Immature vs. Mature Christian Faith

What is mature Christian faith? Below are some thoughts presented by the late John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement.


We can measure disciples by the way they think. Following Jesus should affect our thought patterns. Are the people you’re training thinking in disciplese? The fundamentals of the gospel become more important to a committed disciple’s spiritual life as the heart and lungs are to this physical body. The following statements sketch the differences in those who have an immature faith, and those who have a mature Christian faith.

IMMATURE FAITH
Good Christians don’t have pain or disappointment.
MATURE FAITH
God uses our pain and disappointment to make us better Christians.

IMMATURE FAITH
The closer we get to God, the more perfect we become.
MATURE FAITH
The closer we get to God, the more we become aware of our own sinfulness.

IMMATURE FAITH
God helps those who help themselves.
MATURE FAITH
God helps those who admit their own helplessness.

IMMATURE FAITH
God wants to make us happy.
MATURE FAITH
God wants to make us into the image of Jesus.

IMMATURE FAITH
Faith will help us always explain what God is doing.
MATURE FAITH
Faith helps us stand under God’s sovereignty even when we have no idea what God is doing.

IMMATURE FAITH
Mature Christians have answers.
MATURE FAITH
Mature Christians can wrestle honestly with tough questions because we trust that God has the answers.

IMMATURE FAITH
Good Christians are always strong.
MATURE FAITH
Our strength is admitting our weakness.

IMMATURE FAITH
We go to church because our friends are there,we have great leaders, and we get something out of it.
MATTURE FAITH
We go to church because we belong to the body of Christ.


We want to engender a deep spirituality in our disciples that rejects a facile triumphalism. Disciples realize there will be hard times ahead. The journey we’re on is fraught with pain, difficulties, and the onslaughts of the enemy. Mature Christian’s also learn we can benefit from trials. From my reading of the Bible (and church history), Christianity doesn’t guarantee heaven here on earth. We’re going to Heaven- But we may go through hell here on this earth!

Maturity doesn’t not automatically come with the passage of years; some of the people we work with may be spiritually much younger than their chronological age. A prayer I pray often is: “Lord, let me grow up, before I grow old.”