Question of the Day: Nudity

Question of the Day: Should nudity in various forms be considered immoral/sinful, as it is in many cases? Or perhaps more of level of privacy (some people are more private with a lot of parts of their lives, which is neither right or wrong)?

Question of the Day: Bible Translation

Question of the Day: What is your favorite Bible translation? Why?

Mine is currently the NLT, which I discussed earlier here.

Question of the Day: Favorite Book of the Bible

Question of the Day: What is your favorite book of the Bible? Why?

I think I'd go for Genesis. It's the one I've studied the most, so I really appreciate its richness. Plus, it's the original story of God's goodness and character. It lays the foundation for everything else.

Question of the Day: Summary of the Gospel

Question of the Day: If you had to choose 1-3 consecutive versus to summarize the Gospel, what would they be?

I currently vote for John 10:10.

Question of the Day: Emphasizing Sin

Question of the Day: Is it possible to overemphasize sin? How, when, and why?

Is is possible to underemphasize sin? How, when, and why?

Still Here

So I've been a bad blogger lately. But I'll defend myself with the classic defense: I've been busy. It's quite true, though. The past couple of weeks have been insane, not least because my wife and I will be closing escrow on our first house any day now. So it may be a bit longer before I really start doing some big posts again. I'm going to try and schedule some short ones, asking questions. That at least keeps it going. But I just wanted to say that I'm still here! :)

If anyone is interested in guest posting, too, let me know!

Growing Out of Churches

Last Friday, I wrote a post on the need to look at people's spiritual progress developmentally. A while ago, my friend, Cal, published a post on how some churches are good at "matching" people with Jesus (i.e. conversion), but not so good with the follow-up spiritual formation.

I was thinking of another analogy of these ideas recently that in some ways combines them. American schooling is broken into primary (elementary) and secondary (high) school (not sure where junior high fits in). Then there's "higher" education. Elementary schools meet the needs of little ones, as does high schools for the teends.

No one would expect a 14-year-old to attend an elementary school unless there were significant developmental delays or he or she missed a lot of school. Even then, the student would likely have a specialized plan in the high school.

Similarly, an 8-year-old would be significantly out of a place at a high school or college (unless he was Doogie Howser). Even an intellectually bright 8-year-old is not emotionally as mature as a 16-year-old (all sarcasm aside). At my work, we address very similar issues with kids of all ages. Yet we separate them based on age because they do not process the same way.

Why would spiritual development be any different?

Could it be that some church institutions are meant to be elementary schools (or even pre-schools) to introduce students of God to the basics? As they grow, maybe they are supposed to grow out of one church, into another. The latter church focuses less on conversion and more on theological development. Still another emphasizes spiritual formation.

All of these elements are important. And I don't know what order they might go in (I, of course, have my biases, but they are just that--biases).

Of course, we need mature Christians in the elementary churches to teach the little ones (just as our teachers should be mature). An elementary school teacher is no less qualified and amazing and mature and smart as a high school teacher. Or even a college professor. Believe me, I know many in each category! :) They are all called to different contexts.

Yet we often assume one church will, can, and should all developmental levels of Christians. One could look at the apostolic church, which probably ran that way. We also have to remember that they were pretty much all baby Christians, though. It was also a fledgling institution, like the one-room schoolhouse. And there is also 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, in which Paul talks about speaking to different developmental levels of Christians in different manners.

Perhaps modern churches can manage multiple levels of development. That would be awesome. I'm not sure many really do that. Maybe we need to be open to the idea of "moving up" from one church to another. Not that that truly says anything negative or positive about one versus the other. They're all vital.

I just wonder if churches focused more on a particular developmental level of Christian and were willing eager to "graduate" Christians, helping them move on when necessary, would we see more spiritual growth in the overall body of Christ?

And just as people graduate out of school and no longer pursue formal education, is there a point at which formal spiritual education is no longer needed?