Please excuse me, but I have a background in factory design, and especially in factories that purify products. Some of the processes involve contact between mixtures that have different levels of purity interacting to increase purity of the product. Others involve removing relatively pure product from less pure product so as not to further contaminate the purer product. I have been thinking about this as I reflect on our church life.

What often happens in church

 I notice that sometimes we structure our church life in such a way that as a person grows in maturity they spend more and more time with people at the same stage as they are. I can understand why this is so. People listen to, model and grow fastest by being around others who are just a little ahead of them. But I also wonder if we are inadvertently creating an unsaid way of thinking that ‘people who are at a different stage have nothing to teach me’. I also wonder whether this is especially the case when we consider those much younger in the Faith.

This is like the factory process of putting like with like. While this is normal, and often has great benefit, I want to challenge it.

The benefits of diversity

Sometimes it is helpful to spend time with someone who is much more mature. It shows what life might look like in the future. It gives you something to aspire to. I recall the apostle Paul’s words to “imitate me as I imitate Christ’.

And it helps the mature person too. Over time we may become de-sensitised to the glory of the gospel and the wonder of the atoning death of Jesus. Seeing this through fresh eyes is a great benefit. Under God’s gracious hand seeing a life transformed through what you can say or do is a wonderful encouragement to keep going. Listening to and interacting with the questions that are so obvious, but so long ago forgotten can re-invigorate Bible reading.

A couple of examples

Just to illustrate hear are a couple of regular things I see.

I sometimes ask our Theological College students ‘who has been quizzed by your minister about what you have been learning over the last month?’ I am surprised that less than a quarter of our students raise their hands. This surprises me, as theological students are the most up to date in theological trends. Now this could be because everyone is busy, or there are more pressing agendas, or one party could be embarrassed by the discussion, but I am sure it would be a great help for young enquiring minds to ‘chew the fat’ with someone who is older, wiser and ministry seasoned. 

The other obvious place to see the loss of diversity is in the common report that within six months of coming to Faith, people lose their not yet Christian friends. It is at this early stage of growing in knowing Jesus that Christians can have the greatest impact on their friends. My guess is that we need to be deliberate in helping young Christians maintain their relationships, while also helping them to grow more like Christ. Maybe this is where the older Christian friend can help?

So while I think it normal and our default position, and it is often helpful to gather people at their stage of growth, I want to challenge it as the only way to operate. I suspect we probably need a mixture of relationships. But I also suspect that we need to speak about, show the blessings of and train people about how to best function in these diverse settings.