Have you ever walked out of church and overheard a seemingly mature Christian say – “This concept or teaching is too simple or elementary for me. I need more meat!”?
Now, I have heard this grumble more than a few times, especially inside churches that are trying to make faith more accessible to their visiting guests. There is less of a concentration on “bible study” type preaching and more focus on teaching in a way that is applicable to the everyday person versus just the well educated Christian.
The part that most concerns me is that the people who seem to be complaining the loudest tout themselves as being the more mature Christian.
I had to think about this for a while.
I thought maturity manifested itself in the form of giving. A child receives, a teenager receives, but an adult, at least a maturing adult becomes a giver. One who looks after others. Ask any parent – they give, and give, and give. Mature people know how to feed themselves in order to have the vitality to give to others.
The same has to be true in the Church. As one matures in their faith, he or she grows less dependent on the church service for their spiritual sustenance and develops into more of a self-feeder. A Christian who knows how to continue his or her spiritual growth without a high dependence on the service can then give to others, and also rejoices when the Church makes it easy for newbies and guests to take baby steps toward faith in Jesus.
The Christian life cycle begins with being fed, then learning to eat on our own and then ultimately, feeding others. When we cater to the vocal narcissists who are bellyaching for more meat, we are rearing spoiled children and not raising maturing adults. And when we accommodate this type of behavior over attending to our guests, we are not being very good hosts. More importantly, we are not reflecting the heart of Jesus who gave – His life.