Baby Christians

I was studying through Hebrews 5 and 6 today and it was shocking to see the similarity between the Hebrew Church Paul was writing to and all the churches I have ever been to. I am always fascinated by such shocking similarities that existed thousands of years ago because it shows that all humans that have ever existed are undoubtedly the same. We don't change. We are no better or worse than the people that existed during the time of Jesus and Paul or even all those who lived throughout the Old Testament.

With that said, it seems that up until the end of chapter 5 that Paul is just instructing the Hebrew people as he instructs all the other people he writes letters to in the NT. But all of a sudden, in verse 11, Paul begins to rip into his listeners. Paul writes "There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is diffcult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don't seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead , you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word. You are like babies who need mil abd cannot eat solid food...Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong."

For some reason that just caught my attention in a profound way. He goes on to say "So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don't need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds, placing our faith in God, baptisms, resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment."

I paraphrased a bit there but it seems like that's all we ever talk about in any church I have ever been to. Granted, my pastor now goes a bit deeper than most and the pastors I choose to listen to such as Mark Driscoll, Francis Chan, and Andy Stanley are not too basic (definitely not Driscoll). But how can a church with thousands of people ever not be BASIC? Isn't that part of being SEEKER SENSITIVE? I truly hate that word because Jesus was anything but seeker sensitive. This is part of why I think I could never be a pastor because you have to repeat yourself over and over again because you constantly have new followers and are constantly trying to bring in new believers. The cost of this course of action is that you never build up the followers that have been there the whole time, those who can really do some damage for the Kingdom of God.

I think this is why Chapel at APU was always less and less popular with the most senior students. The freshman loved it (including myself 4 years ago) then the sophomores liked it because it solidified what they had heard last year, the juniors got disconnected after the third go around, and by senior year we were all so jaded from years of controversial bible courses questioning the most fundamental Christian beliefs that we began to resent the repetitive themes in messages and it took a truly profound, brilliant speaker to move us just an inch spiritually. Same goes for those that belong to any American Church.

So how do we take it deeper, those of us who are tired of the same old, same old Bible stories and predictable, spiritual platitudes from Pastors? If this is something churches have struggled with since the beginning of time than the answer must not be an easy one. It is vital, nonetheless, that we begin to find a way to get the masses of believers out of this infant stage of life. We NEED discipleship in our churches and other religious communities just as we need parents who raise their children up right in society. Maybe we just need to start telling it like it is, just like Paul....what a BA. Any way, that's just my critical shot in the dark.