Phil Cook

Have you ever heard people announce how joining a gym or taking a class or going to prison helped turn their life around 360 degrees?

Or testifying in church about their 360-degree change that came about after God intervened?

We have. It’s a bit embarrassing. We appreciated what they meant even if turning 360 degrees just leaves you back at your starting point. A reversal of direction would actually be 180 degrees.

But what if it’s actually true? Many people can spend decades in “church” and never change. Their maturity levels remain the same year after year, 360 degrees.

This explains a lot of the complaints about all those “hypocrites.”

What is maturity and why is it important? Why should we care?

Dr. Marcus Warner remembers counseling a young seminary graduate who was taking his first job as a pastor. He was quickly hired because of his commanding presence, good looks, honed speaking skills, a beautiful wife and darling little kids. Church attendance increased. However, eventually his wife forced him to seek help as his outward behavior did not match his hidden actions. Anger and poor people-skills were causing grave problems. As the counseling progressed, it came out that he also had a serious porn addiction and was sick with shame.

Here are some barometers of maturity:

How well does one handle conflict? How well does one love unlovable people? Are character traits like love and joy and peace and kindness… and patience… not only evident to outsiders but especially to one’s family members? Can I stay relationally stable and good natured even during times of stress or difficulty? How quickly can I return to joy from negative emotions? How well do we help others remove the obstacles that hinder their relationship with God?

Emotional regulation should be a major focus of discipleship in a church. And it’s not just filling people with more left-brain “teaching.” Information transfer is not discipleship. The early church, a time of explosive growth and fruit, did not feature lectures when they met together. We need heart-focused discipleship instead.

We like to think that once someone has met God in a profound way and become initiated into the life of a church that the work has been accomplished. No. It is only the beginning. I used to be troubled by a sentence in Paul’s letter to the Philippians that said, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” What? I can’t work to earn my salvation. It is a gift from God, and I can’t boast of having earned it. But that’s not what it’s about. A better understanding would mean to bring our salvation to its ultimate conclusion: Maturity. This is a weighty responsibility. God does the heavy lifting at first by reconciling us to Himself through Jesus. But we must do the hard work of pursuing