Tuesday Re-mix:
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:11-14
It is kind of a big moment in a child’s life, going from three (or four) wheels to just two…going from the tricycle (or bicycle with training wheels) to a bicycle. “Look Dad, I’m a big girl now!” It is a big deal because it is a big adjustment. It is not just about balance. It is about forward motion. It is an entirely different mindset.
After all, that is the biggest difference between a bike with training wheels and one without…you can sit on a bike with training wheels and not move at all. You can just sit there and be pretty and comfortable and cool, never moving forward, never taking a risk, never changing a thing. But as soon as those training wheels come off, that option (sitting still) is off the table. You see, with the growth from child into maturity, there comes a requirement of constant forward progress, continuous pressing ahead without long stops, without sitting still and being comfortable, and without growing content where you are.
It really is a very different way of being, a totally different philosophy. It is a new mindset, a new frame of reference. Constant forward movement means leaning against the very human tendency of stopping to just wallow in the way things are. An orientation toward forward progress requires leadership on your part, much like the leadership provided to us by the writer of Hebrews: though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. I read this exhortation less as a comment about what we do not know, and more as a comment about the direction we are headed…more specifically, the direction we are NOT headed…FORWARD!
Effectively leading God’s people toward a “forward orientation” requires steady, constant, loving pressure. It requires a regular dose of discontent…not a depressing discontent, bringing everybody down all the time…rather, a healthy realization that we can get better, that we can get forward. It requires a little cheerleading to celebrate the successes of the past, an appropriate pause to feel encouraged, and then an immediate shift toward what is next. It requires a system for setting goals and objectives, for discerning what God is doing right now, for making quick adjustments to join that work, and then doing it all over again. It requires evaluation and asking honest, hard questions about whether we are really “winning” in terms of the vision. This is what “maturity” feels like for a church. It is not a destination…it is a direction of movement.
If your leadership is not resulting in healthy change and moving forward, if the only prevailing mindset in your people is contentment with the way things are, then it may be time to take the training wheels off the bike. It’s scary at first. For everyone. But once you’re going forward, it’s a rush your people will never want to lose!