My friend said, “Situations like these used to keep me up at night. By God’s grace, they don’t any more.”
I’m sad he had to learn this reality about church life; I’m glad he’s sleeping at night.
A couple of random comments come to mind.
—The only way Noah could stand the stink inside the ark was the storm outside.
—That the church still exists, with all its human flaws, is proof aplenty of the grace and mercy of God.
Immature Christians abound and that’s all right. Babies must go through all the stages of development before they achieve maturity. But we should never put an infant in a place of leadership. Leaders must be adults in the faith if they are to be role models and examples to those coming after.
The leader who storms out of a meeting because he/she did not get their way has just done the church a favor. He/she has identified themselves as unqualified to lead, as surely as if they had hung a sign around their neck.
We are better off without such people representing God’s church and making critical decisions. (On the other hand, if that one comes back and apologizes before the entire group, that is a sign of a growing maturity and they should be given every encouragement.)
Here are seven “wrong ideas” the spiritually immature—those given to “hissy fits,” as my friend put it—have about the Lord’s work …
1) Immature Christians see the church as a human institution belonging to them.
“We can do anything we want to. It’s our church. My daddy helped start this church.” Or paid for that pew. Or build that shed.
They do not see the church as holy and belonging to Christ (Matthew 16:18).
They are in for a rude awakening when they appear before Jesus some day.
2) Immature Christians see the pastors as their employees, there to do their bidding and accountable to them.
“We hired him; we can fire him.” “If we are unhappy with him, then he has lost his effectiveness and needs to be replaced.”
