| “BEYOND PETER PAN CHRISTIANITY” (Fifth in a series on “Member Privileges”) Matthew 7:24-29; Ephesians 4:7, 11-16 Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA, © Rev. Linda Jaymes, 3/21/2010 |
Today we come to the last of the five primary purposes of every church, which is discipleship. In addition to worship,
ministry, fellowship and evangelism, the church exists to edify and educate God’s people in the knowledge and ways of Jesus
Christ so that we can become more like Him in our thoughts, words and actions. Discipleship is that whole process by which
believers “grow up” into Christ. Hopefully, through preaching and through the educational opportunities the church provides in
Sunday School classes and Bible studies, we are all growing and building on the foundation of our faith, namely, Jesus Christ.
But I want to emphasize that discipleship is much more than receiving knowledge and information about God. We could
compile all the information in the world about God; we could memorize the Bible; we could even understand the Bible and
theology so well as to teach others—and yet not really be mature disciples of Jesus. For that to happen, for us to possess a
faith that is alive and continually growing toward maturity, we not only have to learn but we have to put into practice what we
learn. We have to test it out on each other and on the rest of the world. Discipleship is not just education on the theoretical
level, although that is important. I’m certainly not suggesting that Sunday School and Bible Study are unimportant or even
optional for believers. But education and experience—theory and practice—need to work together, so that we are continually
growing not only in knowledge but also in faith and Christian maturity. Discipleship includes being both hearers and doers of
the word of God.
As you can already guess by the sermon title, this whole concept of discipleship or growing up into Christ is one which
meets with some resistance in the Church. In every age, in every church, there are what we might call “Peter Pan Christians.”
They never grow up into Christ. Whether they are even aware of it or not, they seem to have the same attitude toward growing
into Christ that Peter Pan had toward growing into adulthood. Peter Pan quite openly said, “I don’t want ever to be a man. I
want always to be a little boy and have fun. I don’t want to go to school and learn solemn things…no one is going to catch
me and make me a man.” 1 When you finally get to the end of Peter’s story, he still hasn’t grown up. Whole generations
have come and gone, but Peter is still a child. In fact, he never even loses his baby teeth.
Unfortunately, many of us have the same attitude when it comes to our faith. We don’t want to do the hard work of
discipleship in order to become more like Christ. In fact, if statistics can be trusted, this “Peter Pan Syndrome” may be even
worse than we think. One online source that attempts to interpret the statistics of a recent Barna survey says,
“Barna’s findings related to Bible knowledge and application indicate that little progress, if any, is being made toward
assisting people to become more biblically literate.
“Bible reading has become the religious equivalent of sound-bite journalism. When people read from the Bible they
typically open it, read a brief passage without much regard for the context, and consider the primary thought or feeling that
the passage provided. If they are comfortable with it, they accept it; otherwise, they deem it interesting but irrelevant to their
life, and move on. There is shockingly little growth evident in people’s understanding of the fundamental themes of the
scriptures and amazingly little interest in deepening their knowledge and application of biblical principles.
These comments were based on some alarming statistics Barna compiled, such as
--Only 19% of born again adults have a biblical worldview (unchanged in the past 15 years)
--Only half of all who call themselves Christians firmly believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles that
it teaches (not the facts, just the principles)
--Barely one-quarter of adults (27%) are confident that Satan exists
--An overwhelming majority of self-identified Christians (81%) contend that spiritual maturity is achieved by following the
rules in the Bible”
The most glaring conclusion that I draw from these very inconsistent numbers is that a great many so-called Christians
aren’t interested in growing in Christ. They may acknowledge that maturity comes by obeying scripture, but only half actually
believe in what scripture teaches! It reminds me of an earlier survey that revealed that only 42% of Christians know who
preached the Sermon on the Mount and 12% think the name of Noah’s wife is Joan of Arc!
No wonder one expert in church growth (Bill Easum) says that a great majority of church members have not grown
spiritually since they were confirmed as teenagers. Perhaps they are still attending church but they are no farther along in
biblical understanding and Christian maturity than when they first committed their lives to Christ. Instead of actively standing
on the promises they’re just sitting on the premises. And if you look around you it’s clear to see that some aren’t even sitting
on the premises anymore. They have disconnected from the church entirely, with the mistaken idea that as soon as we are old
enough to profess our faith and become church members, we are done; we have arrived. It reminds me of the joke about the
three country pastors who were bothered by bats in their sanctuaries. Neither shooting them or trapping them and releasing
them miles away had any effect. They kept coming back. Only by baptizing and confirming the bats did they get rid of them
for good!
Unfortunately, that is only funny when it applies to bats. It’s not funny when believers think that once they are baptized
and confirmed they are “done.” The truth is that baptism is only the beginning. Acknowledging what God has done for us in
Christ and receiving Him as Savior and Lord is the beginning and foundation of our faith. But if we talk about a foundation, it is
implied that some kind of building will follow. No one builds a foundation as an end in itself. A foundation is incomplete
without the rest of the house or building.
Today we read the parable of the wise and foolish builders, which Jesus told after preaching the Sermon on the Mount.
(And in case you were among the 58% who didn’t know who gave that sermon, well, now you do!) That sermon covered at
least 26 points, if you include the beatitudes, all of which could be considered basic discipleship education. But Jesus didn’t
leave it at that. He closed that sermon by saying that those who hear his words and put them into practice are like wise builders
who build on a rock. That way, when storms come, their houses are secure. In contrast, those who hear his words and do
nothing are like foolish builders who build upon the sand. When storms come, their houses are destroyed. They fall with a
great crash.
One of the interesting things about this parable is the fact that apparently, both the wise and the foolish builders are
believers. Both groups have heard and assented to or agreed with what Jesus taught them—at least on an intellectual level. But
what distinguishes the wise believers from the foolish ones is whether they put into practice what they have heard and learned.
Those who have acted on their faith end up with a solid house because they have built it on a strong foundation: Christ. But
those who don’t act on their faith aren’t really following Jesus. They can’t claim to be disciples. They disregard the solid
foundation offered by Christ and go off and build their houses on sand. How foolish can you get! In the same way, we would
be fools to think that we can get beyond a very superficial Christianity unless we both believe and practice the teachings of
Jesus. Christ never intended for us to merely sit on the foundation, but to build something on it, something strong enough to
withstand all of the storms of life.
Maybe it would help us to think about discipleship in terms of human development. We start out as babies, but we aren’t
supposed to stay that way. If a baby doesn’t grow properly and move through all the stages of childhood into responsible
adulthood, something isn’t right and that is a very sad thing, indeed. We immediately recognize that this precious life has not
become what it was meant to be. In the same way, we start out as babies in our faith, but we aren’t meant to be spiritual
babies forever. God’s hope and desire for us is that we grow up and become all we can be in Christ. He doesn’t want us to be
spiritual infants, blown about in our faith by every storm and every wind of teaching that sounds new or exciting or easy. God
wants us to grow up into Christ, who is the Head of the Body—the Church. And that happens through discipleship, as we
speak the truth in love, as we support one another the way our ligaments help to hold our muscles and bones together, and as
we use our gifts in service, building up the body until we all come to unity in the faith and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And although we aren’t all called to teach or preach, we are called to learn. We are to learn of Christ, and we are to learn how
to use the gifts He has given us. The more we learn and practice what we learn, the more able we are to help others learn.
That’s how the body grows and builds itself up in love, as each part grows up and matures and does the work that God always
meant for it to do. We have to move beyond a Peter Pan Christianity if we hope to grow up into mature believers.
Growing into Christ never ends. There is always more to learn, more to do. And that’s wonderful news. God is never
done with us; there is always another bend in the road, another of God’s truths to be discovered, another challenge to master,
another hill to climb and a new, breathtaking view to enjoy. Peter Pan was wrong to think that only by remaining a child could
he have fun. Wise Christians know that the real joy comes when we get beyond Peter Pan Christianity, and grow up, more
and more, into Christ. That’s a precious privilege of membership in his Body, where we worship because we are called to
believe; we fellowship because we are called to belong. We minister because we are called to bless; we do evangelism
because we are called to bring the gospel to others. And we grow through discipleship because we are called to build up the
body of Christ.
These are the main purposes of the Church. These are our member privileges.
The question for each of us is, “Are we taking full advantage of membership, or are we just sitting on the foundation?” Maybe
it’s time to shed those baby teeth and take those first steps toward growing up into the fullness of maturity in Christ. It’s never
too soon or too late to build our spiritual house on the foundation of salvation in Jesus Christ, and there’s always building help
here, if you need it. Whether you are new to the faith or have been a believer for years, the important thing is to keep building
regardless of the development stage you are in. Don’t avoid taking the next step because you’re afraid people will find out how
much you don’t know. We are all learning and growing together, and we’re not here to judge or ridicule but to encourage and
support one another and learn from one another as we mature.
I ran across a challenging poem by a man named Wilbur Reese. He writes with biting sarcasm:
“I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
But just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don't want enough of him to make me love a black man
Or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack.
I'd like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
How much of God do you want?”
Do we want God so much that we are ready and willing to grow up into Christ? I hope and pray that we will all choose to
grow beyond Peter Pan Christianity; beyond “$3 worth of God or a pound of the eternal in a paper sack.” God wants so
much more for us, and we would be very foolish builders indeed, to ever settle for less.
Let us pray.
1. Peter Pan: Book by James M. Barrie, Scottish children's writer and dramatist, published 1928. Born 1860. Died 1937.
ministry, fellowship and evangelism, the church exists to edify and educate God’s people in the knowledge and ways of Jesus
Christ so that we can become more like Him in our thoughts, words and actions. Discipleship is that whole process by which
believers “grow up” into Christ. Hopefully, through preaching and through the educational opportunities the church provides in
Sunday School classes and Bible studies, we are all growing and building on the foundation of our faith, namely, Jesus Christ.
But I want to emphasize that discipleship is much more than receiving knowledge and information about God. We could
compile all the information in the world about God; we could memorize the Bible; we could even understand the Bible and
theology so well as to teach others—and yet not really be mature disciples of Jesus. For that to happen, for us to possess a
faith that is alive and continually growing toward maturity, we not only have to learn but we have to put into practice what we
learn. We have to test it out on each other and on the rest of the world. Discipleship is not just education on the theoretical
level, although that is important. I’m certainly not suggesting that Sunday School and Bible Study are unimportant or even
optional for believers. But education and experience—theory and practice—need to work together, so that we are continually
growing not only in knowledge but also in faith and Christian maturity. Discipleship includes being both hearers and doers of
the word of God.
As you can already guess by the sermon title, this whole concept of discipleship or growing up into Christ is one which
meets with some resistance in the Church. In every age, in every church, there are what we might call “Peter Pan Christians.”
They never grow up into Christ. Whether they are even aware of it or not, they seem to have the same attitude toward growing
into Christ that Peter Pan had toward growing into adulthood. Peter Pan quite openly said, “I don’t want ever to be a man. I
want always to be a little boy and have fun. I don’t want to go to school and learn solemn things…no one is going to catch
me and make me a man.” 1 When you finally get to the end of Peter’s story, he still hasn’t grown up. Whole generations
have come and gone, but Peter is still a child. In fact, he never even loses his baby teeth.
Unfortunately, many of us have the same attitude when it comes to our faith. We don’t want to do the hard work of
discipleship in order to become more like Christ. In fact, if statistics can be trusted, this “Peter Pan Syndrome” may be even
worse than we think. One online source that attempts to interpret the statistics of a recent Barna survey says,
“Barna’s findings related to Bible knowledge and application indicate that little progress, if any, is being made toward
assisting people to become more biblically literate.
“Bible reading has become the religious equivalent of sound-bite journalism. When people read from the Bible they
typically open it, read a brief passage without much regard for the context, and consider the primary thought or feeling that
the passage provided. If they are comfortable with it, they accept it; otherwise, they deem it interesting but irrelevant to their
life, and move on. There is shockingly little growth evident in people’s understanding of the fundamental themes of the
scriptures and amazingly little interest in deepening their knowledge and application of biblical principles.
These comments were based on some alarming statistics Barna compiled, such as
--Only 19% of born again adults have a biblical worldview (unchanged in the past 15 years)
--Only half of all who call themselves Christians firmly believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles that
it teaches (not the facts, just the principles)
--Barely one-quarter of adults (27%) are confident that Satan exists
--An overwhelming majority of self-identified Christians (81%) contend that spiritual maturity is achieved by following the
rules in the Bible”
The most glaring conclusion that I draw from these very inconsistent numbers is that a great many so-called Christians
aren’t interested in growing in Christ. They may acknowledge that maturity comes by obeying scripture, but only half actually
believe in what scripture teaches! It reminds me of an earlier survey that revealed that only 42% of Christians know who
preached the Sermon on the Mount and 12% think the name of Noah’s wife is Joan of Arc!
No wonder one expert in church growth (Bill Easum) says that a great majority of church members have not grown
spiritually since they were confirmed as teenagers. Perhaps they are still attending church but they are no farther along in
biblical understanding and Christian maturity than when they first committed their lives to Christ. Instead of actively standing
on the promises they’re just sitting on the premises. And if you look around you it’s clear to see that some aren’t even sitting
on the premises anymore. They have disconnected from the church entirely, with the mistaken idea that as soon as we are old
enough to profess our faith and become church members, we are done; we have arrived. It reminds me of the joke about the
three country pastors who were bothered by bats in their sanctuaries. Neither shooting them or trapping them and releasing
them miles away had any effect. They kept coming back. Only by baptizing and confirming the bats did they get rid of them
for good!
Unfortunately, that is only funny when it applies to bats. It’s not funny when believers think that once they are baptized
and confirmed they are “done.” The truth is that baptism is only the beginning. Acknowledging what God has done for us in
Christ and receiving Him as Savior and Lord is the beginning and foundation of our faith. But if we talk about a foundation, it is
implied that some kind of building will follow. No one builds a foundation as an end in itself. A foundation is incomplete
without the rest of the house or building.
Today we read the parable of the wise and foolish builders, which Jesus told after preaching the Sermon on the Mount.
(And in case you were among the 58% who didn’t know who gave that sermon, well, now you do!) That sermon covered at
least 26 points, if you include the beatitudes, all of which could be considered basic discipleship education. But Jesus didn’t
leave it at that. He closed that sermon by saying that those who hear his words and put them into practice are like wise builders
who build on a rock. That way, when storms come, their houses are secure. In contrast, those who hear his words and do
nothing are like foolish builders who build upon the sand. When storms come, their houses are destroyed. They fall with a
great crash.
One of the interesting things about this parable is the fact that apparently, both the wise and the foolish builders are
believers. Both groups have heard and assented to or agreed with what Jesus taught them—at least on an intellectual level. But
what distinguishes the wise believers from the foolish ones is whether they put into practice what they have heard and learned.
Those who have acted on their faith end up with a solid house because they have built it on a strong foundation: Christ. But
those who don’t act on their faith aren’t really following Jesus. They can’t claim to be disciples. They disregard the solid
foundation offered by Christ and go off and build their houses on sand. How foolish can you get! In the same way, we would
be fools to think that we can get beyond a very superficial Christianity unless we both believe and practice the teachings of
Jesus. Christ never intended for us to merely sit on the foundation, but to build something on it, something strong enough to
withstand all of the storms of life.
Maybe it would help us to think about discipleship in terms of human development. We start out as babies, but we aren’t
supposed to stay that way. If a baby doesn’t grow properly and move through all the stages of childhood into responsible
adulthood, something isn’t right and that is a very sad thing, indeed. We immediately recognize that this precious life has not
become what it was meant to be. In the same way, we start out as babies in our faith, but we aren’t meant to be spiritual
babies forever. God’s hope and desire for us is that we grow up and become all we can be in Christ. He doesn’t want us to be
spiritual infants, blown about in our faith by every storm and every wind of teaching that sounds new or exciting or easy. God
wants us to grow up into Christ, who is the Head of the Body—the Church. And that happens through discipleship, as we
speak the truth in love, as we support one another the way our ligaments help to hold our muscles and bones together, and as
we use our gifts in service, building up the body until we all come to unity in the faith and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And although we aren’t all called to teach or preach, we are called to learn. We are to learn of Christ, and we are to learn how
to use the gifts He has given us. The more we learn and practice what we learn, the more able we are to help others learn.
That’s how the body grows and builds itself up in love, as each part grows up and matures and does the work that God always
meant for it to do. We have to move beyond a Peter Pan Christianity if we hope to grow up into mature believers.
Growing into Christ never ends. There is always more to learn, more to do. And that’s wonderful news. God is never
done with us; there is always another bend in the road, another of God’s truths to be discovered, another challenge to master,
another hill to climb and a new, breathtaking view to enjoy. Peter Pan was wrong to think that only by remaining a child could
he have fun. Wise Christians know that the real joy comes when we get beyond Peter Pan Christianity, and grow up, more
and more, into Christ. That’s a precious privilege of membership in his Body, where we worship because we are called to
believe; we fellowship because we are called to belong. We minister because we are called to bless; we do evangelism
because we are called to bring the gospel to others. And we grow through discipleship because we are called to build up the
body of Christ.
These are the main purposes of the Church. These are our member privileges.
The question for each of us is, “Are we taking full advantage of membership, or are we just sitting on the foundation?” Maybe
it’s time to shed those baby teeth and take those first steps toward growing up into the fullness of maturity in Christ. It’s never
too soon or too late to build our spiritual house on the foundation of salvation in Jesus Christ, and there’s always building help
here, if you need it. Whether you are new to the faith or have been a believer for years, the important thing is to keep building
regardless of the development stage you are in. Don’t avoid taking the next step because you’re afraid people will find out how
much you don’t know. We are all learning and growing together, and we’re not here to judge or ridicule but to encourage and
support one another and learn from one another as we mature.
I ran across a challenging poem by a man named Wilbur Reese. He writes with biting sarcasm:
“I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
But just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don't want enough of him to make me love a black man
Or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack.
I'd like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
How much of God do you want?”
Do we want God so much that we are ready and willing to grow up into Christ? I hope and pray that we will all choose to
grow beyond Peter Pan Christianity; beyond “$3 worth of God or a pound of the eternal in a paper sack.” God wants so
much more for us, and we would be very foolish builders indeed, to ever settle for less.
Let us pray.
1. Peter Pan: Book by James M. Barrie, Scottish children's writer and dramatist, published 1928. Born 1860. Died 1937.
