Which End of The Pool Are You In?

When was the last time you visited a public swimming pool? Do you recall the high-pitched echoing of all those excited children -- different ages, varying swimming abilities? It’s deafening!! I’ve been there with my own high-pitched, screaming children. And I’ve tolerated it. But upon further observation, I’ve noticed something else. All the noise comes from the shallow end of the pool. The only sound coming from the deep end is the sound of experienced swimmers swimming with discipline and confidence. There is no yelling, no crying, no complaining, no evidence of fear or frustration. I conclude that all the noise comes from the shallow end of the pool because those in the shallow end of the pool haven't learned to swim with confidence and are not secure enough to venture into the deep water.

Churches today reflect this very clearly. The noise comes from the shallow end, not the deep end. The yelling and crying and complaining come from those individuals in the church who have not grown up spiritually. Conflict in churches very often starts off in the shallow end with immature Christians who just aren’t secure enough in the faith to see past material issues like…. (Well, you fill in the blank: _____________.)

Let’s look at current national statistics for church attendance: Church attendance is up. Excitement is up. But if you dig deep into those statistics, you do not find discipleship being up, nor do you find godliness up. You do not find prayer and Bible study up. We find a lot of people who are attending church but few people who are swimming in the deep end. The secular world has taught churches how to draw crowds with exciting programs and popular guest speakers and trendy music and non-stop activities. But the number of mature Christians in churches is not rising. The vast majority of people attending churches today maintain the same lifestyles and values as the rest of society. It’s sad. The trend in evangelical churches is that there are less and less spiritually mature Christians and more and more infants – baby Christians who refuse to grow up.

Now you may look at this collectively, or you may look at it in terms of our own congregation. . . either way this is precisely the issue that Paul is addressing with the church in Corinth: immature Christians who have no excuse for their immaturity considering that they have been taught God’s Word and should know better:

“I…could not speak to you as spiritual. . . but as infants in Christ.
I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are till fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are
you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?”
I Corinthians 3:1-3

Paul does use descriptive language here – perhaps quite harsh to his hearers – but he was speaking of their carnality. It was the carnality of the people that was indicative of their immaturity. They had no excuse for not being mature, since Paul implied that he should have been able to write to them as mature, in light of all he had taught them. Carnality produces the attitude of jealousy, a severe form of selfishness, which produces the action of strife and subsequent divisions in churches. It happened during the first century (A.D 55) in ancient Greece, and continues in 2007 across the United States and in Austin, MN too.

Can it be avoided? Certainly. And Paul tells us how in the remaining verses of I Corinthians 3. Churches that are built upon “great ideas” or “the latest trend” are doomed to die. Why? Because this is not the intended foundation for God’s Church. Paul said, and I paraphrase, "I gave you a good foundation, Jesus Christ. You build on Jesus Christ. And if you build with gold and silver or straw, it will fade. You must build on Jesus Christ." Jesus earlier said in Matthew 16, "On this rock (the confession of Peter) I will build my church." During his last week, he said to his disciples, "I am the vine. Ye are the branches." In other words, stay connected and bear fruit. If there’s no fruit –only jealousy and strife – chances are there’s no connection to Christ. And that is spiritual infancy.

A spiritually healthy and spiritually mature church does not function in the realm of ideas or programs or trends. Absolutely not! It functions and it spreads because Jesus Christ changes lives. Any other idea to grow a church will die. It may have its day, but it will die. There are popular trendy “mega-churches” out there whose members may argue differently, but unless they are 100% grounded in Christ alone – they will eventually die.

When we individually rediscover Jesus Christ as the only foundation, our belief will be strengthened and focused and we will mature. When the church rediscovers Jesus Christ, people may come because of great ideas or programs or trends, but they will stay and they will grow spiritually because Jesus Christ is the foundation and only He can change lives. And the only noise we will hear in church will be people swimming from the shallow end to the deep end of the pool because they feel safe in deep water. Which end of the pool are you in?

- Pastor Mark