Christian Community (2 of 2)
Posted by nathan on 14 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: my life., thoughts on life.
When I ran the 4 sets of 5-minute repeats last night, I ran them with Isaac, who is of very comparable shape to myself. We push each other.
But what if I had done those 5-minute repeats with you? Would you have been pushing me like Isaac was able to? Or, would you be too fast for me (Mike), leaving me unable to keep up? Or, would I not have been pushed at all by your presence on the repeats?
Isn’t this like Christian Community? Not all people are equally in ’spiritual shape’, and this leaves us with the question–do we have community with people in less or more spiritual shape than ourselves?
I suggest the answer is a balance. If you surround yourself with only new, immature Christians, I think you’ll soon find yourself back-peddling to immaturity yourself. Likewise, if you surround yourself with only spiritual giants, it’s quite possible you have a hard time relating to their spirituality, and feel unable to keep up–inadequate.
Which is why, i suggest a balance in community. When you have community with some who are more immature and at the same time, with those who are more mature, you find yourself being challenged, while also able to challenge those under you…Sometimes you challenge, other times, you get challenged.
Never getting challenged to move up yields to stagnation, and stagnation disgusts me.
1 Comment »
on 14 Aug 2007 at 3:12 pm 1.
Penny said …
This is true. I noticed by kid’s behavior would change depending on who they’re hanging with at the moment. If they were around an older friend, they would act more mature. When around someone a year or 2 younger, they would sway the opposite way. So I suppose this is occuring in our own lives in christianity, we just don’t see it.
And if you ran with me, you would not be pushed. I’d be yelling, hey Nate! Wait up!