Heb 5:12 "You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food."
As a member of church leadership, I am ever increasingly becoming more frustrated with the Church, in America, these days. We have so much freedom, so many resources at our disposal and yet we are seeing very little growth when compared to areas that have less freedom and less resources. Could the lack of growth be due to a lack of growth? We of course want to have quantity growth in the church, but when compared to other areas of the world our numbers aren't very impressive. Could this lack of quantity growth be due to a lack of quality growth in the Church. In the verse above, it is speaking to believers that have been around awhile, and yet they weren't growing in the way they should. Why? Because they were malnourished. They were like babies who would only drink milk. This is the majority of the American Church today. Congregation members are refusing to give up the bottle. Our churches have become nurseries and our programs, pacifiers.
If we want to see quantity growth, we have to have quality growth first. We need to get rid of the bottles and start consuming solid food. Our church goers should be able to feed themselves and and others, yet they can't. And when something that requires some chewing is preached on Sunday they revolt and spit it out and throw a fit, demanding the bottle back. It's going to take strong leadership. Leadership that, like a parent taking the bottle from their child, will stand up and preach the full gospel and teach the people of God the things of God, and not back down when someone gets upset that they have to chew. Leadership can't keep letting them go back to the milk. If we withhold the bottle long enough, they'll start to chew. And once they get the nourishment they need they'll grow. And when they grow, they'll mature. Once we see the quality grow, it will cause the quantity grow. Because in maturity the believer would be fulfilling their purpose in the body of Christ and outreach and discipleship would be a by product.
I say this not as though, I myself have come to full maturity or that I am perfectly the church to maturity, but I am striving to be.
"We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me." Colossians 1:28-29
