Tag Archives: Spiritual Formation

Attentiveness and A Harvest Vision: Spiritual Attentiveness in Emerging Adulthood

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I came across a series of articles on Sapientia, a series of articles that is collected by Trinity International Divinity School.  The articles are written by David Setran, who is the co-author of what I consider to be the best resource written on understanding the spirituality of emerging adults called Spiritual Formation in Emerging Adulthood.

Here is David’s article:

Emerging adults often have their focus directed squarely upon the future. Parents and other concerned adults regularly ask them about the five and ten-year plans they are devising for adulthood. They are preparing for a future career and, at least potentially, a future spouse and children.

Read More Here.

group of girls

Photo courtesy of Aaron Robert Photography. Copyright 2014. www.aaronrobertphotography.com

 

Three Marks of the Spiritually Immature

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Here is a picture of my youngest – Tobias.

Babies require a lot of attention.

  • Babies cannot feed themselves.
  • Babies stick.
  • Babies can’t defend themselves.

As a father of three boys, I have personally experienced these truth, and as a leader in the church I have noticed some parallels between babies and the spiritually immature.

The Spiritually mature feed themselves.

Here is Andrew, my middle child when he was about 2 years old.

The immature show up to church every Sunday (some of them NEVER miss), and open their mouths saying, “Feed me.”  The spiritual parent provides a message that they quickly swallow, and they never eat again until the following Sunday.  Like baby birds who eat their mother’s regurgitated worms, spoon spoon-fed Christians eat only what they are given.

A follower of Jesus has tasted how good He is, and desire more.  1 Peter 2:2 says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”  However, many Christians have filled their natural desire for God with other appetites of the Flesh.

As a disciple matures in faith, he or she is no longer dependent on others for nourishment.  Disciples are able to connect with God on a personal level – through listening to His voice, and responding.

The Spiritually mature don’t stink.

Babies often stink.  When babies make a mess (in their diaper), they don’t just say, “Mom/Dad, don’t you worry.  I will take care of that foul odor coming from my backside by changing my undergarments.”    When stinky, babies often don’t notice.  As they turn into toddlers, children either cry when dirty, or run off and hide.

Babies are not able to always discern the disgusting from the amazing, and when they are discovered playing in the disgusting, they don’t know what to do.  Being aware of the power of sin in our lives, and daily surrendering our lives to Jesus is a step of maturity.  The spiritually mature are aware of the messes that they make in their own lives (and how their sins affect others), and are proactive in cleaning up the mess left behind.

The Spiritually mature can defend themselves.

A parent of a baby is always on duty (especially when children are old enough to walk, but not old enough to discern danger).  The immature are unable to sense danger whether it comes from an electrical socket or a car.  The spiritually immature are unable to discern truth from error.  Whether surfing the web or listening to the radio, they are drawn, and persuaded by what their ears want to hear.  (2 Timothy 4:3)  The spiritually mature have the ability to listen to others, without feeling the need to change their own beliefs, or the necessity to prove others wrong.

Physical age and spiritual maturity are easily confused by those who have never had the later (like Mayo and Miracle Whip).  However, true disciples accept no substitute.

2014 July4Dr. G. David Boyd is the Founder and Managing Director of EA Resources.  He is an avid lover of Legos, video games, and anything related to the Marvel Universe.

The Builder’s Response

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I am sorry that what I am doing is not to your liking. Not everything turned out as you expected. Disappointment is hard.  I never promised that this would be easy.  I know that you may want to change your mind. I cannot make you stay, but please hear me out before you leave.

You need to trust me.

You need to trust who I am.

The One who made the heavens and the earth can surely get you through this bump in the road. The One who designed the human body can surely design a plan for your life.

You need to trust what I can do.

I have promised that what I have begun to do, I will finish. The building going on should not prove my absence but my presence.  I am at work during the good and the bad.  I am near, and I have a new direction for you.

To help you find that direction, I may use circumstances that are not to your liking.  Do not be deceived. This is not the work of others. I may use others, but they are simply My instruments working what I want accomplished.

Life is not stagnant, but can change in the blink of an eye.  I do not need you to bring it to pass. I am at work.  Your meddling, your whining and your complaining will not affect My outcome, but it will ruin your journey.

The last thing for you to do right now is also the hardest.

You need to trust that I love you.

The pain might seem as if I don’t care.  It may seem that I can do something to stop your pain, but won’t.  My love for you has never changed and it never will.

You have lost your focus.  Look at me.  Do not focus on the pain that has embraced you. Do not focus on the storm that rages around you.

While you wait for this storm to cease and your pain to fade,

Come unto Me for you are weary and burdened.  I will give you the rest that you so desperately need.  Take my yoke upon you, so I can help you.  I am gentle and humble in my care for you, and your soul will be revived.  You will discover that sharing the burden with me makes the journey easier, and it no longer holds the power that it once did.

 

In response to The Builder.

Feed Me.

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My two year old comes to me on a regular basis and says, “ungry.”  Tobi is still working on his H’s.  So we head to the kitchen, open the cupboard, and get out a snack for him.  But that is not enough, I also help him into his chair at the table.

 When my nine year old comes to me and says, “Dad, I am hungry.”  I might give him a few boundaries (like no ice cream, or a limit to the amount of fruit roll ups), and he goes happily on his way to the kitchen.

When my sons are twenty-one years old, I can’t imagine them coming to me and saying, “Dad, I’m hungry.”  (although they might at some time!).

As a pastor, people would regularly come to me and say, “We need fed.”  The scenario always reminded me of my two-year old standing in front of me with his mouth open wide.   “Ungry. Ungry. Ungry.”

But instead of my two-year old son, it is people who have been following Jesus for years.

Although I patiently listened and nodded in agreement, I also tried to wake them up to the real problem.  They were no longer babies who needed me to prepare food, open food, and show them what hole to stick it in.  These were no longer baby Christians, but people who have spent most of their lives within the church. In our faith journey, there comes a time when you are responsible to feed yourself.

I Peter 2:2 says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”  Hunger is a natural reaction of being alive.  You know that God is good, and the follower of Christ will naturally desire to grow.

The hunger is good, but sometimes people expect the senior pastor, youth pastor to be their personal spiritual caterer.  We are to prepare a meal for them that will fill their hunger (The preferred meal being a diet of new information misconstrued as “depth.”)  They come each week to church crying, “Ungry, ungry, ungry.”

However, look at what they should be chasing.  1 Peter 2:3,   “As you come to him, the living Stone.”

Peter doesn’t tell them to come to the church.  Peter doesn’t tell them to come to crying to him (They couldn’t in that society).  Peter tells them to go to God – the one who can meet their needs.

Our current obsession with Big Churches and Big Preachers is built upon this concept that church is the place we are fed- the great spiritual feeding trough. 

While, I am not opposed to people being fed at church, we need to examine what should be the source of “food” for those who follow Christ.

We have lost our focus on the proper source of nutrition, and how to get it.

Grow up and feed yourself.

Keys to Finding a Good Church

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church (2)The multiple life transitions of young adulthood make it essential for EAs to find a new community.   Part of a new community for a disciple of Christ is finding a group of Christians who can encourage and support you in your journey. Continue reading →