Why do we do this? So often the answer I have been given and have read from pastors is a pragmatic answer. We hear some combination of the following: Doctrine is difficult for people to understand. Unbelievers don’t have the ability to understand deep theology. And we want to win them to Jesus. I have to work within my context. These pragmatic answers tend to make us emotional and sympathetic toward the mission. However, the mission of God is not opposed to the Bible. 

Delayed adolescence is a reality in American families. There is no disputing the massive increase in number of young people that choose to live with their parents late into their 20′s and in some cases into their 30′s. Insurance companies have taken notice of this and have extended coverage of “children” well into the mid to late 20′s. There is no surprise then that while adolescence is prolonged the expreriences that correspond with being an adult are decreasing. Marriages are decreasing while video games sales are increasing. The delayed adolescence of the American youth is a fascinating and increasingly troubling trend.

But I am not a sociologist. I am a pastor. My concern is with the attitude and culture of delayed adolescence in the church. More specifically, I am not here thinking primarily about the evangelical culture that tends to awkwardly squirm away from and therefore curiously mute the conversation of male leadership in the church. I am thinking far more broadly than even this, to the philosophy and theological vision of churches that cultivate and promote a delayed doctrinal adolescence in the church.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read these somewhat shocking words:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

This is straightforward and blunt. The writer is reminding his readers that they are not doing what needs to be done. They are not developing doctrinally like they should. They should know the foundations and be digging deeper to grow in their understanding and application of truth (wisdom and discernment). Instead they are playing in the theological sandbox.

As a pastor I recognize that this falls on the shoulders of the teaching pastor and elders in a congregation. Instead of serving up doctrinal meals each week, establishing a culture where Christians (men in particular) are expected to put in the work to grow, and facilitating ministry to utilize gospel growth—pastors are burping spiritual babies and continuing to feed them blended pears and soft crackers.

Why do we do this? So often the answer I have been given and have read from pastors is a pragmatic answer. We hear some combination of the following:

Doctrine is difficult for people to understand.

Unbelievers don’t have the ability to understand deep theology. And we want to win them to Jesus.

I have to work within my context.

These pragmatic answers tend to make us emotional and sympathetic toward the mission. However, the mission of God is not opposed to the Bible. God would not call you to do something that he did not support and prepare you for. Doctrine and indeed theology are essential to the development of the church and reaching of the lost. Let me give you some examples.

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