Stuck the Cyclone of "Every Wind of Teaching"

An immature church, full of immature Christians will never be capable of dealing with egregious sins like racism.  For the most part, the Church in America is like a child, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. 

Our immaturity is a direct result of misguided discipleship.  It's not that Christians aren't being discipled, it's that God's people are being discipled by the world through news media, social media, peer pressure, and the deep desire to belong to something, anything. 

Consider the young college student.  Before heading to the university, her Christian youth group focused on regular attendance, community, fun, and pizza parties.  Belonging was number one.  When she arrived on campus, she had a void and needed new belonging.  When a girl in her sorority was raped, she stood in solidarity with other students about reforming campus policies (there's nothing wrong with that!).  Hurt and afraid, she posted social media statements about the wickedness of all males and how she thinks the campus should consider being gender-segregated for safety.  She wasn't thinking about her desire to meet a nice young man and get married. She was only thinking about statements that would bring "likes" and "hearts" from her peers to reinforce the feeling of belonging.  When a white female student was harassed and then murdered by a non-student black man, she stood with her peers to decry that the campus police didn't do enough to protect the female student (and maybe they didn't; likely reform is necessary).  She began demanding more funding for campus police so they can keep the students safe.  Then she held the police more responsible for the female student’s death than the man who killed her because this gained "likes" and "hearts" and helped her build her identity as one of the peers.  A year later, she stood with her fellow students to demand that the university defund and disband the campus police to fix racism on campus.  "Likes" and "hearts" poured in from others who stood with her, and she gave them "likes" and "hearts" too.  When asked about how safety would be maintained on campus, she suggested more counselors and that "responsible non-police students and faculty could carry guns."  As the "likes" and "hearts" came in, she and her peers forgot that only a couple years before, her sorority sisters demanded that all guns be removed from the school.  All of this spinning cyclone for belonging and identity, and it's only her sophomore year. 

Or consider the middle-aged Christian man who knows the names of every popular politician, pundit, and all the news-cycle's daily drama. He seeks every opportunity to steer the conversation to politics.  He watches only one news network.  All others are evil and don't promote his perceived community of like-minded peers.  His social media feed is full of his tribe's rants, and everyone else has blocked or hidden his social media posts.  He could talk about the day's issues for hours.  Yet, he hasn't spent even 5-minutes reading the Bible over the past three months.  Prayer, what's that?  To be clear, this is more about belonging and identity than it is about any political issue. 

How about the argumentative "theologian" who is serious about a single doctrine, ending abortion, beards, and getting into fights.  He's never read the entire Bible, only sticking to the few verses he needs to get into self-righteous battles with other Christians.  He doesn't even know other doctrines, and he doesn't care.  If you have one of these guys in mind, realize that there's an entire community of young men conforming to these unspoken standards, desiring an identity and feeling of belonging. 

Need I even mention the Christian woman who has more faith in essential oils and the latest health fad than she does in Christ?

We all need identity and belonging, and we're all tempted to find it in the world.  But when we are discipled by the world, we're like children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.

Ephesians 4:1-5:14 has a great deal to say about maturity, discipleship, identity, and belonging.   It turns out, Christians already belong to the family of God because of what Christ has done for us.  Our identity should be securely wrapped up in the Lord, not the empty things of this failing world.  God has made us part of a community called the Body of Christ, submitted to Jesus. 

True discipleship, by Jesus and Jesus' people--equips us for the work of godly ministry. That ministry, empowered by God, is what ends racism, rape, abortion, and the systemic issues of sin in our world. Discipleship builds up the Body of Christ in love so that every part of the Body is growing and working together.  Every person is knit together regardless of race, sex, background, social status, education, age, or all the other divisive things of the world.  In this Body, under proper discipleship from the Lord and the Lord's people, we grow in the knowledge of God's Son and into maturity as Christians.  And then we become brighter light (Christ shining through us) into a sinful and dark world.  When we are discipled by God rather than the world. we can see broken, sinful hearts (evidenced by racism, the need for false community and identity, and all sorts of other rotten fruit) in us and in the world that needs redeemed for God's glory. But today, we're too immature for such beautiful things because we're still content to be discipled by the world.