redefining spiritual growth

It's been a while since I have logged any thoughts since the creation of the church blog, but with a chapter closing there I will be able to focus more time here.

A question was asked to a group of youth workers this past weekend that I thought was somewhat of a profound question to ponder.

“What does it mean to be spiritual deep?”

I have often thought about this. I hear it so much in the church. I have heard the same comment in every church I have ever served in.

“I am looking for something deeper.”

And I have always asked myself – what exactly does that mean? What is the standard of being spiritually deep? Furthermore who is qualified to set that standard? As far as my mind will allow me to go, I can’t remember the prophets, disciples, Jesus or God ever talking about making sure you are spiritual deep.

So is it a mass of knowledge - To say that you know all the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic roots of all these passages, or that you can quote whole books of the Bible? By no means am I saying that these are not admirable. In fact I would say the opposite. I believe these are great disciplines to work towards. But the question I am asking is does mass of knowledge equal spiritual depth?

I am not convinced that to be truth. I have known people who know so much in their head and yet it often fails to penetrate their heart. And in my understanding of God, He seems to be more concerned with the state of our hearts.

So again I am left with what does it mean to have spiritual depth?

If I take an honest look at things – I was always taught that being spiritual deep meant that I spent time praying, studying, fasting… time in the spiritual disciplines. If I did that then I would have achieved some since of arrival in being spiritual deep. Yet it didn’t seem to matter how much I time spent time in prayer and in studying the Word – I still felt as if I was lacking something. I didn’t necessarily feel that joy of Christ and thought I wouldn’t have admitted it at the time I always felt like there had to be something more.

As I was growing up – those were things you just didn’t admit because it meant there must be something inherently wrong with you if you do not feel spiritual after having spent time in the Word and in prayer.

But I honestly still felt…

incomplete.

So this past weekend the question of what is spiritual depth was followed by an exercise that I encourage every family and group of friends to try together. We were asked to think about what it means to grow spiritually. And then we were asked to do something that every person in the room could identify with…

“Share your stories. What are your defining moments? We all have defining moments that cause our faith to move from one point to another place. In one or 1 to 2 sentences share with your group.”

It was amazing the stories that were shared. It became a God moment for every person in that room remembering how he has moved in our lives. I encourage you all to try this with your family or group of friends and see what you come up with. What similarities do you see and what is different.

The stories from our large group of about 200 people seemed to fall into 5 different areas. I’m not saying that these are the only 5 areas you can fall into but the more we shared and the more I think back on it – I believe that we are on to something that is rocking my world view of “spiritual” growth.

Let me know what you come up with and in the near future we’ll dive in to what we discovered.

Until then…enjoy living life!!

Thanks.