De-Mystify Spiritual Growth
Mention the term "spirituality" today and many people will conjure up images of wearing white robes, sitting in a yoga lotus position, burning incense, and chanting "ommmmm" with their eyes closed.
Others think of Christian mystics and monks as those who cloister themselves away from the real world and subject themselves to the rigors of poverty, chastity, and solitude.
Unfortunately, many Christians feel that spiritual maturity is so far out of their reach, they don't even try to attain it. They have this mystical, idealized image of what a mature Christian looks like.
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Maturity – they believe – is only for super-saints. Some Christian biographies are partly responsible for this myth. They gloss over the humanity of godly people and imply that if you don't pray 10 hours a day, move to a jungle, and plan to die as a martyr you may as well forget aspiring to maturity. This is quite discouraging to the average believer. He feels he must be content with being a second-class Christian.
Yet growth is practical
The truth is that spiritual growth is very practical. Any believer can grow to maturity if he or she will develop the habits necessary for spiritual growth. We need to take the mystery out of spiritual growth by breaking the components down into practical, everyday habits.
Paul often compared training for the Christian life to the way athletes prepare themselves and stay in shape. I love the Phillips paraphrase of 1 Timothy 4:7 - which says, "Take the time and the trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit." The path to spiritual fitness is as practical as the way you become physically fit. It involves personal discipline.
Anyone can become physically fit if he or she will regularly do certain exercises and practice good health habits. Likewise, spiritual fitness is no mystery. It is simply a matter of learning certain spiritual exercises and being disciplined to do them until they become habits. Character is shaped by the habits we develop.
At Saddleback Church, we place a great deal of emphasis on developing spiritual habits. We have seen incredible growth occur in people when we break down the idea of spiritual growth into practical action steps and everyday habits.
There is no magic bullet
Yet even with this we must always remember that there is no one single habit that will be the magic bullet to instant spiritual maturity. This is a popular misconception. It is obvious that many Christians at least hope maturity will happen instantly if they can just find the right key.
Look at the titles of some best-selling Christian books. Books that promise "Four Easy Steps to Maturity" or "The Key to Instant Sainthood" reinforce the myth that Christian character can be acquired overnight.
Many sincere Christians spend their entire lives earnestly searching for an experience, a conference, a revival, a book, a tape, or a single truth that will instantly transform them into a mature believer. Their search is futile. Although we have instant coffee, instant potatoes, and now even instant weight loss through liposuction, there is no such thing as instant spiritual maturity.
The truth is, spiritual growth is a gradual process of development. There are no shortcuts to maturity. It takes time. Ephesians 4:13 says, "... we arrive at real maturity – that measure of development which is meant by ‘the fullness of Christ.'" (Phillips)
Notice that maturity is a destination we arrive at. That implies a journey. We always want to speed up the process but it can't be done. It's a journey that will last a lifetime.
Although God could instantly and miraculously change us into a mature believer, he has chosen to develop us slowly and teach us one lesson at a time. Just as he allowed Joshua and the Israelites to possess the land "little by little" (Deut. 7:22), God uses a gradual process of change to develop us into the image of Christ.
Saddleback Teaching Pastor Tom Holladay and I have spent a great deal of time trying to understand the components of this process and then communicate them in a simple way that our members can grasp and remember. The result is Saddleback's philosophy of edification, which we call The Life Development Process.
We use the baseball diamond as an analogy for growth because it is universally understood in America. People can easily understand how we want them to mature by assigning a milestone of spiritual growth to each base. We explain to our members that our goal is to help them move around the bases of life. We want Saddleback Sam to score!
We also explain that you don't get credit for runners left on base at the end of the inning! For that reason, we have assigned a staff pastor to each of the bases: membership, maturity, ministry, and missions – plus worship. Each pastor serves as a "base coach," – someone who helps the runners make it safely to the next base (See The Purpose Driven© Church).
If you convince people of the importance of scoring and you give them a coach at each base, it's much easier to get people to home plate. Likewise, if you lead people to commit to growing spiritually, teach them some basic habits, and give them guidance as the progress around the bases, you can expect to see them grow.
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Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., one of America's largest and best-known churches. In addition, Rick is author of the New York Times bestseller The Purpose-Driven Life and The Purpose-Driven Church, which was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th Century. He is also founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community for ministers. Copyright 2005 Pastors.com, Inc. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Adapted from Rick Warren's Ministry ToolBox, a free weekly e-newsletter for pastors and church leaders, available at Pastors.com.
