Spiritual Mom’s & Dad’s - Pastor Tim

August 30, 2026 | Pastor Tim Spirk | 1 Corinthians 4:15–16

There is no shortage of teachers, coaches, and mentors in the world. A good mentor can help you grow in a specific skill, sharpen a particular area of your life, and point you in a better direction. That's valuable. But it's not the same as having a spiritual parent.

Paul makes the distinction plainly in 1 Corinthians 4:15: "For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers." A tutor helps you grow in one area. A father — or a mother — invests in the whole person. That's a different kind of relationship. And it's one the church desperately needs more of.

Jack Hayford once said: "Godly growth is a providential journey of becoming what we already are." Spiritual parents are the people God uses to help us get there.

Spiritual Parents Create Family

God's design has always been family. Psalm 68:6 says He sets the lonely in families — and that's not just a statement about biological households. It's a description of what the church is supposed to be.

Healthy parents love unconditionally. They create a secure atmosphere where growth is possible because failure isn't fatal. They don't just teach — they make room. They hold space for people to become.

Paul describes this beautifully in 1 Thessalonians 2:7–8: "As a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children, in the same way we had a fond affection for you and were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us."

He didn't just preach to them. He shared his life with them. He was, in every meaningful sense, a mother and a father to many — knowing when to nurture and when to correct, when to hold close and when to push forward.

That's what spiritual parenting looks like.

Spiritual Parents Pass On What They've Learned

One of the most striking details in Paul's relationship with Timothy is how early it started. 2 Timothy 3:15 mentions that Timothy had known the Holy Scriptures from infancy — the original word describes a child still nursing. While Timothy was being held as a baby, his Jewish mother was already speaking Scripture over him, even before she herself had come to faith in Jesus.

From the very beginning, someone was investing in him.

That's the picture Paul paints in 2 Timothy 2:2: "You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others." What you carry doesn't end with you. Whatever you've learned — about God, about life, about surviving hard seasons — can be passed on.

A gardener once said: "When I plant a tree, I'm not just planting for me. I'm planting for another generation."

That's the posture of a spiritual parent. They plant knowing they may not see the full fruit. And they plant anyway.

Spiritual Parents Call Their Sons and Daughters Higher

One of the most powerful things a spiritual parent does is refuse to let their spiritual children settle. Paul's letters to Timothy are full of this. He writes in 2 Timothy 1:6–7 to "rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of, and keep burning the gracious gift of God" that was placed in Timothy through the laying on of hands. He goes on: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity... but a spirit of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control."

Timothy had access to something powerful. Paul wouldn't let him forget it — or shrink from it.

Relationships give us access to speak into the lives of our spiritual children in ways that a stage or a sermon simply can't. That kind of voice — personal, trusted, and consistent — has the power to reach places that nothing else can.

When Timothy was overwhelmed during a season of persecution, Paul didn't sympathize his way into silence. He charged him before God and Jesus Christ to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching." (2 Timothy 4:1–2)

That's love. Hard, clear, unwavering love from someone who believed in Timothy more than Timothy believed in himself.

Spiritual Parents Release Their Sons and Daughters

Here's where it gets really beautiful — and really costly for the parent.

Philippians 2:19–23 shows us Paul sending Timothy out. Not just to run an errand, but to go as a true representative. Paul says receiving Timothy was like receiving Paul himself. The Holy Spirit had prompted Paul to add Timothy to his apostolic team — and eventually, Paul released him. Timothy went from spiritual son to colleague.

That's the goal. Spiritual parents don't raise spiritual children to keep them close and dependent. They raise them to be sent. To take risks. To succeed, to fail, and to get back up. To eventually surpass their teachers.

The question Paul implicitly asks — and that every believer needs to sit with — is this: Who is your assignment?

Who is God placing in your path to pour into? Who needs you to be a father or mother to them, not just a tutor? Who is waiting for someone to share not just the gospel but their actual life?

A Closing Thought

The church has no shortage of good content. We have sermons, podcasts, books, and Bible studies in abundance. What is rarer — and more needed — is the person who will simply show up for someone. Who will bring them into their life. Who will sit with them in the hard seasons, call them up when they're shrinking back, and release them when the time comes.

That's a spiritual parent.

You may not feel qualified. Neither did Timothy — and Paul wrote him two letters about it. The qualification isn't perfection. It's willingness. It's showing up. It's sharing your life.

Someone is waiting for you to do exactly that.

📖 1 Corinthians 4:15–16 | 1 Thessalonians 2:7–8 | 2 Timothy 2:2 | 2 Timothy 3:10–11 | 2 Timothy 1:6–7 | 2 Timothy 4:1–2 | Philippians 2:19–23 | Psalm 68:6