My last post focused on maturity for churches. We saw that this is intrinsically linked to Spiritual Growth, but that growth doesn’t just happen like physical growth and it doesn’t happen by accident either.
For church leaders, guiding a congregation toward Christlikeness involves creating growth environments which I once read something by Rick Warren where he said this only occurs when we understand that such growth is incarnational and intentional.
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1. Spiritual Growth is Incarnational
Spiritual growth is an inside job (or rather an inside-out job), because it’s about Christ living through us by his Spirit. It’s not about “trying” to imitate Christ but training which makes room for Him to work in and through us as we live more and more for him and his kingdom.
When we ‘give our lives to Christ’ we don’t just give him our past sins, we actually die to the old Βίος (Bios) life in order to receive the everlasting Ζωή (Zoe) life!
As Paul put in in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me…”
This incarnational Jesus moving in and taking over approach emphasises that spiritual transformation isn’t achieved through human effort alone. It’s the Holy Spirit who gets it all started by grace and that same grace empowers change by the power of the cross and resurrection doing its work in us!
There’s a great mystery to spiritual growth as we partner with the Spirit to live this new life:
– God works in us – 1 Corinthians 3:6 says, “God gives the growth”
AND…
– We work out our faith: Philippians 2:12-13 commands, “Continue to work out your salvation… for it is God who works in you”
When (if!) you do a workout, you don’t create your muscles do you? God does. But you can feed, grow and strengthen them through intentional habits and if you don’t they quickly atrophy.
Spiritual disciplines like prayer, Bible study, and worship are the “workouts” that strengthen the spiritual muscles God has given us.
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2. Spiritual Growth is Intentional
Spiritual maturity does not happen automatically. It requires deliberate choices and commitments. Jesus called his first disciples to a journey of ongoing growth by increasing challenge and commitment:
“Come and See”
Jesus’ never came across as desperate like we sometimes can. When I first met Zoe (now my wife), one of the most attractive things about her was that she made me do the running, not vice versa. I’m so glad I went for it!
Look how cool Jesus is when you read John 1 in the Message!
Two of the disciples have heard John the Baptist talk about Jesus so now they’re interested:
Jesus looked over his shoulder and said to them, “What are you after?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
He replied, “Come along and see for yourself.”
They came, saw where he was living, and ended up staying with him for the day. It was late afternoon when this happened.
John 1:37-39
That’s a low-pressure, friendly and open invitation – “Come and see”. How does your church make it easy and safe for people to take the first few steps toward following Jesus? How can you welcome people (and right now I’m finding there are more than ever) to ask questions and come along on the journey alongside you? To sit around a table not just in a row or a pew.
– Come, follow (and die)”
Jesus got in trouble for hanging out with anybody and nobodies – but that was because he came to save everybody! He didn’t just hang out with them for long either before his love and holiness intersected with an invitation to those who were following to take a closer step of commitment, culminating in His call to not just stay in the crowd but to surrender everything – “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34 – see my recent blog on this verse and its implications for churches).
Spiritual Growth involves intentionally moving through stages of faith, from the crowd to committed mature disciples. Meeting people where they are, but bringing them by challenge, encouragement, prayer and community to deeper levels of faith and commitment.
As I have noted in my recent blogs, churches that on want to attract crowds may not make and certainly won’t mature disciples, but on the other hand some churches swing so far the other way as they pursue ‘deep discipleship,’ they rule themselves out from reaching new people because they won’t even throw them a line…
Practical Tools for Spiritual Growth
To help people progress through these stages, leaders must equip the church with practical tools:
- Small Groups: To foster accountability and build deep relationships.
- Spiritual Disciplines: Teach habits like prayer, Bible reading, and fasting as the normal Christian life.
- Mentorship: Pair mature believers with newer Christians for coaching, connection and guidance.
We need a BOTH/AND approach to Spiritual Growth that will move curious people to full commitment, following a clear pathway of spiritual growth. Check out ours at ivychurch.org/multiply