How do we know if someone (ourselves included) is spiritually mature?

How do we know if someone is growing spiritually?

What are the marks of spiritual maturity and depth?

I’m wrestling with this question and really need some help… Here’s my first stab at it.

Spiritual growth is measured by fruit. “By their fruits you will know…” What is fruit? Well, the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace…” (Galatians 5) Ok, how is that measured? “Love is patient, love is kind… love keeps no record of wrongs…” (I Corinthians 13) 

Another marker seems to be obedience. Are we more obedient to Christ and his way today than we were in days past? “Teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you…” (Matthew 2 “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 15) 

Here’s a related question > Is this even a good or valid question? ie Can we judge spiritual maturity? Can we know someone’s else’s or even our own heart/character? 

Here’s the question I’m really after… As a leader/pastor/spiritual director how can i help people mature spiritually in my context and how will we know if we’re failing or succeeding in obeying Christ’s  command to make disciples…

i would love to hear your thoughts in the comments or via email kevinrains (at) mac (dot) com  

Alan Hirsch in Christianity Today… worth reading and pondering… functions as a summary of his book Forgotten Ways as well.

“This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.”

And with that simple statement a new genre of literature is born; the Gospel. Mark’s gospel is generally considered to be the first canonical gospel and the one that set the standard, provided lots of material for the other gospels, and in fact introduced a whole new genre to the world. 

I love Mark’s gospel. It is fast paced. It is to the point, unembellished. It is short and sweet. It is packed with action, with Jesus DOING lots of things. (The other gospels emphasize more of Jesus teaching whereas Mark emphasizes action.) It is written by John Mark, a close associate of Peter and mentoree (and relative) of Barnabas, one of my heros. 

The good news. Is my life characterized by and reflective of this fundamental category that is used over and over in conjunction with Jesus: He proclaimed and in fact embodied ‘good news.’ Could that be said of me? How can that become more of what characterizes my life and the life of the community I love and lead?

+++ Lord, help me to be good news today and live from the abundant life that you experience at all times in community as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. +++ 

“Maybe, says Jerry Sternin, the problem isn’t with the outside experts or with the company. “The traditional model for social and organizational change doesn’t work,” says Sternin, 62. “It never has. You can’t bring permanent solutions in from outside.” Maybe the problem is with the whole model for how change can actually happen. Maybe the problem is that you can’t import change from the outside in. Instead, you have to find small, successful but “deviant” practices that are already working in the organization and amplify them. Maybe, just maybe, the answer is already alive in the organization — and change comes when you find it.” 

We start in our immediate context. Jesus did this via the incarnation. As Peterson’s translation says in John 1 “He moved into the neighborhood.” He became one of us in every way. He had parents who made mistakes. He worked a job that was difficult and involved lots of splinters. He lived in a no-name town that others ridiculed. He immersed in a context that we can relate to. Jesus did not come to us as an outside consultant with all the answers and none of the effort… the notebook of theories and ideas but not the dirty, calloused hands. And when he did gather some students around him he told them the same thing. (Matthew 10, Luke 10).

So we start in our own backyard. We notice the problems but we look hard for the solutions that already exist. The little practices of the deviants that make the problem not seem like a problem. We look for things are working in a broken context and we notice, we pay attention, we analyze, we experiment, we discover, and we share. 

Jesus joined up with a positive deviant: his cousin, John the Baptist. What were the practices? Proclaiming the kingdom of God, calling for repentance and baptizing. And Jesus followed right along and did those very things… and then asked his first followers to do the same. Matthew 28 “Go, baptize, teach…. And they did it (Acts) and the church has continued to do it right up to today…

So what is a “problem” in my context that needs to be listened to? Not sure. I’m still listening. Anyone have any ideas for me?

I’m becoming more convinced that positive deviance is a reliable model for change in many and varied situations. It isn’t hard to see how it could be utilized in areas like urban renewal or even spiritual formation.  It might worth considering how this could be used in your context. i have some ideas for mine that I hope to share in future posts as I give it a go via some short cycle time experiments in my context. 

Below is a summary of the process. As i read them again i was struck by 2 things. First, it begins with listening. That is always a reliable starting point. That is where St. Benedict started his famous Rule for his students/monks. The Apostle James reminds us to “be quick to listen.” Proverbs is loaded with admonitions to listen well. listening is a good starting if you need one for almost any situation. 

The second thing was the focus on behaviors. It is easy and sometimes fun to the point of intoxication to caught up in a good theoretical discussion. Often however they end up going nowhere and lead to deep frustration and sometimes angst. The emotional equivalent of “blue balls” if you’ll pardon the crude analogy. PD however focuses on outcomes and small, doable, repeatable, simple behaviors. Practices that can actually be practiced and tested. There are some obvious connections here to spiritual disciplines and formation that need to be explored. I will be a guinea pig. KR = lab rat of PD.

There are basically 8 steps to the process of positive deviance. These are just a summary and I’ll explore each one one in future posts.

Step 1: Don’t Presume You Have the Answer: Approach the change issue with a beginner’s mind, ready to listen.

Step 2: Don’t Think of It as a Dinner Party: Involve only those that are a part of effecting the change, instead of a broad, diverse audience.

Step 3: Let Them Do It Themselves: Set up a situation in which people can discover, on their own, a better way to do things. Raise questions but the let the group come up with its own answers.

Step 4: Identify Conventional Wisdom: Establish the norms and associated boundaries.

Step 5: Identify and Analyze the Deviants: Allow the positive deviants to emerge as it becomes clear that they have found a better way.

Step 6: Let the Deviants Adopt Deviations On Their Own: Don’t teach new knowledge - encourage new behavior.

Step 7: Track Results and Publicize Them: Post the results, show how they are achieved and let other groups develop their own curiosity about them.

Step 8: Repeat Steps One Through Seven: Make the whole change process cyclical.

Positive deviance is a relatively new field of research. The main body of work is coming from a married couple, Jerry and Monique Sternin. The basic idea is to make sustainable and rapid change in difficult contexts by looking for what IS working as opposed to analyzing the problem and coming up with proposals from outside the immediate context. It arose when the Sternins were commisioned to work against starvation in Vietnam. They needed reals solutions, real fast. They decided to look at a small majority of kids and families that seemed to be beating the odds. As they studied these ‘positive deviants’ they discovered they were engaging a few crucial but simple behaviors that others were not like feeding their kids even when they had diarrhea, feeding their kids smaller meals more frequnently, and washing their hands more. As they discerned these simple practices they encouraged and taught others in the villages to mimic these beahaviors. Through this simple process they were able to save thousands of lives. 

There’s a great article in Fast Company that stretches this research into business but I’m wondering what the implications would be for testing it in fields like spiritual formation, leadership development and urban ministry. There are so many things I like about this methodology. Seeing and amplifying the good (Barnabas approach, Acts 11,13), trusting that the answers to difficult challenges are already IN the context, and outsiders are in a servant role (servant leadership).

Are you a positive deviant in your context? Monk up!

Great blog conversation happening on money/vocation/kingdom/sustainability and I wanted to put some thoughts in the mix…

You can catch up with the conversation by visiting the links on Alan’s recent post.

Here’s some bullets points as I ponder this mostly related to my ongoing experience being Bi-occupational…

- A community of allies is key to sustainability: I remember talking to Chris Marshall about all this many, many years ago as we were both transitioning into new, non-paid-ministry positions. He ended up in education and I ended up in business. Most importantly we’ve remained allies and champions for one another since those early conversations.

- This topic is complex and answers sometimes come s l o w l y : I’ve been wrestling with this question for 18 years. I started a non-profit while in college that was self sustaining and eventually started several other businesses that employed the urban and college students all the while building relationships and communities. We had a dance club/juice bar for a wide assortment of alternative kids from ravers to Goths to punks to skin heads. We also started a window washing business that morphed into a house painting business. We figured if we’re going to be risking our lives on 40 foot ladders we might as well get paid well for it and painting/restoration of historic homes was the ticket to fund our urban ministry habit. Then there was a similar project years later with a communal living/common purse component that started as home repair and spun off a cleaning service business. Now I’m in the auto collision industry owning/operating a shop a few blocks from house and starting to get into real estate via buying apartment buildings. That last one launches in 2 weeks with our first purchase of a 5 unit building with 2 commercial spaces attached to it. All that to say after doing several start ups and not drawing a full time salary for ministry for the vast majority of my adult life I am just now getting to the point where I think I might have a small handle on this and something worthwhile to share…

- There are strategic reasons why I don’t work full time in paid ministry: Namely I am around “normal” (aka non-christians) all day every day. I have a reason to be involved in many peoples lives and am available to them and I know them not as a professional minister but as a friend and co-worker. This also gives me multiple entry points into the life of my city. I am known by several on city council and by the mayor as well as the fire department (they do my permits for the shop) and the police department (I fix many of their cars).

- Others are empowered to serve and don’t overly depend on me. Because I have a full time job in the “real world” (I know that is faulty but it is where most people are and we’re trying to contextualize right?) people naturally understand that I am not available to do every wedding, counseling session, or ministry idea that they want me to do for them… it creates a high ownership environment where everyone has jobs and everyone contributes as they can to the mission in the neighborhood.

- It ain’t perfect, neat and clean… I remember a conversation I had with Todd Hunter, Mark Palmer, and Jason Evans where Todd said to us that we would likely have to “cobble something together from a job, support raising, part time staff etc… This is a transitional time and transitions aren’t tidy.” When it comes to day to day realities we all know that there is not a perfect answer or one size fits all. We have to just put the pieces together as they come to us and move toward ideals over time.

- There are prophetic reasons to not get paid by a church namely you can fully speak your mind/heart/word of the Lord and not have in the back of your mind “what will happen if I offend a big giver?” or “I can’t afford to lose my benefits and retirement so I better watch my step in this situation.”

- Bi-vocational is a misnomer. As Chad Canipe reminded us we may be bi-occupational but we only have one vocation: Seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6.33) We can do that in paid ministry or painting houses or fighting fires or being a tattoo artist.

Some older musings on the topic >>> http://thekedge.wordpress.com/category/11-vocation/

A friend reminded me of some of the last words from Mark Palmer… they seem appropriate as we move through holy week toward Easter

Remember the words of Palmer:

“”When it seems that hopefulness is the least appropriate response in this situation, let it rise up even more. Whisper your hope when you lie down at night; scream your hope when you wake in the morning. Live your hope as if it is the one and only thing that sustains you in this ravaged world. You will not be disappointed.” 

      We are entering Holy Week. Good friday, the day we remember Christ’s brutal death is still before us. Easter Sunday is next… I have to prepare a talk for Easter Sunday so forgive me if I’m getting ahead of myself here. You may want to wait to read this post and this passage until Sunday if you are the strict liturgical type… another great way to be immersed in holy week is to come to Via Cruscis immersion.  I saw the initial set up yesterday and it is going to be a rich experience.  
Women. Women take center stage with Jesus and angels in this passage. Two Mary’s visit the tomb, despondent preparing to pay their respects to the One they thought was “The One,” the long expected messiah and a close companion of theirs. All their hopes (and i mean in that in the most eternal and political way) were pinned on him. He did so much good. He made so many promises. Now he is dead and gone. And their hopes were dashed. Their dream of a hear-and-now political leader to free them from Roman oppression, poverty, and disgrace are dashed. But this is the dawn of a new week and they are soon going to find out that this day will signal the dawn of a whole new age, a new era in history, a turning point in time that will alter everything that came before and came after. And they are the first to know! Two women, not even considered credible witnesses in this time and culture are to be the first witnesses and the first missionaries declaring a new day, a new week, a new epoch. These women are the apostles to the apostles, the ones to tell Jesus closest friends and students that he is alive…  that an enemy even greater than Rome has been conquered: Death has been faced and defeated. Death is not the last word after all… +++ Lord, you are the master of death not its servant. For all those of us who grieve deaths, and there is much to grieve, let us remember and experience the truth of that day: death is not the end, death is not our master, death has no power over you and you have planted within us the seed of immortality. Teach me to live from that reality and not be fooled by the smoke and mirrors of our conquered enemy death…. we grieve but not as those who have no hope. Teach us to live, really live, abundantly live, fearless in the face of this conquered enemy. Amen”  

“I often hear talk of people committed to social action or in communities who are ‘burned out.’ These people have been too generous; they have thrown themselves into activity which has finally destroyed them emotionally. They have not known how to relax and to be refreshed. Those in responsibility must teach such people the discipline of physical rest and relaxation, and the need for spiritual nourishment, and for fixing clear priorities. They must also set an example.” (Community and Growth, p.177)

Tracy said something the other day that just nailed me. At first i took offense to it then I realized it fell into the category of a friendly-wound like where Proverbs says “The wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy.” We have given up TV. I tried to go cold turkey and told her that was the only way it was going to happen for me. I’m addicted…. and embarrassed by all this for the record. Anyway, i needed the visual equivalent of Methadone to help me to kick so i bought a few episodes of LOST from iTunes and watched them before bed the other night. Now Tracy knows that i rarely watch something straight through. I usually fall asleep part way and she turns off the drug of choice and goes to bed ahead of me. In the mean time, (and there’s a reason its called ‘mean’ time) I usually half wake up as she is cleaning up and prepping for bed and stumble into the sack to claim more than my share of the covers. This last time i woke up we talked briefly about my addiction. “What time is it? Did i fall asleep?” (Duh!) “Yeah… you fell asleep again with your “pasey”? “What’s a pasey?” “It’s short for pacifier.. TV is your pacifier..” And there it was… She didn’t mean anything mean. She never does. But it hurt my feelings…it wounded me… precisely because it was the truth.

I need to relearn how to rest minus the pacifier.
+++ Lord, have mercy. +++