Spiritual Growth Assessment Process

I've been a bit busy recently trying to catch up with all the work that piled up the other side of Christmas. The promotion to glory of Tracey's Mum and the associated practical consequences of that, Beth's constant bouts of tonsillitis and the normal responsibilities of Officership have all taken their toll.

I haven't had time to blog let alone read other people's blogs and so I have been dependant on the proactive efforts of others to stimulate me in terms of Christian growth. So, to that end I was very pleased to receive an email from Steve Court this week containing an excellent resource from LifeWay. It's a downloadable (free) Spiritual Growth Assessment Process – you can get your own copy here.

I began the process this morning and I am now going to seek the input of others which will result in the creation of a spiritual growth strategy and some lines of accountability.

So far the process has betrayed a degree of consistency in my current spiritual performance – my scores in all areas were much the same. However, the overall results showed that rather than growing, recent circumstances have forced me backwards as I have surrendered necessary spiritual disciplines for more pressing practical demands upon my time. This is something I urgently need to address and it is also something that this process will help me with.

We all need to take stock from time to time and measure ourselves against God's expectations. The reality is that we tend to measure ourselves against others rather than the bible. This leads to poor performance because the standard set by others is low (in comparison to that set by scripture) or possibly personal pride because our performance may be noticeably better than our peers (though still way below the benchmark of scripture).

Sometimes we need to go back to basics and follow the advice of the writer to the Hebrews and "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and run with perseverance the race marked out for us. ²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that we will not grow weary and lose heart."

Ultimately there is no standing still for Christians – we either grow or backslide – I for one want to grow!

Grace and peace, A