How can we make sure we are going deeper? It starts with culture. Be a church that wants to go deep with God. Provide ever-increasing opportunities for people who want to go deeper in spiritual formation.
I’ll give you an example: I had a gentleman in my church recently say to me, “I’d like to go deeper.” And in our church, I think we try to preach in a way that’s both accessible to the unchurched and theologically robust. But he wanted me to go deeper, and I love that.
“Let’s do this,” I said. “Why don’t we start reading a systematic theology together?” And so we broke out Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. He bought a copy. I bought a copy. We started reading.
There are many things that go into a successful discipleship ministry, but one key is that spiritual maturity must be a goal. And if we don’t teach the goal and preach the goal, we won’t reach the goal.
Don’t shy away from maturity. The enemy wants us to remain like babies, never strong enough to be about the mission we’ve been given. Embrace the shovel. Go deep. And remember, there is no need to exchange numerical growth in our churches for the spiritual growth of its members.
What distractions are keeping you from setting and achieving the goal of spiritual maturity? How do you measure spiritual success in your own life or in the lives of others?
