The Adolescent Church

A simple metaphor from the Apostle Paul explains much of the problems facing the modern, faithful, Christian Church today.

Scriptures often use short, vivid word pictures or parables to describe its deepest truths. There are also a number of ways those pictures describe how Jesus relates to us, His Church. The most common one is used by Paul who pictures himself as a father and the early Christian Church as his young daughter, who is promised to Christ, her bridegroom (2 Corinthians 11:2).

This explains a lot of things.

Picture a modern girl named Emma. Emma is fourteen and found out not all boys are icky.

Drew sits across from her in math class. He says little but tells funny jokes. He has dimples when he smiles. Emma is not a joke teller but went on-line, found a funny one and is in class early so she can tell it to Drew.

Drew just came through the door, his back is to Emma, and he is talking to some other kids. One of them is this girl who smiles at him. Drew turns to talk to someone else and this girl glares at Emma-Back off honey.

“SHE wants Drew for HERSELF! She is BEAUTIFUL!”

"“Why do girls do this? I don’t want a boyfriend but what is wrong with having a friend who is a boy? And Drew doesn’t want a girlfriend! At least he has never said anything about that sort of thing. Is he changing his mind? Some of the girls really like him.”

“Hi.” He is sitting down in his chair.

“Well, he can just fall in love with her for all I care. I won’t talk to him and I will keep my very funny joke to myself.”

“Earth to Emma.”

“Oh, uh hi.”

This thing with Drew has caught Emma off guard. She is upset. It feels wrong. She doesn’t see what is clear to many. She is in a process. She is growing up and this distress is normal.

In the same way, the infant Christian Faith, starting with twelve men and a few women is in process. It has grown and its beliefs have matured. It has faced questions like, how can we apply Jewish ethics to Gentiles (the Apostle Paul)? How can God be both three in one (Augustine)? How do we apply the gospel when an empire falls (The Early Church), Should people read the Bible in their own language (Wycliffe)? Is scripture alone, enough (Luther)? Does the Bible approve of slavery (Wilberforce)?

Conservative Christians, feeling the current pressure to cave into today’s moral problems, want to retreat to a hold-the-fort point of view. For us, any further change must be weakness. So, let us be done with this life, have Jesus take us away, end the world, and rule the Cosmos with Him as Bride and Bridegroom.

Paul tells us we are still a lot like Emma. Emma is too young for marriage, and we are not ready to rule the world. Yes we are in distress, but our current goal is the same one we have had for a long time. Grow up some more. Face today’s issues. Learn from them.

Make a good Christian Faith better.