‘A Mature Faith?’
One thing that is becoming clear to me as time goes by is the growing rift between the former ICOC and ICC in terms of the quality of teaching on discipleship and the quality of the conversion process itself. This is evident from the expectation of rank and file members who still keep in touch with me in recent years in spite of my Remnant Rats series, and who discuss the lifestyle their new members are expected to lead. Today’s former ICOC converts, are expected to have an extended period to develop a ‘mature faith’ involving the development of a ‘deep’ relationship with God before they embark on their evangelistic journey. In fact the evangelistic efforts of former ICOC church converts today appears to be quite optional. ICC converts on the other hand are evangelising prior to their baptism and also often involved in the earlier studies of other people coming to faith. Over the last 10 years or so, during which the ICC growth has started to become more obvious, I’ve listened to my former ICOC friends universally blame evangelism for the failure of ICC converts to remain faithful to their Good Confession. They overlook sexual sin, financial compromise and the cult of individualism as the causes of falling away, all of which are the clear reasons documented in Scripture, for falling away. They also grossly exaggerate the ‘pressure’ put on young christians in the 1990s, and at the same time omit to mention all the careful attention paid to encouraging young Christians in their early days in the ICOC between 1979 and 2003 and in the ICC since 2004.

Spiritual Infancy – Is it wrong for new converts to evangelise?
There are pros and cons when considering how spiritually mature parents (1 Cor 4:15) bring up those who are ‘born again’ (John 3:7). It is not possible to seamlessly apply the principles of the natural parenting process, of bringing up a child, from birth to adulthood, to the somewhat similar task of maturing newly baptised adults, because they are actually adult-children. They have already matured from physical infancy, learning to apologise for mistakes and to make wise decisions (sometimes with an absence of guidance from one or both parents and only mistakes to guide them). This is not to say there are no similarities between physical and spiritual children. There is a phrase applied to some children that says ‘they brought themselves up!’. This phrase is usually used to describe a neglected child. In biblical teaching for the newly baptised adults however, there is a legitimate emphasis on the new convert themselves, taking responsibility for having a focus on simple growth.

1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.

This is Peter’s instruction to young disciples. He is telling them to develop a thirst for basic teaching that will give them a great foundation from which to build. The context in this passage is a continuing abstinence from sin as well as specific instructions regarding a variety of pre-existing relationships in the work and family lives of young converts. There is absolutely no timeline constraining young converts to be in the beginner stage for a specific period. Indeed there may be some converts who have already previously acquired life-habits of righteous living that have some or many of the necessary disciplines mentioned by Peter in 1 Peter chapter two. Others may be in life-stages that mean they are already isolated from significant relationships like family, most of the time. This might include university students, soldiers and single professionals already possessing a high degree of integrity in relationships. I will consider, in part two, some high profile examples in the ICC that were able to evangelise and reach numbers of religious and non-religious people before and immediately after baptism! In part three I will look at examples in Scripture. Regardless of the circumstances or level of natural talent of new converts, Peter’s teaching regarding spiritual milk must be balanced with the following passage:

Hebrews 5:13-14 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Contrary to the opinions of many, I do not believe this period of spiritual infancy is a long period of months or years, but for most converts a matter of short weeks and in obvious cases, which I will mention in Part 3, hours or days.

In the ICC we have a period of 40 days where young converts are guided and nurtured through a series of 40 simple daily studies accompanied by a series of doctrinal studies taught one to one, and they graduate with a certificate and attendance at a special celebration (Young Christian Orientation) that includes testimonies and introductions to the Shepherds and leaders of the church where they can ask questions. This formal induction can be supplemented as necessary with the meeting of any person-centred needs.

‘Young’ ICC converts, even during the weeks or short months that they study the Bible will usually begin to share their faith as part of their ‘Christian-walk’ before baptism. This was the same in the ICOC between 1979 and 2003 but I have seen some rare examples of people with acute anxiety disorders, who initially only went out with other people to evangelise but didn’t actually interact themselves. I’ve also been present with one such person several weeks after baptism who jumped in, during an evangelism situation, and invited someone that I was about to invite. They were simply waiting for the right moment and were given all the time they needed to do so. This was standard practice in the church in 1997. To his great joy, this man went on to baptise someone he met personally within his first couple of years as a disciple. That is not the case with most people being converted. They are able to follow the example of people like the Samaritan woman (John 4:29-30) who was quickly sharing her faith and bringing guests without even being told to do it, the thief on the cross who shared his faith during his own crucifixion (Luke 23:40), or like the demon possessed man, who went off (without training, or time to heal or mature!) on his own, and shared his faith around ten cities to all the people’s amazement (Mark 5:20) and other remarkable examples in the Scriptures. The Scriptures describe people who take away our excuses and destroy the false doctrine of ‘prolonged maturity’ .

The ICC does not believe in raising a generation of man-Childs who shirk responsibility and live dependent on their parents until middle age only to marry a surrogate mother-wife.

No, the ICC expects toddlers to learn how to walk. We will help our ‘little-ones’ to develop through their key stages of development at their natural biblical pace and encourage and celebrate them at each point. They will thereby develop into the men and women they were meant to be. Disciples, making disciples.

Sadly you will often hear former ICOC members and today’s members of former ICOC churches blame this practice of helping people to share their faith early on in their walk with God, for the failure of some, to stay faithful. This is a highly presumptuous view ignoring huge volumes of scripture that clearly explains falling away from God. I will cover this more specifically in part two. It is clearly born out of a fear of the views of those very persons who have left the army of God as they often make the same claims. It’s hard to admit that one fell away as a result of issues with sex, money or power and so much easier to blame evangelism! The truth about young Christians evangelising is so different. Sharing your faith strengthens your convictions (Philemon 1:6), and in fact there are many people even in the former ICOC churches who were raised spiritually with this method and who are still going to church today and yet, at the same time, claiming that young Christian’s sharing their faith is a reason why so many fell away in the past. I will not repeat all my Bible studies here on these topics but anyone currently excusing falling away, as a result of evangelism, who wants to escape that mindset, should read my earlier Bible study articles and closely examine the ‘Remnant Rats’ survey of the whole Bible on the topic. It took me almost two years to study this out at the time of writing.

Accelerated growth of Adult Children
If mature disciples are raising adult-children, there can often be a very natural increased rate of development from the normal human growth rate. Take the example of the fawn from nature. Baby deer can stand within 10 minutes to suckle their mothers milk and in fact benefit from standing for this very reason. The fawn can walk within 7 hours and outrun most predators within 2 weeks.

Examples like this from nature are suited to Christian converts who are born again, able to walk, talk, run, work a job, raise a family and take care of the needs of others and take part in complex social and intellectual interactions. They are born with an exceptional level of developed talent and skill already, and the maturing process is in fact very rapid in many cases.

This is why we see the following admonition in Hebrews Chapter 5:

Hebrews 5:11-14 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Even though there is no actual defined time limit in Scripture for the immature stage, here we have a mature leader writing to Christians pointing out that it was certainly long overdue that they would enter into maturity and there is a quite specific definition of the immature stage given in the verses that follow.

Hebrews 6:1-3 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement. And God permitting, we will do so.

Biblically, there is a very short list of topics that, during immaturity, young converts need to grapple with. This list might come as a surprise to many members of the former ICOC churches. Not only is the list short but it also includes topics that would be included in the conversion process such as sin, repentance and baptism, suggesting then, that part of the immature stage, is the period when people are becoming disciples and learning the gospel, which again, can be a matter of shorts or long weeks or even long months in rarer cases. It is also possible however to reinforce these conversion topics after baptism by being in the conversion studies of other immature disciples preparing for baptism. And so contrary to the closely held view of my former ICOC friends being involved with other people, studying the Bible is actually halfway between a stage of immaturity, and learning to teach. It is in fact a life long commitment of all disciples to make disciples (Matt 18:19-20). There is literally no negative by-product of being in Bible studies with non-Christians. It is a constant reminder of how good we have it in the church. It is a challenge to remember where we ourselves came from.

Philemon 1:6
I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.

Those who hate the church and who slander and attack the church together with those who are afraid to stand up to them, try to make out that evangelism is evil. They make the false claim repeatedly that teaching young converts to spread the gospel is evil. They try to attack the very plan of God at it’s strongest point. They put huge effort into this argument to try to get the movement of God to agree to SHUT UP. But not only are we unafraid of our critics, we actually love evangelism. We learn to love it. It is a privilege to be given the task of being a co-worker with Christ and it is not reserved for the clergy but for every single believer.

Therefore one of the greatest errors that persists amongst the former ICOC churches today is the opinion that it takes a much longer period of time to reach maturity. Those I have spoken to for decades and even recently are themselves still professing to be faithful disciples (born and raised in the ICOC) but strongly claim that they or others were pushed too fast to do things like share their faith and lead bible studies, bring guests to church, set up studies and baptise people themselves. The position that these ministry activities are only for much older Christians is simply not backed up with Scripture. Moreover it means that those that will now be baptised in the former ICOC churches will have a very stunted growth and a very low expectation of what they are able to do in their Christian walk. Converts similar to Paul or Apollos will find it difficult to grow up quickly in the Lord. Women like the Samaritan woman or people like the thief on the cross will struggle with being held back due to their spiritual age. The ICOC theology will disable their disciples. In fact we have had multiple examples where the former ICOC churches have baptised someone who has ended up attending the ICC and has needed to be baptised again because they realised that in actual fact the standard of their conversion was so low that they never actually became a disciple. These are facts.

In the second part of my article I will survey the biblical reason for falling away and deeper biblical teaching on maturity and maturation.