What on earth is going on at the moment? No, not Benni Cellini of Letzte Instanz. Rather the Christian leadership world is in major shift. I've now come across mega-figure Gordon MacDonald at leadershipjournal.net asking Why there are so many Christian infants? I don't know whether he and the others have been talking or not but a whole method and program agenda based Christian world is shifting, in transformation. MacDonald writes
I have concluded that our branch of the Christian movement (sometimes called Evangelical) is pretty good at wooing people across the line into faith in Jesus. And we're also not bad at helping new-believers become acquainted with the rudiments of a life of faith: devotional exercise, church involvement, and basic Bible information—something you could call Christian infancy.But what our tradition lacks of late—my opinion anyway—is knowing how to prod and poke people past the "infancy" and into Christian maturity. ...
But mature Christians do not grow through programs or through the mesmerizing delivery of a talented speaker (woe is me) or worship band. Would-be saints are mentored: one-on-one or, better yet, one-on-small group (three to twelve was Jesus' best guess). The mentoring takes place in the streets and living-places of life, not church classrooms or food courts. And it's not necessarily done in Bible studies or the like. Mature Christians are made one by one through the influence of other Christians already mature.MacDonald has a lot more ground to cover go and read his article. (read here)
I don't want to blow my own trumpet but for almost 2 years I've been trying to persuade the young Christians around me to get mentors and get mentoring others! But less about me, what about you? What are you going to do about this?
Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deut 11:19
