Five phases of growth
Five phases of growth in a church
1 Tim 5:1-2
1 Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. (NIV)
We are not here yet! We are going in that direction!
Only in a family can we learn all the different phases of spiritual growth. We as a church we started out small, in my living room. We grew and moved to the Faust house. It was there that many of you first came and had your new beginning. We were a closer family then we are now. But we did something that has hindered the family closeness since then. WE GREW! This is why I believe we need, we must have new means of ministering to one another in a closer way.
I as the Pastor have a difficult job of growing a family where all the people that come are at a little different level of growth. Today we want to help you identify where you are and help you receive and give what is necessary for your growth.
Some believe that by starting new Home groups, I am attempting to program the church and make this a denomination, which is far from the truth. I am doing my best and I know it is not always enough to find out where each of you are and deal with you as individuals. There will always be things that I teach that are for those that are spiritually younger than you or maybe old. I am simply finding a way for smaller families to form so that we can once again find the closeness that many of us need. I have been identifying those that know how to love and are open to learn and grow. They will help me do what I cannot do alone, Love each one of you individually.
1. Baby – Eat
1 Pet 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. (NIV)
1 Cor 3:1-3
1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-- mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? (NIV)
2. Child - Learn
Gal 4:1 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. (NIV)
Heb 5:12-14
12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (NIV)
3. Teenager - Practice by doing
Acts 2:17 "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. (NIV)
Acts 5:6-10
6 Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. (NIV)
Titus 2:6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. (NIV)
1 Pet 5:5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." (NIV)
4. Adult - Reproduce – Teach
Phil 3:13-16
13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (NIV)
Heb 5:12-14
12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (NIV)
James 1:2-4
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (NIV)
Luke 8:14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. (NIV)
* as long as we are tangled in the world we will not become mature.
5. Old People - Share Wisdom
Acts 2:17 "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. (NIV)
Titus 2:1-5
1 You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. 3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (NIV)