Plateaux
ChurchWhere do the plateaux come in the Christian life? That is a subject of some recent interesting research by Willow Creek about their own church life. Most of us are very different to WC, but some of their observations are interesting. They identify four stages in discipleship: exploring about God, young believer, going-for it and completely yielded [my paraphrase, without the book to hand].
The interesting thing is what are the factors that help people move on from one stage to the next? And what will hinder them doing so? At which stages do people reach a plateau and stay there rather than take the next step? And why?
One of the major plateaux for quite a lot of people is between stage two and stage three. People are converted, know they belong to Jesus, pray to him and read their Bible to a degree, but don't really hunger for more. Some folk at this point realise there is more but don't know how to get over the hurdle. Some folk are comfortable and happy where they are and don't want to commit further. For them we should be concerned. Some don't realise that they are meant to grow. For them we need to help awaken a hunger for what God might do in their lives.
One of the reasons people plateau at this point is the need to move from being a receiver to being a self-feeder. Let me explain. The major way you learn about God up to this point is by receiving biblical teaching from others, whether one to one, on a Sunday or in a mid week. It's the way an infant feeds, needing the parent to dish up the goodies but unable to take responsibility for themselves yet. But at some point all infants have to grow up by feeding themselves. It is the same spiritually. At some point all believers have to know how to read, comprehend and appropriate the Bible for themselves rather than just rely on others doing it for them.
I think it is possible to remain on this plateau a long time, perhaps many years, because a person doesn't know how to move from receiving to self-feeding. And because church leaders assume that everybody is a self-feeder. The longer someone remains on the plateau the more it seems normal, and the harder it gets for people see that they need to grow. Producing a hunger for growth in someone who hasn't grown for years and is happy where they are is
There will be some people on the plateau who don't want to come off it. They are comfortable there and don't see the need for change. They will be nervous about challenge to go somewhere unfamiliar. In the worst case they may even sit under biblical teaching every week but with a sufficiently impenetrable defensive screen that they persuade themselves that it isn't for them, that they don't need to apply what is taught, or that it is simply beyond them. The Old Testament will certainly remain a closed book, but the whole Bible might. They will resist the very changes in church life that are designed to help them go on with God. The more people who are in this category, the harder it is to bring about change in church life.
What is the answer to this plateau? Surely it is every church having some mechanism for teaching everyone solid, basic principles for reading and appropriating scripture for themselves. A "Bible Enjoyed" course for all new believers and anyone who knows they would like help to go on. This week our home group were chatting about how to help people get over the hurdle. Suggestions included a "pin it on your fridge" page in the weekly newssheet for taking sermon notes to look at through the week, a mentor that you could ring up and ask about a Bible passage you don't understand, writing down difficult bits to take to home group and ask the leader for help.
My need is to remember that there are real Christians who don't know how to read the Bible or to develop an increasing hunger for God. That's not their fault if they don't know how. It is the responsibility of leaders to help people see they are on a plateau and given them practical strategies for getting off it.
Reader Comments (10)
Hi Marcus
A stimulating post for a Tuesday morning. Always a pleasure to read your blog.
The WC findings, and your reflections on them leave me with a few questions:
1. What necessary educational abilities and intellectual capabilities are needed for people to become self-feeders?
2. Is there an unhelpful kind of preaching that doesn't stimulate thought, growth, and a thirst to learn and therefore keeps people at the same level? How do I as a pastor ensure that my preaching is genuinely feeding all of my people? It was said of Lloyd-Jones, for example, that his preaching made people into readers, i.e. it stimulated a thirst to grow in knowledge.
3. Is this a problem generated by a particular approach to church life? Or do you think this is replicated in churches that are quite different in ethos, modes of preaching, educational approaches,and theological stripe to WC?
[And if you don't have time to answer these I'll be a good self-feeder and work on my own answers!]
I love thought thought of people doing Christianity Explored and perhaps a Discipleship Explored and then going onto Bible Enjoyed... not that everything revolves around courses but I just love the the "B.E." concept... cooking-tv for Christians except you'd be able to see, smell and taste the food.
I like the "cook along" analogy, not least because it is so familiar to people at the moment.
Regarding Martin's pertinent comments, I think it is possible (perhaps especially for people who have history working with uni students who grasp things quickly) to assume that because we have taught something that it has been learned. I am concluding that even if I think I have taught something clearly, comparatively simply and engagingly, that there will still be plateauxed people in my congregation who won't receive it. The issue is not the teaching, its the receiving. I can work ever harder at trying to communicate better, but if the fault is with the receiver rather than the transmitter, the message will still fail to impact.
None of which is to say we shouldn't be preaching. No to that with all my heart. But I wonder if our preaching models imply a level of understanding of what preaching is, a level of Christian reading and a level of personal Bible engagement (even understanding what the Bible actually is) that is missing for many today. And that we haven't noticed is missing.
I wonder too if so many have got into simplistic "Bible reading notes" as young Christians but have never moved on, that the most simplistic and pietistic blessed thoughts have formed a lot of people's understanding of what it means to read the Bible. "I read my 5 verses for the day, don't really understanding them but at least I have done the expected, and then get on with life" approach to Bible reading.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think that everybody in our church, or other churches, is on that plateaux by any means. But more are than I have previously thought. Therefore my previous approaches haven't taken account of people at the level of:
(a) very basic discipleship
(b) who don't want to, or are as yet unable to, grow
It's the second point I haven't taken account of enough in my preaching. I have assumed too readily that everyone who listening is receiving and wants to grow. It certainly makes a strong case for a good quality church bookstall, regular plugs to get people reading, and discipleship groups (different, I think, to most home groups). If we leave such folk just with a diet of Sunday teaching, they will endure it but it often won't impact. It will impact more those who are also feeding themselves and therefore who don't want to mentally tune out during the sermon.
I think the key is the 'appropriating' bit. Obviously you need something (ie the Word) to appropriate but I think people get stuck more at tangible application rather than understanding. We fall down at 'what does this mean for us?' rather than at 'what does the text say?' So how does the word become flesh in me, how does it become lived and breathed rather than read and acknowledged? Good questions to wrestle with...
I agree. Application is the most neglected part of most preaching. And most preaching training, interestingly. Here are the questions I have in my mind as I set about trying to do good application:
1. what does this passage say that needs to be worked into people's lives?
2. what isgoing on in people's lives that this passage touches on and should be used to address?
3. how does this passage intend to bring forth faith and worship in people's hearts?
4. what was this passage written to achieve in heart and life, and will my application lead to it doing so, in the power of the Spirit, or hinder it doing so?
5. what framework or assumptions in people's minds is going to stop this passage achieving what is was written to achieve - and how do I remove that hurdle or blast through it?
I think the big hindrance to good application in many churches is the fear that if we actually say the really challenging thing from the passage, with specific, pin-point application, people will be offended that we are preaching at THEM. Well, d'uh! (The most response I got recently to a sermon application was when I told the congregation to ditch their subscriptions to the God Channel.) Could it be that we don't actually want anyone to get upset about what we say, even if what the Bible is saying to them in a sermon should be very upsetting? If so, how British!
Kellers Oak Hill lectures are helpful here...
unapplied Bible is like a skeleton, bones without flesh...kinda creepy...
Great questions, I think I work through those but not as clearly articulated. I certainly focus on no5 and ask 'is the application of this passage going upstream/against the flow of culture or downstream/with the flow' and what difference will that make.
PS Any chance of a reciprocal link?
Hi Marcus,
Loving the new lease of blogging life and thought!
The question I'm pondering from your post is how do you think the idea of self-feeding fits with Jesus' injunction to Peter to 'feed the sheep' not just show them where the food is?
Matt
Good question Matt
the two aren't exclusive. I take it that the Hebrew believers (Heb 6) who had to go on from elementary teachings to maturity weren't just those with gifts of leading, teaching and feedng others. I think it is a more general injuction. And rebuke for having been happy to stay in infancy.
In Titus 2 the older men are to be taught to be "sound in faith" the older women are to be sufficiently mature as to lead younger women in the ways of God. Titus' seriousness and helathiness of speech is to be the model for the younger men. Again there is an all-encompassing expectation of believers in general being mature in their behaviour, example and teaching, not simply the church as a whole through it's teachers.
In Ephesians 4, the emphasis is on all reaching unity in the faith, becoming like a mature man, in the same way as the emphasis is on all God's people being active in the work of ministry.
This sense of growing, becomng mature, not being in infancy is surely what Paul has in mind when he talks about working with the Philippians for their progress in the Lord. Their growing up in Christ. This is not to say all should be teachers. It is not to say that all will attain the same level of ability or knowledge. But it is to say that each and every one should have a desire, within the faith given to them, to grow towards maturity in Christ. For some the growth will be little over a long period of time. No matter, the important thing is desire and direction of travel.
So leaders are indeed undershepherds who are called to feed the flock. The more I preach the more I realise that many people cannot go as far as I can with understanding and never will, because that's my gift from the Lord. Just like I will never be as good an evangelist as some of them. That's just gifting and body life in action.
But the injunction to feed contains within it the idea that the sheep will find food good, that they will have a taste for it and that their desire for it will grow. I don't know anyone in that situation who doesn't start to pour over the scriptures for themselves, even if they find it hard. They have tasted. Tasting makes them pursue Him. Pursuing him is inseperable from loving the Word and getting into it. How can children of the father not love the hearing the father? Therefore I conclude that all believers should be going deeper in the word and being equipped to do so according to their ability and stage of maturity. I also conclude that when someone seems to have no delight in the Word that this indicates that they are not feeding, and have lost their taste that the Lord is good.
Hey Marcus (and others).
Thanks for your thoughts and discussion prompting. I will think about the Bible enjoyed course thing.
I agree with the need for equipping "self-feeders", although there is a danger that folk will be tempted to equate that with being self-sufficient in Christian growth.
Would another angle to attack the problem be to think of ways in which we can encourage a culture of "mutual feeding" a la Romans 15:14?
After intial evangelistic and discipleship courses where curiousity-levels and hunger to know God can be high, the next step is often house-groups. My hunch is that the average house-group can suffer from several attitudes which stunt growth. When someone is convicted of a sin, everyone else tries to find ways to help them let themselves off the hook without repentance; when questions are asked, members trade in standard truisms and plattitudes; when new insights are shared, people look at you funny.