Nursery Doctrinaires

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. (1Corinthians 3: 1, 2)

I have been thinking a lot about these infantile sermons that always stop at giving and the pleasure that is the only product. I find many arguments about the need to concentrate more on assuring the church on what Christ has done as opposed to our responsibility to grow in Christ likeness.

It is treated as the worst sin to confront sin and worldliness in the church as we could easily traumatize believers. The only Biblical truth worth shouting from the rooftops is the fact that Christ did it all and that nothing we may do has any connection or consequence at all. Talking about demonic music or harlots’ dressing or sexual impurity is equated to trashing the cross. As things are, knowing what Christ did is more than enough to think about since it appears like the capacity of our spiritual systems has drastically reduced.

But recently God has opened my eyes to another perspective of this whole thing. And like I always say it is not a new revelation as it has been since the Bible times. It has only been reintroduced very recently for the convenience of spiritual conmen.

An infant requires lots of attention and affirmation. A small child must be touched and rocked and lulled to grow healthy. Shouting to an infant can shock it very badly. In fact even visitors are advised to lower their voices in a room it is in. We cannot reprimand infants when they do something wrong as they do not really know what they are doing. We remove dangerous things and toys because we cannot hold them accountable for drinking poison or injuring themselves with whatever.

That is what many pastors have made of their congregations. They treat them as spiritual infants. The church has therefore been transformed to a vast nursery where all that is required is feeding all these infants and making sure that they are not shouted at whatever they do. Their mess can’t be addressed since they spiritually do not know what they are doing. Their sin can’t be addressed because they could not know any better.

The only problem is that we are not able to be with them at all times like we do with our infants; meaning that they will mess all over as they have no ‘grownups’ to watch over them, especially because the Sunday sermon evaporates very quickly as happens to all infants.

And that is where our similarity with the infants stops. Slowly by slowly an infant learns responsibility.

Let me give an example. A child will when suckling test its gums by biting the mother’s breast. Initially the mother will laughingly coax him to stop. But then the razor sharp teeth grow and the game changes. A stupid mother will continue coaxing the child, but then the biting gets beyond pain to injury. The mother will then shout more from shock and confusion than anger. The child has discovered another game.

Eventually the mother can take it no more and decides on a very painful pinch or slap. Then the child discovers that there is a rule being set. But it will be testing that rule once in a while. Until it discovers that it is an absolute rule not open to any other interpretation.

Even then we will not hold that child accountable for much. You will not open a class to teach it manners or positive behavior. We will still smile at their attempts at doing anything. We will not blush when they defecate on themselves or fall again and again when as try to walk. We do not even expect them to eat the food we eat.

But even that is for a season. We expect the child to surely though slowly grow to be more stable, more responsible, more independent.

And even the diet aspect must change. The child initially lives on exclusive breastfeeding for quite some time. Should it take any other food, the system is not developed to handle such diet.

But the child will eventually have to be weaned off that breast milk. Why so? It has developed in such a way that breast milk is not only insufficient for its dietary needs; the body has grown that it is able to digest whatever food it is given. In fact the milk may eventually become useless.

Why are churches content with the milk of the Gospel year after year? Why is a pastor not only content but fulfilled when the only ministry he has in the church is changing diapers and holding the milk bottle to the masses? Why are Christians allowed to wet and poop on themselves and the pastors feel it is wrong to expect those children to be toilet trained?

Eventually a child will grow up to take up responsibilities, first on himself and his needs and later on the family and society. Then he will become a fully responsible member of his society.

Incidentally that is the reality of a healthy church. And I will need to mention that the problem has not started with our generation. The Corinthian church was as infantile as they go. You just need to read the two books to realize that Paul went through the frustration many of us go through when we look at the situation the church is in today.

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5: 12 – 14)

We see the same frustration with the writer of Hebrews. Again he draws the parallel with a child’s development.

A pastor may invest his all to ensure that there is enough milk for the thousands in his church. Truck loads of that milk are constantly availed for the health of his church (again many these days are hers).

What does someone already weaned do? The plain fact is that he will be starving. Their spiritual systems simply become malnourished even with all that milk because they need food, solid food. Those spiritual teeth will need to be chewing or something will happen to them. That digestion could collapse as it is meant to digest something solid.

But the infants will be celebrating, not realizing that their growing bodies are stunting due to all that milk. Their continued reliance on milk makes them content with lack of growth, even growth in grotesque ways. Bones may refuse to develop as there is not enough dietary material for the same. Teeth may refuse to grow due to the same. The brain may also refuse to develop in a healthy way due to the same.

That is the kind of church we are building with all this motivation and positive and almost irresponsible preaching. No wonder we have a problem with sin in our congregations.

But the bigger problem is with leadership. How do we get leaders from all these suckling babes? No wonder churches have to advertise widely when they need a pastor as there is nobody in their ranks mature enough to hold the bottle for the others. It is even worse with the deacons and elders because we must trash the Bible and its requirements to be able to get any.

It gets worse with those who have outgrown the milk because they are made to look too critical to the holders of those milk bottles, especially because the infants do not see beyond that milk. They do not expect any growth. They do not envision a situation when they will take off their clothes and go to a toilet. They cannot imagine feeding or even dressing themselves. They are content just being bottle fed and changed and lulled to sleep.

The problem of the church today is therefore the lack of growth. We are celebrating bigger nurseries and more efficient milk disposal equipment. Then we call them mega churches.

The greatest plus for such churches is that infants do not know value, nor are discriminating about anything that is not milk or the bottle. A child will very comfortably exchange a gold chain worth a fortune for a box of sweets (candies) worth a dime because a child’s value system is judged by its mouth. It therefore goes that those infants will give those milk providers their lives if need be. The pastor will just need to sneeze a need before the infants start falling over themselves to meet that need because they cannot envision life without that bottle holder. Put simply, to them that bottle (sermon) and its holder (pastor) are the beginning and end of ministry. Only the bottle holder knows where the milk comes from and so requires all the support these infants can muster, even if it involves raiding their granary. I believe this explains the attractiveness of this ‘Gospel’.

But the game will change once someone is weaned. They will slowly learn value as they start getting responsible and as they get into greater involvement with the life of the family and society. They will not pick just anything to give to anybody without establishing its value. In the spiritual realm these will not be content to hear what God tells the ‘prophet’, they will seek to connect with God for their own instruction. They will grow to hear from God in obedience. Milk is the introduction to growth, an introduction to good health.

Is your pastor the ultimate source of your spiritual instruction? Then you are in such a nursery and you are feeding on milk and not solid spiritual food.

Can you hear from God apart from your spiritual superstar? Do you understand the Bible when you are reading it without the input of your spiritual superiors? Can you pray and get answers when someone else has not helped you lift them ‘higher’ to God? It is probably that you are getting weaned from the milk I have been talking about.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. (John 10: 27 – 30)