Growing in Grace: Is Your Faith Maturing?

By Dr. Robert Charles Scott, St. Louis.

Trends cannot replace the transformation of one’s spirit.

There is a tendency to forget that just as we mature physically and emotionally at different rates, the same happens from a spiritual perspective. As a Christian, I love the fact that the church can be a place of diversity, which helps us be a great learning environment, and a great place to demonstrate grace and forgiveness.

Real faith maturity empowers a person to enter the divine laboratory of interpersonal growth where we can come together regardless of age, stage, race, socio-economic background, cultures, and educational levels and learn to love and accept one another as unique, created in the image and likeness of God. The wonderful aspect of the gospel is that we have the freedom to fail gracefully.

Transformation or trend?
HYPERLINK “http://www.startwithwhy.com/” Start With Why by Simon Sinek has an interesting premise about how great leaders inspire people into action. As a pastor, I was struck by the insights of this provocative book as it helped me understand how religious institutions and spiritual teachings start out with a faulty foundation. They tend to produce adherents who choose style over substance; craziness over character; and foolishness over faith because they are more concerned about a product rather than transformation.

As I read Sinek’s book, I realized how companies like Apple are having impact on our postmodern society. I now appreciate how Martin Luther King Jr. is still relevant forty-three years after death. I am stunned when one mentions coffee, the traditional brands of  Folgers and Maxwell House do not come to mind; rather we think of Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. This type of business mindset has crept into spiritual institutions to the degree we are more concerned about creating a product and a brand, rather than lifting up God and creating an environment that leads to liberation, redemption, and transformation.

Living your faith
Faith maturity is not about how much you give to a religious institution; how often you read the sacred books of your faith; or how frequently you attend a worship service. These attributes are by-products of living a faith that is maturing.

Real growth from a spiritual perspective is intricately and intimately connected to God, who provides the capacity to help a person deal with the personal daily relationships in his or her life. A maturing faith also empowers a person to compassionately and creatively confront the drama and issues of his or her reality. In other words, maturing faith does not make a person sinless, but it should lead a person to sin less.

This is the scandal of the Christian faith and the gospel of Jesus Christ. When a person can evaluate people and his or her own reality through the eyes of Jesus, that person demonstrates authentic growth. This is because the individual is empowered to look beyond the wrongs of a person and see the wounds. You can peek beyond the tragedy of a person and see the trouble. Real faith has love as the foundation and grace as the walls.

The Spiritual “Why”
Having faith cannot replace the real work of teaching and discipleship. It does mean we give be accountability for our actions.

In 2 Peter 3:18, we read, “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

The real sign of a maturing faith is the capacity to love outwardly toward others what we received personally from God. This is demonstrated in the Cross. We continue to grow daily in our faith through ups and downs. Thus, love and grace are not about spiritual ideals, but about a relationship with Christ that is shared with both friend and foe. And when that happens, then you have witness a mature faith in the flesh.

The Reverend Dr. Robert Charles Scott is senior pastor of Central Baptist Church in St. Louis, Missouri.
www.cbcstl.org