Spiritual Growth Assessment Process

Lesson

• The following lesson is an assessment that you will lead your class through.
• Your spiritual journey as a follower of Christ began the moment you admitted personal sin and placed your trust in Christ as Savior and Lord.
• From that point, until death or the return of Christ, your life’s call is to grow in Christlikeness.
• Jesus summarizes the disciple’s call in Mark 8:34:

Mark 8:34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

• Accomplishing such a challenging assignment requires growing in your understanding of what it means to be a Christian, expanding your personal knowledge of biblical truth, and applying daily what you learn.
• Through the presence of His indwelling Spirit, God enables you to know, obey, and serve Him.
• God expects His children to grow spiritually and His Word encourages personal examination as an element of growth.
• “Let us search out and examine our ways…” Lamentations 3:40
• “Now, the Lord of Hosts says this: ‘Think carefully about your ways.’” Haggai 1:5
• “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139:23-24
• “But each person should examine his own work, and then he will have a reason for boasting in himself alone, and not in respect to someone else.” Galatians 6:4
• “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people, but as wise.” Ephesians 5:15
• This assessment process can help you complete an examination and careful search of your spiritual growth. Follow these simple steps to complete the process.
• Complete the Spiritual Growth Assessment.
• The assessment will be printed on light blue sheets.
• The assessment helps you think carefully about your spiritual development related to six specific spiritual disciplines;
• abiding in Christ
• Living in the Word
• Praying in faith
• Fellowshipping with believers
• Witnessing to the world
• Ministering to others.
• Before completing your responses, ask the Lord to guide your evaluation.
• Since most of these statements require a subjective response, His guidance is the key to an accurate appraisal.
• Also, resist the urge to compare scores with others.
• Self-condemnation or pride could result from such comparisons.
• Trust God to help you grow spiritually by revealing heart issues and empowering you to take action.
• Draw and evaluate your Discipleship Wheel.
• The Discipleship Wheel is found on the dark blue sheet.
• Begin working on a personal growth plan.
• The Annual Spiritual Growth Plan worksheet helps you formulate an intentional plan for growth.
• This is the gold sheet instructs how to develop a plan
• The dark purple sheet is the work sheets used to make the actual plan.
• Use the Recommended Actions for Spiritual Growth Guide (light purple sheets)to discover suggestions for actions to include in your plan. As you discuss your plan with an accountability partner, you may discover additional actions that more effectively meet your needs.
• As you complete this assessment process the temptation might be to think your efforts are central to growing spiritually.
• Remember, becoming like Christ centers on His work in us and not our work for Him.
• God desires heart change over religious actions.
• Without question, God does the revealing, the renewing, the empowering, and the recreating. Your part as His disciple is to do the yielding, the submitting, and the obeying.