How To Discover Someone’s Spiritual Condition

Would you like to know the spiritual condition of the people you help? Or examine your own spiritual condition? We have created a simple form for that which you can download here! (It will remain available on our website.) We call it the Spiritual Life Questionnaire. We find that this simple assessment tool is very helpful in quickly discovering where someone is spiritually. It also makes it easy to cover many different topics quickly. The Spiritual Life Questionnaire doesn’t rate someone’s spiritual life but asks the important questions for examining one’s own spiritual condition. It is up to the individual to decide how to proceed based on how they answered the questions. People will often be more open when answering written questions than when talking face to face. Sometimes there is something they have been wanting to say and they are willing to say it on paper. More importantly, an Continue Reading →

What Is Spiritual Formation? – Video Interview

In early July 2017 I was interviewed for a Sunday morning service on the topic of spiritual formation. Below is the video of that interview from YouTube (I am on the left). The main topic was an explanation of what spiritual formation is along with some discussion of stages of growth. Pastor Dr. Rich Brown of Trinity Alliance Church near Redding, CA did an excellent job of preparing the questions and of conducting the interview, which was the substitute for his sermon that morning. We think it turned out well so I hope you enjoy it. It begins with some questions about my background. Then we talk about the biblical definition of spiritual growth, the causes of growth, stages of growth, the human role in spiritual growth, and a few other brief topics. Below this video is an approximate transcript of some of the discussion so you can get an Continue Reading →

God Wants To Bless You In Receptive Prayer

I’ve read that in conversations we should find ourselves listening as much as talking. Of course, this just makes sense – it would be selfish if we were in the habit of listening 30% of the time and talking 70% of the time. But does this apply to our conversations (i. e. prayer) with God? Sure. God wants to do good things for us. He wants to speak his words in his way. He wants to continuously transform us into the image of Christ. So wouldn’t God want us to spend time listening for him, or at least being in a receptive mode so we could receive anything he might want to do? That’s why the image for this post is someone listening to headphones: they are in receptive, listening mode. It is common to think of prayer time as a time when we talk the whole time. We thank Continue Reading →

Four Stages Of Christian Maturity – Considering Where We Are

Over the centuries many Christian teachers have outlined what it looks like to become a mature Christian. These outlines, or guides, are helpful because they help us see what we are “aiming” for in our Christian life. In other words, they tell us what it means to become a mature Christian. The New Testament speaks many times about what it means to be “mature” or “complete” (sometimes the word “perfect” is used but it means complete in the Greek.) This idea that Christians grow spiritually and that we can describe what this looks like along the way is referred to as “stages of growth”. We could also refer to these stages as phases or processes. These stages are supposed to encourage us because they describe the good that is ahead for us. In other words, we know what to look forward to. The clearest descriptions in Scripture of some stages Continue Reading →

What Are We Supposed To Be Doing?

What is the Christian life all about? Sometimes we find ourselves wondering “What am I supposed to be doing in my Christian life?” Who can deny that it is important to have a general idea of what discipleship and spiritual formation are all about. What are we supposed to focus our energies on in the Christian life? And what is spiritual formation according to scripture? One place we can find this in scripture is in Paul’s prayers for the churches. One particularly helpful prayer for spiritual growth is at Philippians 1:9-11: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” (NIV) Continue Reading →