For those that are not regular visitors to Team Swap, there is a trend within many of the posts and comments found here - it is taking responsibility for your own actions and impacting the lives of those around you. The idea for this post comes from a show that was recently on the Animal Plant or Discovery. I may not remember the network, but I do remember the show. It was a special about how dogs have been breed to various breeds. Apparently all the 500 + breeds of dogs come from wolves originally. Over the years with selective breeding man has developed the various features, sizes, and skills needed or desired within our dogs, thus the various breeds we see today.
The Newfoundland, a breed that is close to the heart of Team Swap, was breed as a cold weather water dog, thus via selective breeding they have webbed feet for swimming, and long water resistant coat for warmth. The Terrier was breed to be small and have a stiff wire coat to go after rats or small game. The Pointer with it's long coat, sharp nose, and quiet motion was breed to flush game. The Pomeranian was breed down in size for companionship in small city dwellings. You get the idea.
Certain habits in our dogs, licking is one that comes to mind, are left over from the wolf. In the case of licking it is how baby wolves get their parents to regurgitate food for them to eat. Yeah I know that is disgusting. So, when your dog licks you it is basically acting like a baby wolf and asking you, the parent, to vomit a bit of food for it. Yeah that is a great visual.
Simply put though our dogs do love us, but they are basically just refined wolves that still have certain wolf traits. The playfulness that we like in our dogs (regardless of age), the nipping, the running, the jumping, etc are all traits of adolescent wolves. The next step in the life of a wolf is to start using the skills it developed in adolescents to catch and kill game. We did not want that trait in an animal that is going to sleep with us and our family. That is not desirable in a animal that will guard our livestock, and one that will be around us all the time. So, the host pointed out that over time we have actually breed dogs to stay at the level of adolescent wolves. Thus the smaller brain size in dogs then wolves.
I know you are just fascinated with this so far, and I am sure the history of the domestication and adaptation of canines is something that you really wanted to know more about, so I will get too the spiritual point of this post. I think many times the church, may not us individually but the church in general, is the same way with the people that it (the church) associates with or mentors. The church likes to find people that have the traits and habits that the church likes, and then the church likes molds them to fit the needs, wants, desires, and habits of that congregation. Over time this process retards the growth of the individual, and it keeps them at a level where they are never fully mature and never a threat too anyone.
Wow I know that is heavy, and even sounds mean, but I do not mean it that way. Well maybe I do in one way, it is meant to challenge our view of church growth. With that in mind, here goes my theory. I feel that for to long we have allowed surface relationships to suffice and allowed church to be more social then spiritual. Can we seriously tell ourselves that we wanted to produce evangelical God fearing Christians, when we only (again the church as a whole - we all know of specific exceptions, and this is not meant as a slap in a face to you, or your local church as I am sure that the visitors of Team Swap are exceptional) wanted people that looked like us, smelled like us, thought like us, and reasoned like us, so they would tell us how good we were doing.Some churches will not dare associate with lower class people - homeless, prostitutes, ex-cons, etc. Others will not associate with those of different cultures, backgrounds, or accent. Still others will avoided educated or professional people as they might call for changes in worship, examination of doctrine, and different practices. The church has been more worried about the person dressing right or smelling right then we have been about that person maturing. When the person does not mature, or leaves our church, we excused ourselves from responsibility by saying that we (the individual) were not called to minister to that type of person.
Jesus should be the model for all churches, and when we look at His followers we see diversity. The majority of Jesus's disciples were at best working class, yet Jesus also had reformed prostitutes, tax collectors, and reformed religious leaders that followed Him. Try to build a diverse church like that today and you may quickly be called to reform or reevaluate your views. Most people stay in their comfort zone in seeking friends and acquaintances, and for the longest time they have wanted their church to be the same way.
Guess what, Jesus hung out with EVERYONE. King to slave, fisherman to banker, He did not care. He wanted old, young, Greek, Jew, African, Asian, blind, educated, uneducated all around Him. What makes us think He wants us to be different. Jesus did not just meet the person, greet them, and then forsake them, HE DIED FOR THEM. He completely gave Himself for every sinner, no matter their social class, color, career or education.
I think it is time for Christians to demand a return to Biblical concepts, thus requiring people to grow up. There are too many 50 year old Christian adolescents out there, and not enough 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 year old mentors out there.Now, I am not saying that you personally need to mature, I do not know you. You may need to mature, that is something that you and God need to work out, and I urge you to go to God and find out if you need to mature or not. What I am saying is that we all need to do a better job encouraging / requiring others to mature. Allowing church attendees to stay in comfortable adolescent roles and relationships has gone on for too long. No longer should we accept immature walks in “mature” Christians.
The goal should be for all to grow into mature Christians, capable of self control, a strong defense, and of replication. What has been viewed as acceptable in the past should not longer be good enough. We should yearn for a better relationship with God then our fathers and mothers had. Equaling the relationship level of others should not be satisfactory, we should yearn for a special and unique relationship that is deep, God breathed and inspired.
We need to make sure that there are not only a few people growing, and that everyone is working to mature other Christians. It is the team work approach. If you and I work harder, then let's be sure everyone else is working harder too. Have a great day and rejoice in all the blessings that come from God.
