually in their faith in a similar way as a human physically matures from child to adult. This paper will examine the growth process of a Christian disciple by discussing the five stages and four spheres of discipleship. The author with present a self-assessment of the author’s status of spiritual growth related to the five stages and four spheres. Lastly, this paper will examine what it means for a Christian disciple to be in submission to Christ.
In ministry it is important to note that the different people involved in your ministry will be at different stages of their spiritual growth. Having an awareness of your own personal theology will be important for how you go about teaching the students who are involved in your youth ministry. One part of personal theology is spiritual formation. Duffy Robbins states that spiritual formation is, “the growing into the likeness of Jesus” (448). Another main part of personal theology is community. Understanding and having an idea of both spiritual formation and community helps with the formation of personal theology of ministry. This paper will share five areas of theology and how they relate to practical theology in youth ministry. The five areas of theology include view of God, view of people, view of sin, view of redemption, and view of scripture.
Maturity is commonly used word, but when asked what the word means many people simply shrug their shoulders. Maturity isn’t a word that has a clear definition. Being based primarily on one’s connotation, it doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Personally I picked this word up through context. However, upon doing a careful study of where this word originates and other’s connotation’s, I feel I’ve achieved a relatively good understanding. Webster claims the word to mean “based on slow careful consideration,” but I feel there is much more to this word than that.
In today’s society, there are a large number of individuals who are on the pursuit for spiritual development that is consistent with their “belief that spirituality is vital for growth and essential for dealing with life’s problems” (Morrison, Clutter, Pritchett, & Demmitt, 2009). Even moreso it’s no surprise to learn about the movement among the vast number of clients seeking to address concerns of spirituality within their counseling sessions.
Maturity is not something that happens overnight. Maturity comes through trial and error; it’s a process which has to be perfected. Life throws curveballs and there are always multiple ways to deal with the situations. Being mature is making the right choices and knowing right from wrong.
For centuries Christian counseling and secular psychology has been viewed as models which should be maintained separately due to the fundamental concepts which each is based on. Christian counseling traditionally focuses on guidance and truth from the Scripture, being the only truth (Crabb, 1977). While secular counselors base their techniques on research and often built on “unobservable or hypothetical constructs”, this can lead to a fusion of data and interpretation (Crabb, 1977). Dr. Crabb’s model of counseling addressed in his book Effective Biblical Counseling addresses the need for the attempt to merge Christian and secul...
Maturity is a quality that is admirable for anyone, at any age to have. Perhaps that is because it has to be learned over time and is not something that one naturally has as a character trait. When I think of maturity, I usually think of adults who know how to conduct themselves. Adults are a symbol of maturity-- this goes back to the etymology of the word- which stems from the Latin word maturitas, maturitatis, f. In Latin, the word means ripeness, which would make sense because adults are fully developed. Although the literal meaning of maturity is within the realm of being fully developed, there is a more precise definition that would apply to the psychological and mental practice of what is maturity.