Eleven Stages of Spiritual Growth

(from a GHC cluster meeting led by JD Pearring)

1. Resisting Stage—people who are mad at God; hostile.

Biblical Example: King Herod; bad thief at Calvary.

My note: According to Gene Appel, your church must have a small percentage of people at this growth stage (cynic) in order to be a prevailing church(xxii, How to Change Your Church Without Killing It). Makes sense--if your church is really impacting the unchurched community, resistant people should be showing up on your doorstep. Having resistant people on your doorstep is a litmus test of how compelling your environment is and how deeply your church is reaching into the truly unchurched segment of the population.

Encouraging the next step: challenge the resistant: God, if you are out there, show me.

2. Questioning Stage

Biblical Example: shepherds in Christmas story

Next Step: Start clarifying your questions. What are you wondering about?

3. Seeking Stage—there is a continuum of seekers from casual to aggressive.

Biblical Example: Wisemen; other thief on the cross

Next Step: look to the bible for answers. (Common question: What is my purpose in life?)

4. Responding Stage—this stage is when people make a commitment to Christ--not just sick or sorry, but people ready to surrender.

5. Adjusting Stage—baby believer. (Babies cause excitement and stress.)

Biblical Example: Neighbors in Luke 1:65

6. Stabilizing Stage—spiritual adolescence. This is the stage best described by the word “awkward.” Adolescents see themselves as omniscient, tend to be selfish and fickle. Most church problems are created by people camped in this stage.

Biblical example: Zechariah and Peter

We all go through adolescence—we all slip back into it at times.

My thoughts: Willow Creek highlighted this growth stage in their Reveal Study. These are people that have made a commitment to Christ and grew at some point, but are stalled—they are not currently growing. They may have some large un-surrendered areas of their life and inconsistent spiritual disciplines. This group was compared to the non-growing spiritually mature group (roughly 10% of Willow Creek) They have no glaring areas that need to be surrendered and have consistent spiritual disciplines, but don’t feel they that are growing and often discontent with what their church is offering them. These two groups are roughly named “stalled” and “discontent.”

What “Reveal” revealed is that the key to propelling people beyond this growth stage is “responsibility.” At the adolescent growth stage we have a window of opportunity to teach people to become responsible for their own spiritual growth. If a person can say, “I need to be fed”, they can feed themselves. My 7 year-old daughter no longer asks us for something to eat when she is hungry. She has been given a sphere of authority in which she can select certain items from the refrigerator and pantry on her own at anytime. She has been taught to feed herself—she is no longer entirely dependent on us to feed her. As she gets older she will begin to help shop for food and cook. We aim for adulthood when she will be able to buy her own groceries and prepare her own food. To have a 35 year-old daughter who needs her mommy to stock her pantry and prepare meals would be absurd! And yet, we have many people in our churches who cannot (the stalled) or won’t(the discontent) feed themselves. Reveal asks a very important question: Do we inadvertently condition people to be dependent upon us (the church) for spiritual growth? At what point and how does the church help people take responsibility for their own spiritual growth?

These are some very serious questions that need to be addressed if we are going to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

7. Growing—people who recognize they don’t know it all. They have become intentional about moving beyond adolescence.

Biblical Example: Joseph

8. Serving—people applying what they know in service to others.

Biblical Example: Mary

9. Reproducing—people intentionally reproducing their lives

Biblical Example: Elizabeth

10. Maximizing—people who are doing what they are designed to do—their ministry sweet spot.

Biblical Example: Anna

11. Celebrating—people who have arrived and are celebrating how God has used them. This would match John Maxwell’s level five leader: one who leads out of reputation. I.e. people follow because he has consistently led from results, relationship and investment.

Biblical Example: Simeon (and Anna)