Updated Monday, April 21, 2008

Can you measure spiritual maturity?

By Norman Jameson

BR Editor

Baptists are goal oriented. We establish goals in measurable areas because we can track progress and pat ourselves on the back when we do well and kick ourselves if we do less than we know we're able. Goals pull us toward achievement.

We measure dollars and baptisms because we can. They are concrete and countable and indicate commitment.

We measure church starts, and attendance and membership at and in numerous church programs. We measure miles driven in ministry and number of events at which we spoke, erroneously thinking that larger numbers mean more effectiveness.

We measure headlines and story count and column inches devoted to one topic or another to see if we can measure a bias in reporting by one news agency or another.

But can we measure the spiritual growth of a Christian whom the Bible says should be growing toward maturity? LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing arm of Southern Baptists in Nashville, Tenn., is taking a big stab at it.

In numerous Bible passages the Apostle Paul encourages growth toward maturity. He implies to the Ephesians "unity in the faith" is one indicator of maturity. (Eph. 4:13)

In Philippians 3:15 Paul refers to those who are "mature" and tells Colossians that Epaphras is "always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured."

The Bible says in Hebrews 5:14 that "solid food is for the mature." James in 1:4 calls for perseverance "so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

When Brad Waggoner ran the new research division at LifeWay one of his nagging interests was spiritual maturity and he initiated a large study that began in May 2007. Researchers asked 2,500 persons questions that relate to Christian maturity. They will follow up with the same 2,500 people in May 2008 to see if there are indications those Christians moved at all toward maturity in their faith.

Although the study is not complete Waggoner and Ed Stetzer, the new LifeWay research chief, have been inkling initial findings during speeches across the country. Waggoner spoke April 18 to the Baptist Communicators Association annual meeting in Phoenix, Ariz.

"When the Bible says to 'make disciples' are there some measurable parameters" that will help us know disciples actually are being made, Waggoner asked.

Speaking freely as one is prone to do in an intimate setting with ministerial professionals, Waggoner said pastors often talk about the measurable statistics of ministry when they get together. That, of course, is Sunday attendance and baptisms. Those areas indicate to his peers the "success" of a pastor.

Waggoner calls that talk "superficial" and said, "The heart of the matter is not about getting more numbers in the pews. It's about lives transformed." He said there is not adequate emphasis on spiritual formation, which in earlier times was called "discipleship."

Questions in the survey were centered in seven domains for which positive answers indicated maturity in faith. They included: learning the truth, obeying God/obeying self, serving Christ and others, sharing Christ, exercising faith, seeking God and building relationships.

Some results from the first round of questioning were startling. Others were disappointing. Few were encouraging to those concerned about helping Christians grow toward spiritual maturity.

All of the work to interpret and publish results of the study will not be done until after the second round of questions to survey participants. But some results from the first round were a kick in the gut to those who believe a "conservative resurgence" in the Southern Baptist Convention should have resulted in spiritual growth in the pews in the past three decades.

Some examples:

Only 84 percent of Southern Baptists surveyed see faith in Jesus as the way to gain life after death. That's higher than the 69 percent response of evangelical Christians overall, but "comfort by comparison" is reserved for those with low expectations.

Only 55 percent believe Christianity is the "exclusive religion" through which to obtain eternal life.

Only 50 percent of Southern Baptists "strongly disagree" with the statement that Christians "must continually be working toward their salvation." Since I was saved at age 20 one of the great comforts of my life has been the Baptist doctrine of "once saved, always saved." Now we learn that only half of us believe that?

Sixteen percent of Southern Baptists did not affirm the physical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Only 69 percent "strongly agree" that the Bible and its teachings are accurate.

"Being conservative is not synonymous with being godly," Waggoner said after going over survey results.

When the second round of interviews is done in May 2008, the goal will be to determine if there is spiritual growth among the participants. I'm sure analysts will then dissect, crunch, review and digest the numbers to try to determine what programs, events or special offerings contributed to growth. They will also look at things that may contribute to slippage.

There is no place currently to follow this important study, other than presentations by Waggoner and Stetzer at various meetings. While the findings are fascinating, nothing substantive will come before the comparison of results from the second round, against the first.

In the meantime, the research team did send the first round of statistics to a numbers analyst who sent back this observation: the single strongest factor contributing to spiritual maturity is reading the Bible.

That may shock all of us preachers, teachers, editors, lesson writers, event and conference planners, holy land travel agents, camp leaders and everyone else dedicated to interpreting the Bible for others. But the simple truth is the Bible speaks for itself. Those who read it grow toward maturity. Those who do not read it depend on others to tell them what it says and those are probably the ones who argue about it the most.

Could it be that three decades of preachers arguing about the Bible has discouraged folks in the pews from actually reading it to see what it says to them?