Meeting in a large group
Additional resources
Additional practices
Apart from the time of gathering as a local church community, there are other practices that are helpful in deepening our relationship with God and our spiritual growth.
Listening to podcasts and watching videos are a way to hear from great teachers from around the world.
Not only do we have an opportunity to hear from people around the world, but we also have the ability to hear from people from throughout history. Reading books allow a remarkable opportunity to meet with and hear from faithful Christians throughout the ages. They too can be our companions and encouragers in growing in Christlikeness.
Celebration is a practice where we take time to focus on being thankful and rejoicing in the good things we have been given. It can be a powerful time as a family and church community to mark our experience of the goodness and love of God.
Books
Spiritual Maturity - J. Oswald Sanders
This book was first published in 1962 and has been described as a “timeless treasure”. Oswald Sanders puts forward the idea that spiritual maturity is not a level of growth Christians achieve, but the passion to press on in Christ. He explores the scriptural principles for spiritual development, the primary source of continual growth and clear direction for those desiring to grow strong spiritually.
The Practice of Godliness - Jerry Bridges
The first edition of this book was published nearly 40 years ago and has sold over 500,000 copies. It doesn’t guarantee it is a good book but is an indication of how helpful people have found it. The author says that godliness is more than a character trait: it is a foundational spiritual quality that makes the entire Christian life - dynamic, effective, and pleasing to God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
On-line resources
J. Oswald Sanders - What Constitutes Christian Maturity? (PDF)
Richard J. Foster - Becoming Like Christ (Renovare website resources)
Richard J. Foster - Understanding Celebration (Renovare website resources)
Quotes for reflection
What do you think about these quotes? Are they helpful? Are they saying what the Bible says?
Spiritual growth
“Viewed from another angle, spiritual maturity is simply Christlikeness. We are as mature as we are like Christ, and no more.”
"Jesus-centered spiritual formation is the process of being transformed into the image of Christ, through a relationship of intimacy with God, by the power of the Spirit, in order to live a good and beautiful life of faith, hope, love, joy, and peace—a life that will be a blessing to oneself and to others and will glorify God now and for all eternity."
“Spiritual formation” in the Christian tradition is a process of increasingly being possessed and permeated by such character traits as we walk in the easy yoke of discipleship with Jesus our teacher. From the inward character the deeds of love then naturally — but supernaturally — and transparently flow.”
Dallas Willard, The Great Omission
"Lewis’s spiritual director [Walter Adams] would often remind him, “Look after the roots and the fruits will look after themselves.”"
Stephen A. Macchia, Mark Buchanan, Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way
"Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion—it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.
"spiritual formation can have an end goal to make us more self-actualized or moral people as opposed to people who are oriented to serve our world. Sometimes we consume spiritual growth programs in the same way that we would attend self-help courses that aim to help us live our lives for the betterment of ourselves. This goes against our call to cruciformity, which is a call to allow our lives to be shaped by the cross and be an expression of the downward mobility that we see modeled by Jesus"
Karina Kreminski, Urban Spirituality
“Spiritual formation is our continuing response to the reality of God’s grace shaping us into the likeness of Jesus Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, in the community of faith, for the sake of the world.”"
Jeffrey Greenman, Life in the Spirit: Spiritual Formation in Theological Perspective
"Love for God and love for neighbor are the means and the goal of healthy spiritual formation."
Christopher A. Hall, A Different Way: Recentering the Christian Life Around Following Jesus
“God not only meets our deepest need; he commits himself to the long-term process of personal heart and life transformation. He is not satisfied that we have been restored to him; he now works so that we will become like him."
Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional
“The quiet power of a life transformed by the grace of God is so explosive that it can redirect the course of human events.”
Richard Foster, Christian theologian and author, 1942-
Church and growth
“Essential to our growth in grace is a community life where there is loving, nurturing accountability. Christ-likeness is not merely the work of the individual; rather, it grows out of the matrix of a loving fellowship.”
Richard J. Foster, published in Christianity Today, February 5, 1996
“The supreme goal of the church is not evangelism, important and indispensable as that ministry is. The ultimate goal is stated by Paul when he wrote: “We proclaim him, teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect [mature] in Christ” (Col. 1:28).
“In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.”
“The task of the church is not world transformation, but signaling the Kingdom through small gestures. Look after the small things, and the big things will fall into place.”
John Swinton, Australian Broadcasting Corporation article
“Why link Christlikeness to church? Because in church it is fostered. And at church where it is expressed. By this all men will know that you are my disciples ...... When Christians love one another, says John, it is evidence of some very important realities: love is evidence of life, evidence of faith, evidence of God, and evidence for Jesus.
Christopher J. H. Wright, Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit: Growing in Christlikeness
Questions for reflection
1. How do we aspire to growth or sanctification without losing sight of the fact that we are loved and whole and forgiven through justification? And how can we work at growth without losing sight of grace?
Photo by Yuri Figueiredo on Unsplash