Nate asked me an important question this weekend.  He asked, “When and how did you become disciplined in spiritual growth?”  That’s a great question.  I wish I could say I was most excellently disciplined, but I’m not…just disciplined.  I wonder though if some of you may be equal curious as to the answers to this question.

I first got serious about becoming a student of God’s Word and having daily time with Christ in my mid-twenties.  I wish it had happened earlier. I grew up in church, but it wasn’t until then that I really took my walk more serious than a Sunday routine.

As to how I disciplined myself, which may be the more important answer, that really has a two-part answer.

• I developed a passion for spiritual growth. The bottom line for most of us is that we are only going to do those things we want to do.  For me, thanks to the encouragement of a pastor at the time, I gained a sincere desire to know Christ more; serious enough that I was willing to discipline myself to do it.
• I found a system that worked for me. At first, I didn’t remember to tell Nate about this one, but it was an equally important part I believe in me becoming a self-learner.  Many people have a desire, but they never come up with the system that will accomplish the desire.  I found a system that fueled my passion, but also kept me disciplined enough to follow through each day.  I haven’t kept the same system I had then continually, but I know even today that without one I’m less likely to be disciplined in spiritual growth.  (I once wrote about that system HERE.)

There’s my answer to when and how I became disciplined in spiritual growth.  What’s your answer…or is this a question for which you still need to work on finding an answer?

I encourage you to start today!

I’m older now than I used to be. I have aches I didn’t once have. My hair is more gray. Recently my youngest son said, “Hey Pops, you are starting to look old.” He doesn’t realize how much I’m starting to feel it also. It isn’t completely bad though. As I have entered what may be considered my “middle ages”, I am realizing some benefits from being the age that I am today.

Here are 10 benefits to being middle-aged:

1. I am less concerned about impressing others. I probably wasn’t that impressive anyway, but now I don’t care as much to try.
2. I get to act more out of experience now, having often “been there and done that.”
3. Lord willing, I still have lots of time to dream big dreams and see them completed.
4. I love being on the side now where people come to me for advice. (Please don’t tell them I still have more questions than answers.)
5. I am looking forward to grandchildren someday. Really!   In the meantime, I get to enjoy other people’s children.
6. I am starting to realize the fruit of hard work in days past…and some of the aches and pains.
7. I’m much closer to getting discounts at multiple restaurants. I’m already occasionally asked if I want to get one.
8. Cheryl and I are at a good place in our marriage and we get to enjoy our two boys as friends. (And one day they will get to take care of us!)
9. Some of my clothes are starting to come back in style.
10. I am smart enough to know better…sometimes…

How close are you to “middle age”?

Of course, none of us are guaranteed that we aren’t at the end of our days, but I’m thankful for the years I have had, the experiences I’ve gained, and the time God allows me to continue to share what He has given me with others. Bring on the years!

In our recent series “Hunger” at Grace Community Church, I shared a system I have used for spiritual growth that has helped me mature. I had numerous people ask me the following week to describe the details of my “system”. It really isn’t anything scientific or deeply thought out, but has helped me greatly.

Using a simple school folder with dividers and notebook paper in each section, and a calendar that fits in a 3 ring binder I have the following sections:

1. Things that I’m reading in the Bible and what I am learning from it.
2. Books that I’m reading and things I’m learning from them.
3. Prayer requests for people I know well. Since I know many things to pray for them, so they all get their own page. I often spend a month on one page for one person before moving to the next page.
4. Prayer requests from various people as they share them or I observe them.
5. A calendar of prayer requests, mostly the ones in number 3 and 4, but it helps me to write them on the calendar each day as I pray for them.
6. Verses that I’m trying to memorize.
7. My personal journal of thoughts I have; written out to God.

To clarify, I do not use this system every day. In fact, I do not use it but every few years for a few months at a time, but when I really want to discipline myself for spiritual growth, this is the system I use.

More than anything, I encourage you to have a discipline for your spiritual growth. Your system doesn’t have to be this intense, but, from my experience, without discipline, you are less likely to mature.  For more thoughts on that, listen to my message on the subject HERE or watch the message HERE.

What is your system?

For more thoughts on devotions, click HERE.

How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds! Proverbs 1:17 NIV

If you want to catch birds with a net, you don’t won’t them to see you laying out the net. If they do…you won’t catch many birds.

Birds are too smart for that.

In the Biblical days of Solomon, bird hunters would spread a net on the ground, baited with food for the birds. As the birds would fly down for dinner, the hunters would pull up the nest quickly, capturing many of the birds. Birds are smarter than one might think, though. Apparently if they saw the hunters laying down the nets, they wouldn’t land and so they wouldn’t be caught by the trap.

We don’t know what the coming week has for us yet. Most likely there will be struggles, as well as triumphs, if this week is normal. There are a few things we can almost be sure of though.

• There will be plenty of temptations to distract us from making wise choices.
• Most likely we will take on the characteristics of the places we go and the people we hang around with.
• Our emotional state, our attitude towards life, will greatly be influenced by the thoughts we place in our minds.

Which brings me back to those birds. You see, they were smart enough not to get tangled in a known trap! Which makes the obvious question of the day this: Are you and I that smart? We know those things, places, people and thoughts that distract us from having a great week…

…but are we smart enough to avoid the trap?

Discipleship is the process of becoming more like Jesus Christ. It is the goal of every believer and producing disciples is the command Jesus gave the church. It is also the vision of Grace Community Church.

Sometimes knowing the next step to take is the hardest. At Grace we have tried to simplify the process for you. We have three-part strategy designed to encourage spiritual growth and maturity.

Gather – The goal is to become a regular attendee of the weekly Sunday gathering. It is difficult to take greater steps until a person begins a committed attendance pattern. In addition to providing a worship experience and teaching opportunity, the gathering is designed to be encouraging, engaging, and to produce interest in pursuing the next steps.

Commit – Entering the commit stage of the strategy means a person takes a next step of joining a community group and commits to weekly Bible study and fellowship with other people on the same journey of discovering more about God and faith. Individuals of all levels of spiritual maturity are welcome into group life, but it is essential if a person wants to continue to grow in their understanding and beliefs. Additionally, because of the emphasis placed on community through groups, people who attend Grace will miss out on giving and receiving ministry opportunity if they are not a part of a group.

Serve – The final stage of the strategy, and perhaps the most important, is when a person moves from soaking in grace and truth and begins to invest love into other people. This can be through volunteering at Grace or in the community, but there is something life changing about giving to others that helps a person to mature spiritually.

Ultimately the goal of the believer should be to become a disciple, a follower of Christ. When one truly sets his or her focus on being like Christ he or she will become a “self-feeder” and seek after the deeper truths of the faith, more intimacy with Christ, greater fellowship with other believers and a more intense love for others. This really occurs when a person’s heart’s desire is to follow Christ completely and that is when the best spiritual growth can occur.  We believe following this strategy of Gather/Commit/Serve is the best we can offer to help a person become a disciple.

What next step do you need to take?

Spiritual growth of believers should be the goal of any church. We are to do attract unbelievers and introduce them to Christ, but the end goal according to the commands of Jesus is making disciples.   Yet spiritual growth is often hard to measure, messy and similar to raising children, a church can offer the same ministries and attention to a group of people and get extremely different results.

Right now there are people in my church at 3 stages of spiritual growth:

• Those that need to mature and are not maturing.
• Those that need to mature and have stalled.
• Those that need to mature and are maturing.

I suggest the same is true of your church. We rejoice in the last one, but if we are not careful we can allow the first two to discourage us and make us believe we are not doing what God has called us to do as a church.

It is helpful to me to put things in a strategic format, so here are 5 principles of spiritual growth or discipleship that apply to each of these three groups.

1. People are responsible for their spiritual growth. I am responsible to shepherd them, care for them, encourage them, instruct and teach them, but ultimately the believer holds the responsibility of their own growth.
2. Change is possible. Every believer has an opportunity and potential to experience spiritual growth. God wants to mature all believers. No one is left out of that plan.
3. Growth occurs best in community. The best spiritual growth in my life and in the life of others I have observed occurs when people are in committed, healthy and intentional relationships with other believers wanting to mature. Iron does sharpen iron. (At the same time, I have been in groups where some are growing and some are not, but that goes back to principle number one.)
4. Developing a person’s desire for spiritual growth is key. When a person gets excited about his or her personal walk with Christ and getting to know Christ better they are more likely to assume ownership of their growth.
5. The goal of the teacher/leader of spiritual growth should be to enable people to achieve spiritual growth. We should introduce them to Christ and God’s Spirit, teach them the basics of their faith, and then release them to serve, mature and grow in their spiritual life.

Please understand this is not a formula. Principles are not foolproof, but I believe these principles can help us see the process of discipleship in a more orderly fashion.

Do you agree with these principles? What would you add?

Yesterday I posted a simple way to implement change in an organization when the changes needed seem overwhelming.  You can read that post HERE.

Today I want to put a contextual spin on the issue for the area of spiritual growth.  I know lots of believers, especially early in their Christian walk, who think they should instantly have spiritual maturity shortly after being saved.  Spiritual growth is a process that takes years of discipleship.

If you want to mature in your faith, start with one spiritual discipline.  Master that discipline (or get better at it at least) and then move to another discipline.  For example, try to form a habit of regular church attendance. Then start reading your Bible everyday.  When that becomes a regular part of your day, begin to form a prayer list.  After a period of time you can start journaling.  Keep adding positive changes to your spiritual life, but only add one at a time.  See if that helps you grow without facing spiritual burnout.

What suggestions do you have towards spiritual growth?