Then, there’s the follow up; “When do I become one?”  That last question runs a little closer to the surface and it’s much more substantive.  Abstract descriptions of maturity give way  to “When will I be allowed to drive with my friends in the car, ?”  “How late can I stay out?,” and any number of other perplexing issues. This kind of stuff can un-balance even the most carefully crafted household equilibrium. 

Honestly, I think it may be harder these days to figure out when people are really grown up. Cultural boundary markers of adulthood have been delayed, or have gotten rather fuzzy. Think about it; what, if any, are the clear rights of passage for young people in American culture? Fewer people are getting married, and those who do tend to do it much later. The average age for males is 28 and for females, it’s 26.  Is it moving away from home? Colleges are struggling with the phenomenon of “helicopter parents.” Cell phones have provided cheap, constant contact between these young adults and their parents.  These parents have become  more likely to call the school about their child’s roommate, or professors about their kids’ grades. More and more young people are living with their parents, even after getting full time work or graduating from college.  It’s hard to blame them. So many come out of college with so much debt that living at home is the only thing that makes sense.

As I sit here, I’m realizing that these examples don’t even scratch the surface of how complex this has become.  It seems like we live in a time when we are in desperate need of grown-ups, and there are fewer and fewer real  grown-ups to go around. Here’s the kicker—I’m supposed to be one of them. When did that happen?

If maturity is elusive in the broader culture, its not surprising that the same thing is true of believers. What is a mature Christ-follower? How does one become one of those? Why would one want to become one of those? I think these are some pretty good questions that deserve some good thinking and some clear answers.

The apostle Paul gives us something like a mission statement of his team:

…that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. (Colossians 1:28-29)

In Ephesians, he sums up the work and direction of the the Church like this:
…that the body of Christ may be built up  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.                     (Ephesians 4:12b-13)
Spiritual grown-ups; that is what our friend Paul is striving for and what all the stuff we do at church is supposed to produce.
What does this look like? Throughout the centuries, Christian leaders from Thomas A’Kempis (The Imitation of Christ, 1441) to Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Life, 2001) have tried to draw a picture of it (both are good reads). But simply put, Christian maturity looks like Jesus. Its goal, Paul says, is “attaining the whole measure of the fulness of Christ.” I’m sure that writing those books took a couple of years, and, oddly enough, writing that book doesn’t fit into my schedule today. After all, it’s Friday and Sunday’s coming. What needs to fit in today, however, is surrendering myself to the work of God’s Spirit to restore me and re-create me so that my life reflects Jesus. What constitues Christian maturity is perhaps a complex topic. But what all definitions of maturity contain is the component of a process of growth. And isn’t it true that of the truly mature people you know, every one of them is still growing?
Yours for the Journey,
Pastor Tom 
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.
Philippians 3:12-15a.