Readiness For The Maturity Process

Before you engage the process of maturity, Jesus desires readiness (Luke 14:25-33). To discern readiness, you have to start with a recognition of God’s love for you and your love for him, which is rooted in the truth of the gospel message. Once there is this acceptance of the good news of Jesus and readiness is declared, the learning relationship with Jesus where he grows you in maturity and mission gets going with a process of renouncing all that you have and establishing a habit in the Scriptures. As this learning relationship with Jesus progresses, he will target the following five elements of maturity.

Elements Of The Maturity Process

We desire a more diligent, wholistic process of maturity that includes these five elements. Much of what we say and do will come back to growing in these things.

Love

Growing in maturity is best accomplished when a follower of Jesus understands Jesus’ love and responds to this love. We do this by asking the question: How has Jesus loved you? Recognizing and remembering Jesus’ love fuels a heart for others. A heart for others then leads to the actions of inviting others into a relationship with Jesus and serving the church in various ways (John 13:34-35).

Walking in the Spirit

Growing in maturity involves the process of walking in the Spirit. Jesus sends his Spirit to indwell us and help us transform to living the new life he calls us to. Prayer has to do with engaging this transformative relationship with the Holy Spirit. The postures in the psalms help us have truthful expression to the Lord as we deal with our hearts and life in this world. We maintain a relationship with the Holy Spirit through many disciplines including church attendance, confession and repentance (identifying idols), forgiveness, and generosity (Ephesians 4:17-24).

Question Asking

Many times Jesus’ teaching stems from a question either he asked or someone else asked. Therefore, taking steps of maturity often begins, or is at least spurred on by a good question like: What lie am I believing? What truth do I need to receive? How has Jesus loved me? Who am I listening to? Do I have an eternal perspective? Jesus will use questions such as these for specific learning and formation in our hearts.

Embracing the Truth

To grow in maturity, you need to unlearn and relearn many things. This involves a process of identifying truth from Jesus centered on the biblical books. To arrive at truth, our teaching and learning centers on books of the Bible and essential doctrines of the faith, i.e. Grace, Future Hope, Image of God, Trinity (John 8:31-36; Matthew 28:19-20).

Habit in the Bible

Whether reading the Bible or meditating on it, a habit in the scriptures is essential for growing in maturity. It is the way we can discern truth, learn about God and hear from him.

Guiding principles of Maturity

To keep the process of maturity healthy, we have seven guiding principles:

1. Jesus centered. We are Jesus-centered and led all the way.
2. Grace-based. Maturity is pursued in response to God’s love and grace, not based on works.
3. Heart level questions. Maturity is not automatic, yet it is God who gives the growth. Jesus cares about the heart, and so we aim for heart level questions. These questions, answered in relationship with the Lord, help us stay in the proper domain of maturity.
4. On-going. We understand the process of maturity is never finished, yet there is progress to be made.
5. Relational. While we try to be as diligent as possible, maturity is largely organic and relationally driven. We don’t want to get out of sync with the Lord’s work in a person’s life.
6. Engage, practice, process. Growing in maturity needs much more that just gatherings where we sit, listen and leave. Our teaching method will include elements to engage, of practice and of processing those times of practice.
7. Multiplication. Any steps of maturity taken needs to be easily multiplied and taught to others.