Musings on Spiritual Matters

Throughout a church member’s life, he or she will have numerous experiences.  These experiences will run from the positive to the negative.  Some church members will grow through these times while others will stay immature.  What is the difference?  Why are some members, elders, ministers, growing into a deeper understanding of the nature of the church and one’s role while others seem to never learn the lessons from experience?  Why do some church members repeat mistakes over and over again?  What is the key to maturing in the church?

Often people feel that experience is the teacher in life.  People state that through experience people will learn valuable lessons.  This is not the case.  Experience is not a teacher, but merely provides the classroom.  The teacher is reflection.

This is consistent with the nature of God.  After God created the world, he did more than rest, he reflected on his world.  God stated, “It is Good.”  God reflected on his experience.

Reflection is the difference between church members that never learn and those that grow.  Elders that reflect are elders that improve the congregation.  Elders that continue to go through the motions without reflection will repeat the mistakes from the past.  Church members will continue in habits and choices that are destructive without proper reflection.  Reflection is God’s tool for growth.  Without reflection, church members cannot learn the valuable lessons that God is teaching through experience.  Reflection is the teacher in life.

Related posts:

1. Review of “What Pastor’s Wish Church Members Knew”
2. Pigs and Church Members
3. Time to Stay
4. Predators Need to Stay
5. Four Emotional Reactions to Church-Church is Problematic

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.