There comes a time in every teacher-student relationship when it is time for the student to head out on their own as it were.
In almost every aspect of life, we all have to grow up. The parent can no longer hover around their child wringing their hands and fretting how that child will get along without them. There are various and continuous stages of "release": after nine months of gestation, the baby is born and the umbilical cord cut; the child's first day at school; the dreaded day when your child drives off in your car alone for the first time; high school graduation; marriage.
All of these are tremendous steps and hopefully we as parents/teachers have been properly preparing our children to be released so that they can succeed - or possibly fail, but recover - on their own. That's maturity and the maturation process. The same can be said of people who come to Christ. They are babes and have to be nurtured, but for how long? How do we as spiritual parents know when it's time to cut that umbilical and yet retain the relationship? After all, that relationship has changed and matured as well so that hopefully it is a more "filial" relationship; true brothers and sisters in Christ.
This article from "The Resurgence" helps give us clues and guideposts:
"How can leaders tell if they are making mature disciples? Paul gives us three places to look: the heart, the head, and the hands of disciples...."
Continue here via theresurgence.com
