Where / How Does True Spiritual Growth Happen?
Todd Hiestand, pastor at The Well in Feasterville, PA asks a good question in response to a church’s plan to get everyone in small groups: is it true that “true spiritual growth” happens in small groups?
Comment by: Lori
110/23/07 8:44 PM | Comment Link |
yes…true spiritual growth happens in small groups.
And large groups…
and in quiet moments when you’re in contemplative relationship with Christ…
and in classrooms…
and in worship services…
and in conversations with mentors…
and in the presence of a child (oh especially in the presence of a child!)
and in fights with your spouse…
and in programs, and in spite of programs…
I really think that our shame is in trying to assume that any one size fits all or should fit all…and maybe that’s all been said before, but perhaps we should be more concerned about unboxing God from the parameters of our preferences and support each other’s preferences in every way we know how and then leave the really creative avenues to the Creator (who also is our teacher…and the one who expands our horizons rather than packaging our pattern-seeking into a program)
Just thinking…
Comment by: Dr. Don
212/27/07 1:45 AM | Comment Link |
True spiritual growth just happens. It has nothing specifically to do with “groups.” People grow until they die.
The deepest spiritual growth happens through difficulties, pain, and suffering. This most profound growth happens in the solitude of pain.
This growth has very little to do with small, medium,large, or any other size group. It has to do with the Christ follower and God in the solitude of the soul.
Comment by: D.G. Hollums
301/29/08 4:23 PM | Comment Link |
Curious Dr. Don…. if it is not within community, then is there any place for relationships within spiritual growth? It seems to me that Christ had a purpose for relationships with the creation of the church. Can deep, thick spiritual growth not occur individually (with God) AND within a community of others? Just thinking out loud here. Thanks!
Comment by: Dr. Don
401/29/08 4:41 PM | Comment Link |
Good point Mr. Hollums. I over-stated or mis-stated my point. My thought is that people tend to grow or at least change if you will, no matter what their external circumstances. People who never take part in church community still grow it seems.
I strongly believe Christ followers grow well in good communities - even bad ones for that matter. I am speaking to those who indicate that the “best” growth takes place in small groups. I’m not sure this is true. As I’ve grown older, it seems more complicated than that (as Lori - see above) indicates. Joe might say this is a more “organic” approach I believe.
Thanks!
Comment by: Adam Lehman
502/7/08 9:35 AM | Comment Link |
The Bible never speaks of “spiritual,” doesn’t even have a word for “spiritual,” and never uses the phrase “spiritual life,” thus indicating that all growth is spiritual (see Rob Bell’s “everthing is spiritual”). Physical growth is spiritual. How I pay my taxes is spiritual. For sure (as indicated by the number of times Jesus speaks about it) how we handle our money/possessions is spiritual. How i treat my neighbor is spiritual. Everything is spiritual.
I say this because is the church world we tend to hold “spiritual growth” up as the crowning form of growth. It seems that - in typical American Christian settings - it is great if you get into shape, but it is much better if you are a good, church member. We hold that up as higher. This is the beginning of a heresy that Paul was confronting: gnosticism. The view that God is only spirit and that all flesh is bad and that only the spirit is good.
That being said, I’ve experience (and my reading has backed me up) that people grow within relationship. The Good News is that we can be reconciled with God and with one another.
Richard Dunn writes that “trust produces relationship. Relationship conceives spiritual life exchanges. Such exchanges are the sacred places where the Holy Spirit reaches through the life of a Christian spiritual caregiver to change forever the life of a student.”
Read “How People Grow” by Cloud and Townsend. They give excellent insight in the murky water of growth.