AND FOLLOW-ME STUDY
November 2008
Church-Related Activities Are Most Catalytic to
Spiritual Growth in the Early Stages
Church-Related Activities
ChristCentered
Close to
Christ
Growing
in Christ
Exploring
Christianity
Weekend
Services
Weekend
Services
Small
Groups
Serving in
Church
Ministry
Serving
People in
Need
Through
my
Church
Four Spiritual Behaviors with Others Are
Catalytic to Personal Spiritual Growth:
Spiritual Behaviors With Others
•
•
•
•
Spiritual Friendships
Spiritual Mentors
Serving Those in Need On My Own
Evangelism
ChristCentered
Close to
Christ
Growing in
Christ
Exploring
Christianity
Spiritual
Mentors
Spiritual
Mentors
Serving Those
in Need on My
Own
Spiritual
Mentors
Evangelism
Movement Between Four Categories
 Movement 1
 The Earliest Stage of Spiritual Growth. People
gain the initial understanding of the Christian
faith and accept that Jesus Christ offers the only
path to salvation. They move from the Exploring
Christ stage to the Growing in Christ segment. It
is all about Christian fundamentals. The impact
of the church is most significant in this
movement stage.
Movement Between Four Categories
 Movement 2
 The Intermediate Stage of Spiritual
Growth: People become more active in
their spiritual experiences as they
progress from the Growing in Christ stage
to a more intimate Close to Christ
relationship. It is hinged on developing a
routine of personal spiritual practices that
feed a growing intimacy with Christ.
Movement Between Four Categories
 Movement 3
 The Most Advanced Stage of Spiritual Growth: A
person’s faith shifts from a daily awareness of
Christ’s presence and involvement in their life to
a redefinition of a person’s identity based on
their relationship with Christ, Christ Centered
relationship. This is made up of those who have
fully surrendered their lives to Christ and pour
out their hearts to Him through outreach
activities.
Important Catalysts for Movement
Three People
• This is a time of spiritual generosity.
• Attitudes about giving away my time, money, faith and
life increase dramatically in this group’s spiritual growth.
• This segment has the highest levels of serving,
evangelism and tithing.
• Spiritual growth is stoked internally.
• They need a high level of encouragement and coaching
that calls out spiritual behavior so aligned with their
heart.
• They need the church to engage them as full partners in
a divine pact of fulfilling the Great Commission and
Great Commandment.
Dissatisfied Segment
There is a group that are Dissatisfied saying "My
Church Is Letting Me Down”
• Almost one out of five (17%) in the Total Sample are
“dissatisfied” with the role their church plays in helping
them grow spiritually.
•
These “dissatisfied” people are most likely to say they
are considering leaving the church.
• They are unhappy with their church and tend to come
from the segments that are more Christ-focused.
Therefore they are some of the most involved in the
church, but they are also ones who are trying to grow in
their faith.
Stalled Spiritually Segment
 They seem to include people at the beginning of their
faith journey who have run into difficult life circumstances
or come face-to-face with a personal weakness that is
incomparable with following Christ.
• More than one out of five people (23%) in the Total
Sample reported that they are currently “stalled” in their
spiritual growth.
•
Virtually all people at all levels say that they were
“stalled” at some point in their spiritual development.
Christ Centered Missing the Mark
• There is a major gap between loving God and loving
others in their lives.
– Loving God was recorded by 78% of this group
– Loving Others only by 30% of this group
– The love of God is 2-1/2 times higher then loving
others.
• The good news is 60% of this group serve inside their
church with 50% serving outside their church once a
month or more.
• The bad news is that 40% don’t serve the church and
nearly 50% don’t serve their neighbor once a month or
more. In addition 70% do not serve those in need
through their church at least once a month.
What’s Needed for This Group To
Move Forward
• The heart is there but there is a need for
an encouraging challenging to serve
others by church leadership.
• They need teaching and coaching how to
do this based on what is working and help
them be successful.
• There needs to be opportunities through
the church to reach out to others.
What Willow Creek Did
• They needed to coach people in the next steps. Because
people wanted detailed plans with spelled out steps for
movement they began to develop on-line courses that fit
individuals interest and time needs. They began to
include coaching as part of helping their people.
• They needed to increase the impact of their weekend
services. They developed a journal that provide a place
for people to record their responses to thoughtful and
compelling questions based on the previous’ Sunday
message. It also listed reference books and other
resources they could use to go deeper.
What Willow Creek Did
• They changed their mid-week services so that people
had a full range of learning activities that met the wide
multiple interests of people. All people were regularly
encouraged to participate in this broader equipping for
ministry. They wanted opportunities for everyone,
regardless of where they were on the spiritual
continuum, to learn, grown and become more like Christ.
• They began to offered a broader portfolio of targeted
experiences and resources to catalyze movement. They
began to different types of activities
– To build a Biblical community
– Activities to encourage Christ like service.
Application to Neighborhood
Transformation
• Many times the lay people who come to our segmented
training are not actively involved in their church in
serving. They are people who had not stepped forward
to be an usher, Sunday school teacher etc.
• They seemed to probably belong to Category 3 or 4 in
terms of the Reveal study.
• They seemed to have a spiritual maturity that appeared
to be self feeding and not dependent on small groups in
their church.
• On the most part they felt reaching out to people outside
of the churches four walls was what was expected of a
Christian walking faithfully with God. But they wanted a
track to accomplish this.
 Most were tired of seeing things done for people
therefore they had some desire to empower others.
Application to Neighborhood
Transformation
• NT provides the proven tested approach that equips
church people to reach outside their church through their
church to begin to serve people in need. It is built on
empowering people to do things for themselves built on
the assets they have.
• There is a structured step by step approach that lay
people in the 4th category want in order to be successful
therefore it becomes fun to do. There are over 1000
lessons that the team reaching out to near by
neighborhoods can use so they do not have to create
new products.
• NT is all about putting individuals personal walk with God
into action reaching out to the under-served.
Application to Neighborhood
Transformation
• Learning is offered in small bites through
segmented training as well as on the web that
helps build their understanding and skills.
• The approach is based on the Bible and deals
with the whole person in all areas of their lives;
physical, spiritual, social and emotional that
transforms their lives.
• The outcome is not just to change one individual
but equips them to multiply what they have
learned to others.
• When individuals in a neighborhood are
aggregated together they begin to change their
neighborhood from the inside out.