A recent article “The Open Secrets About Deep Spiritual Growth” by Cally Parkinson appeared May/June issue of Rev! magazine (pp. 48-52).
Parkinson lists four common principles exhibited by the churches with the highest scores on “spiritual vitality” in the Reveal Conversation process–a process which takes a serious, honest look at spiritual formation in churches and tries to measure spiritual development. These common principles suggest characteristics of healthy spiritual movements as well. Use them as a check-list for the spiritual vitality of your movement.
Do you–as a leadership team:
1. Get People Moving . . do you help people enter a process or journey that takes them thru stages of spiritual development (described by the Reveal folks as Exploring Christ, Growing in Christ, Close to Christ, and Christ-Centered)?
2. Embed the Scriptures in Everything . . . do you literally embed the Bible in everything?
3. Create Ownership . . . do you give the ministry away and ensure that everyone possible can get involved in the life of your movement?
4. Pastor the Local Community . . . do you help your movement become the hands and feet of Christ on their campus and in their communities?
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