From Here to Maturity: Overcoming the Juvenilization of American Christianity

by Thomas E. Bergler

Expert guidance on how to grow up in Christ This book is a follow-up to Thomas Bergler’s acclaimed work The Juvenilization of American Christianity, which documents how church youth ministries over the past several decades have contributed to a process of adolescent spiritual traits becoming accepted and even celebrated by Christians of all ages. This “juvenilization” in the church is a real problem that must be addressed, says Bergler, and in his new book he addresses it head-on. Bergler’s From Here to Maturity is an accessible guide for helping both individuals and whole faith communities to grow spiritually. Bergler claims that spiritual maturity -- defined as “basic competence in the Christian life” -- is both desirable and attainable, and he effectively presents a biblical theology of spiritual maturity, identifying its traits from pertinent New Testament passages. Adapting Dallas Willard’s model of spiritual formation and applying it to congregational life, Bergler offers a wealth of practical, research-based guidance as to how Christian leaders can effectively foster spiritual maturity in their congregations. He also identifies six key faith-sustaining factors and provides a system for evaluating a church’s state of spiritual maturity and steps for improving it. Ecumenically friendly, From Here to Maturity will be useful to individuals and leaders from many different churches and theological traditions.

Genres: Christian, Theology, Faith, Christianity, Cultural

191 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 2014

Reviews

[Jake Each · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the first three chapters the most edifying. This could serve as a great discussion starter for church leaders to discuss the issue of spiritual maturity in the church, which is a needed discussion.

[Mike Bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with most everything in the book. American culture is overly focused on youth and pushes people into youth status too early in life and wants them to hang on to that way too long. Youth are glorified, and mature adults are marginalized. The book says the answer for Christians is to encourage people to learn and enact basic Christianity to become mature, then continue to strive for Christlikeness the rest of their lives.

Dr. Bergler reviews a lot of good studies that illustrate the problem and gives a lot of good general advice on how to improve. Periodically, there are solid, practical examples

However, I often found the book too general and taking a long time to work through obvious things. There is not a solid, concrete, comprehensive definition of spiritual maturity. In trying to include all orthodox streams of Christianity and all local church situations, the message is overly diluted. The book does not make a clean distinction between basic spiritual maturity and ongoing sanctification. The former is accomplished by youth or newcomer catechesis in providing people with a solid grounding in their faith. The latter is a lifelong pursuit of going ever deeper. The book mostly seems to focus on the former, but the latter is often mixed in.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid and eminently practical (maybe too practical for some people's tastes, actually). I really appreciate the biblical (New Testament) thematic overview of "spiritual maturity" and the steady discussion of what that may look like in a congregational context. There is one section with a serious critique of "slow dance" worship music, and I actually would have liked more examples of this kind of critique/analysis.

In general, this is an excellent supplement to the first volume, and in some ways I wish they were published as a single book. I appreciated the historical work in the first one, but this volume spoke a bit more directly to some of my questions, and helped me wrestle through the theme of "maturity" quite a bit more. I highly recommend that ministers and ministry-leaders read both.

[Bradley Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful in thinking through maturity goals for churches, particularly youth ministries. Might not agree all the time with the specifics of his solution or strategy, but he writes in such a way that you can adapt the overall message. Highly recommended.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it but it wasn't as strong as his first offering. Lengthier review forthcoming.