In his letter to the church at Colossae, Paul defined the purpose and goal of his ministry in clear terms. At the end of the first chapter he writes,

      Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up  what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,  of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery of the   ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to   to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of  this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim,  warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works in me.

While this paragraph raises several significant questions, e.g. what is meant by the phrase“…what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions…”?, it states the goal of the ministry of the Apostle Paul: that we may present everyone mature in Christ. The task of bringing believers to maturity in  

Christ was the purpose for which he suffered and struggled in expending his life for the ministry given him. By extension, this is the purpose of our ministry here at Fairlawn. Our task is that of bringing those who know Jesus Christ to maturity in Christ. Now this does not override the larger purpose of bringing glory to the Triune God in all that we do. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. and A. 1 is foundational to all that we do. Q. What is the chief end of man? A. To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. In the context of this underlying premise, we seek to “present everyone mature in Christ.” 

Of course, this raises other issues in thinking through this purpose. What does maturity look like in the Christian life? Can maturity even be measured? And what is the standard by which we measure it? And what are the marks of spiritual maturity? We usually know what maturity means in the normal development of a person’s emotional and intellectual life. Certain social and personal skills are cultivated and we certainly recognize when they are not manifest in various contexts. We have all observed people who have said the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong manner. We tend to attribute this to immaturity. We watch our children grow and seek to train them in what would be mature patterns for living and interacting with others. And our goal with our youth is to bring them to maturity in all dimensions of life.  

But I must ask again, what does this mean for us in our ministry as we seek to bring people to spiritual maturity?  While I cannot even begin to answer these questions, I do believe that raising the matter is critical for our ministry here at Fairlawn. My own thoughts on this matter have been stimulated by reading a work by Diana West entitled The Death of the Grown-Up. In this book she chronicles the problem of “arrested development” in American culture. With meticulous research West has demonstrated that we are basically a society that has idolized teenage culture and has refused to grow up. Because of this we have become a culture that has lost its way. We have lost the ability to critically discern what is proper and what is right. We have lost our moral compass. The ramifications of this are profound, not only for the culture but also for the church.  It is very difficult to instill certain values spiritually in those who remain in cultural captivity to the prevailing atmosphere of relativism.  

This can be illustrated in the emphasis the Scripture places upon the renewal of the mind. This of course means learning and comprehending certain truths and doctrines that are taught in Scripture. But the concept of the renewal of the mind involves more than obtaining intellectual knowledge. It also refers to the cultivation of a certain mindset, perspective and vision. We are called to be discerning and wise. This requires, according to Paul, that we evaluate things not only in terms of moral value, i.e. is it right or wrong, but also in terms of excellence, i.e. is this best, is this good, is this appropriate. Often we hear individuals say “What’s wrong with this?”  But the better question may be “Is this best?” Such a way of thinking grows out of the renewal of the mind and the development of maturity. In Philippians 1:9 Paul writes, And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

 This stands in contrast to the prevailing cultural ethos that determines decisions by feelings, opinions and other subjective criteria rather than by the standard of either Scripture or of moral considerations. Spiritual maturity requires that we become discerning and wise in our perspective so that we can discriminate between right and wrong, all the while striving for excellence in all that we do.

Where do we begin as we seek to cultivate spiritual maturity? We begin with a  knowledge of the Word of God. A chief characteristic of spiritual growth is hunger for the Word of God. We desire to know it, digest it and savor it as apply it to our lives.  We in turn are shaped and formed by Scripture itself. This is the primary means by which God brings us to maturity in Christ Jesus. It is my desire that we as a community grow in the likeness of Christ and that we pursue maturity in Christ in our ministry.