Thruway or Partway? Spiritual Immaturity and Leadership

In her article Thruway or Partway?, Mindy Caliguire reflects on the role of churches in the maturation of Christian leaders. She relates this topic to the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway in Chicago, which one would assume would connect the neighborhood of Elgin to the O’Hare airport. Due to construction costs and other complications, however, the highway does not serve this purpose. She relates this to how churches often do not fulfill their promise to help new Christians mature on their journey to becoming more and more like Christ. Many churches today are great at getting people “saved”, but, more often than not, they tend to be stuck at a level of spiritual immaturity. Just like that highway, the connection between being “saved” and growing in the faith toward spiritual maturity is nowhere to be found. Caliguire suggests that this problem will be fixed by addressing the spiritual health of leaders in the church. If leaders, especially those who are new to ministry, are healthy, maturing Christians, this will hopefully reflect on the ministries and people that they serve. I chose this article because it relates not only to leadership, but also to our discussion in Person in Ministry as well. So many leaders in the church are given adult responsibilities, even though they are working out of spiritual immaturity. How can we then expect our congregations to be spiritually mature? Just as Caliguire suggests, we need to address our own spiritual immaturity first. Once we have done that, it will reflect in our ministry and we can help others grow.