It is in Our Nature to Nurture

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Mark 10:32 am on November 14, 2011 Reply
Tags: Sean Durbin ( 2 )
It is in Our Nature to Nurture
I love learning about the brain. It is so fun to explore the last frontier – to hear from the experts on their latest discoveries of the most densely-packed neural network in the universe! The brain truly is an amazing thing. My latest learnings have revolved around the way our brains (and our entire bodies) crave to nurture and be nurtured.

Studies of eastern European orphanages where babies were essentially not touched (or nurtured) have long proven that nurture is in part what helps us survive – sadly, many of the under-nurtured children died. Being nurtured, as infants and even as adults, helps us cope with the pains and pressures of this world. It tells us we are not alone.

But there is also a deep delight that comes from nurturing! This impulse seems to come with a nuanced maturity (don’t give a 2 year old a tender orchid to care for) but the process of nurturing seems latent in many kids from the earliest years (baby dolls…pets…Farmville!?!) For countless adults it brings a deeper sense of purpose and joy. Nurturing actually boosts the maturity of the one maturing! Suddenly you’re focus is not only on yourself, but on someone else.

And this is the basic function of the Church! To bring people from darkness to light, from immaturity to maturity. As my friend says, “It is the Family of God, with the elders raising up the ‘youngers’.” None of us come to faith and maturity in Jesus Christ on our own, it takes the nurturing and tending of a community bringing us along on the Way of Jesus. And for the elders, the spiritual moms and dads of a church, nurturing others (also called discipleship) is like legal steroids for their own maturity. This is just how it works in God’s family!

So why is it so rare in the American Church today? There is a lot that gets in the way of nurturing – we get side-tracked with budgets, with building campaigns, with so much more. It is simply more dramatic and impressive to see a new education wing built or to spend our efforts writing a better sermon series. These things help in the process of nurturing for some churches, but they ultimately are a sideshow to the real project of the Church – to bring the entire planet into a relationship of delight with their Creator.

And I’d like to think that this organic nurture in the Church is not as rare as we think – it is likely that it just goes on unannounced. With an older woman taking a younger lady out for tea, imparting wisdom and faith to the next generation. This is where the real action is – the unspoken heroes of the faith.
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Web Hosting Provider, Mark W, and H a s h b r o w n are discussing. Toggle Comments
- http://profiles.google.com/unclebutta H a s h b r o w n
  
  This is a great point/topic. I remember a church movement to which I once belonged having bowling get-togethers every other week, where older members and younger members were on mixed teams, hanging out and building relationships. Although people were often drawn to folks in their same age group, there was a degree of elder-to-minor nurturing happening. Some struggles for many church families, sadly–and a topic worth addressing–are having a balance of (1) interacting with regular people (i.e., non-Christians) and interacting with our brethren in the Lord and (2) interacting with our peers who are like us and interacting with wiser/more mature believers.
  Some of us lean heavily towards spending time with our brethren in the
  Lord–and, often times, folks around the same age. Some of us
  lean more heavily towards spending time with regular folks or those new
  to the Church and doing the nurturing. Many churches of whom I’ve been a part have, at the very least, always taken nurturing brand new “converts” seriously–inviting friends and/or volunteers to stay in regular contact with and support them, inviting newly-born-again folks to join small groups, discipleship trainings, Bible studies, various ministry groups, etc. Don’t know if a new model/paradigm is needed for older believers and younger believers to see how spending time together can look (e.g., explicitly teaching someone else’s minors/children, beyond just being a role model, can be a sketchy topic for many)…or if folks just need to follow the Spirit leading them to help raise the next generation.
- http://godgrown.net/blog Mark W
  
  Well said! The two fulcrums you describe are plainly visible in the lives of most Christians. I’m wondering if you see those two tensions (Christian/Non-Christian) and (peer/non-peer) as balances between “good and bad” – what I mean is, are there seasons we need to be with people just like us, and seasons we need to venture out into diversity?
  
  I tend to think that just like the High School lunch room – it is “easier” to sit at the table of folks just like me (nerds, jocks, goths, etc) – this carries over into adulthood too – Chicago’s neighborhoods look a lot like the High School lunch room – just as segregated. This is both beautiful and tragic. When folks hang out with people like them, real cultures are created. But there is rarely transformation and stretching unless heterogeneity is encouraged.
  
  Follow up with me on this – you’ve got my gears turnin’…
- http://www.webhostings.in/ Web Hosting Provider
  
  This is great discussion you have shared here and really great issue..