KCU/04/Group 1
Topic 2: How do people grow?
Question: Do more research into the four models of spiritual growth discussed in How People Grow & give a more detailed explanation & support for each of the models. Then, in light of your research, which model(s) of how people grow would you choose & why? (If the group cannot come to a consensus, feel free to have different group members each express their own opinions.)
Introduction People are always searching for answers. With every person they ask, they will get as many varying answers. Such is the case with spiritual growth. Christians throughout the history of Christianity have offered a variety of solutions to the problem of spiritual growth.
Take the case of Krystal. Krystal’s been diagnosed with a rare illness. She’s been a Christian all her life and has basically followed the ways of God, but some members of her church have said that she’ll be healed when she stops sinning. Krystal is bewildered, but she is desperately trying to completely rid herself of sin so that she can be healthy again.
Then there’s the story of Steve. Steve wants to get closer to God, so he follows the advice of his pastor. According to him, Steve needs to work harder on his spiritual life. He needs to pray more, read the Bible more, and trust God to be the one to bring him closer. Steve is trying to do what his pastor says, but he hasn’t seen any results yet.
Next is Lenny. Lenny is struggling spiritually, so he has been going to a Christian counselor. The counselor tells him that he needs to get to the pain in his life and somehow get it out. He needs to just take his pain to Jesus to be healed. Lenny is hoping this method will work.
Finally there is Amy. Amy is having problems with her marriage. Her pastor has told her that she is struggling because she lacks truth in her life. To be able to overcome her marriage problems, she needs to learn more Bible verses, memorize more Scripture, and learn more Christian doctrine. By doing so, her behavior will be fixed, as will her marriage issues. Amy is working on doing what her pastor says, but she is becoming only more and more frustrated.
Spiritual growth is an important aspect of every person’s life. According Dr. Henry Cloud’s and Dr. John Townsend’s book How People Grow, four models of spiritual growth: the sin model, the truth model, the experiential model, and the supernatural model. The purpose of this paper is to explore each of these models and to determine the positive and negative aspects of each model.
The Sin Model
According to Cloud and Townsend, the sin model states that "all problems are the result of one's sin" (Cloud and Townsend 16). In order to grow, a person must purge themselves of sin, and then their problems will go away. In this model, the greatness of a person’s suffering is directly related to how much they sin, or “indicative of the measure of his guilt in the eyes of God” (Intro to Job 723).
Later in How People Grow, however, they note that this view of growth does not necessarily work. Rather than focusing on being under the law, one must focus on being under the grace of God. Being under the law inhibits growth because it makes the grower feel that “God is the enemy” and that “we get what we deserve” (Cloud and Townsend 67). Various characters just in Bible history are examples that contradict the sin model, namely Job.
The very first verse of the first chapter of Job describes Job as being "blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil" (New International Version. Job 1.1). Job was the victim of incredible suffering, yet he was not guilty of a significant amount of sin whatsoever. Satan himself inflicted the suffering because he believed Job was “righteous only because it pays” (Intro to Job 723). How could this be possible? Author Edward Baldwin notes that according to various psalms and proverbs of the Bible such as Psalms 1, Proverbs 3:9-10, Proverbs 16:20, and Proverbs 16:31, “ if a man was righteous, happiness, including prosperity and long life” would be his reward from God (Baldwin 130). Job’s friend Eliphaz supports this by saying, “As I have observed those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. At the breath of God they are destroyed; at the blast of his anger they perish” (New International Version. Job 4.8-9). Throughout the Book of Job, his friends insist that “all suffering is caused by antecedent sin” and that Job’s suffering, therefore, must be caused by his unrighteousness (Baldwin 137). According to one source, “it had never crossed his mind that his agony could be regarded as punishment for sin,” and Job is horrified when he discovers that his friends are accusing him of this (Robinson 21). Job’s friend Eliphaz later accuses him of various sins, such as stealing, selfishness, and pride, and he insists that Job must repent so that “prosperity will come to [him]” (New International Version Job 22). He “warns Job against the thought that his suffering is purposeless torture, some chance product of the earth” in Job 5 (Robinson 38). Job’s friends believe that because God is just, he “must punish evil and reward good,” which we basically cannot argue with. (Robinson 35).
Job, however, “has consistently refuted” their arguments by showing that his lifestyle completely contradicts “unsupported charges of wrongdoing” (Baldwin 141). Job “has refused the suggestion to doubt his own conviction of innocence” and “has conquered the temptation to conceive God as ultimately unjust, to which for a time he yielded” (Robinson 30-31). He “has maintained the conviction that suffering can befall an innocent man” (Robinson 45). Robinson’s book clearly disagrees with the Sin Model when it states that “suffering is no proof of sin” (Robinson 31). All sufferers are not “evil-doers” (Robinson 36). The problem with the view that all sufferers are evil-doers is that it assumes that “suffering can spring from no other purpose of God than the will to punish evil” (Robinson 36).
H. Wheeler Robinson believes that “there can be no doubt that the object of the author [of Job]…was to show the inadequacy of contemporary doctrine to explain all suffering” (Robinson 41). His friends “fail utterly” to explain why Job is suffering (Robinson 41).
A second example of sin not being the cause of suffering is located in John 9. Jesus and his disciples are walking along when they come upon a man born blind. The disciples ask Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9.1). Christ answers “Neither this man nor his parents sinned…but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9.3). Jesus then proceeds to heal the blind man. It is possible, then, that a man’s suffering “serves some larger purpose of God, such as the vindication of disinterested piety” (Robinson 47). While many people believe that suffering the result of sin, “this world contains a vast amount of suffering which is unmerited” (Robinson 41).
Overall, the Sin Model seems to be misguided. While many people in the church seem to fall on this model, the Bible does not back it up well enough for it to be used. It seems, rather, to refute this model.
Supernatural Model
According to the Supernatural Model (instant healing &/or Holy Spirit do all the heavy lifting), God is the one who heals. If you want to learn about healing, you must ask the one who knows about it. Faith and healings are inseparable. You cannot be healed without true faith. God is eager to heal those who obey and please him. It is one of the benefits he is anxious to give.
Christ performed many miracles during his ministry. Many of his most dramatic were healings. He made the lame walk—gave sight to the blind—healed lepers—healed others with the palsy—and “healed all that were sick”(Matt. 8:16). Not only did Christ heal large numbers of people, He also commissioned his disciples to do the same. We will learn that his ministers, when asked, still “anoint the sick” today.
A person did not receive ‘the Gift of Healing’ on a permanent basis, so that he became a professional ‘healer’ and could heal at will, as it were. Every time a healing or a miracle took place, the one through whom the healing or miracle was performed received a specific prompting from the Holy Spirit to carry out the act. That person might never receive such a prompting again; or, on the other hand, he may receive many. Many Christians believe that if they have their spiritual lives together, they will not suffer from emotional problems and will somehow avoid sin. If pain or sin invades their lives, they conclude that something is spiritually wrong with them.
The false assumption under which these Christians suffer is this: If I'm spiritual enough, I will have no pain or sinfulness. When these people do hurt, they cannot explain it. Have they failed? Has God abandoned them? Should they do something differently spiritually to make the pain go away? Are they being punished for some sin? People under the cloud of this assumption see only two options: try harder at the spiritual disciplines, or give up on the spiritual life altogether. God tells us that we will encounter sin and pain—even if we have regular daily devotions and we go to church twice on Sunday. Being a Christian does not exclude you from problems and pain.
What began on a corner at the turn of the twentieth century is now barreling down Main Street. What was once known as the Pentecostal movement has now splintered into numerous diverse, yet overlapping movements such as Pentecostal, Charismatic, Vineyard, Word-Faith, and Holy Laughter. Two different things can come to mind when one hears the term "charismatic." Some think of a group of people hungry for the Lord, walking in the power of the Spirit, spiritual in worship, aggressive in evangelism, and abounding in love. Others see individuals who are experience-oriented, imperialistic in outlook (only they have the full gospel), elitist in stance, uncontrolled in worship, and devoid of any real grasp of the Bible that goes beyond mere proof-texting. The Charismatic movement has grown rapidly and has become more diversified; therefore, it would be misleading to place all under an identical banner.
"How Deliverance Ministries Lead People to Bondage," by Bod DeWaay. In the Exorcism in the Warfare World View, according to many exorcists who embrace the warfare worldview, demons posses, their victims because they have dicsovered a "right" to do so. For insant, a person might be under an unknown curse that gives the demon a right to tourment him or her. Bob Larson, a famous exorcist, explains how he sees this working: "Curses are exacting, legal arrangements of the spirit world. Just like human contracts contain fine print and carefully crafted language, satanic curses are often filled with minutia that require detailed voiding." To get free, the counselor would have to ferret out the exact wording and nature of the curse and then formulate a renunciation to break it.
For a long time he incorporated this "truth" into his counseling, figuring that passivity was why these people kept falling back into demonic bondage. He worked out techniques for people to use to strengthen their passive wills so that the demons would no longer be able to influence them. He no longer believe that what he was doing is valid. This type of teaching is still around. Bob Larson writes, "If the core of a person's identity is strong willed, it seems harder for a demon to take over, no matter what that person does." In this scheme of things, the human will is crucial: "I always tell those bound by demons to call upon that small portion of their will that is not dominated by the devil."
The problem he saw was this: "passive" people seemed to be not strong willed by nature — no process changed that. They continued to feel oppressed by demons and lamented their inability to overcome "passivity." At the time he did not realize that by telling people their will had to be stronger, he was throwing gas on the fire. The warfare worldview had led him so far astray that he did not see the relevance of the simplest of Scriptures, "blessed is the man who trusts in God . . . cursed is the man who trusts in man" (Jeremiah 17: 5, 7). According to the theory he taught, the "spiritual law" of the universe is such that passive wills get demonized, even if one is a Christian. To keep free one must gain a strong will. A person could not trust God for freedom unless the person had a strong enough will; otherwise God's hands were tied by the spiritual law He had created. Bob Larson writes, "The will of the victim is the spiritual battleground on which the war of exorcism is fought. The slightest reluctance can mean defeat." So where is our hope — in our own will? Larson says of one of his clients, "Her initial unwillingness to admit what happened gave the demons legal grounds for remaining."
Evidently they need a spiritual "lawyer" to figure out the spiritual contracts of the universe by which the demons operate, and the laws that apply. In the warfare worldview the battle is between humans and wicked spirits. The humans are at a huge disadvantage because the spirits have been navigating the spirit world for thousands of years and only they know all the "rules." The exorcist must query the demons to find out needed information and then beat them at their own rules. Bob Larson forces demons to tell him the truth under threat of being punished by angels and sent to the pit. Having done so, he makes the demons tell him what he needs to know to deliver the person. He gives this advice to those who would do exorcism: "Someone should be designated to keep a log of the information received while interrogating the demons. As the internal structure of the victim's demonic system is revealed, list the spirits according to their ranking, cite their right and occasion of entry, and note their legal ground for remaining." How do we know this in reliable? — "The demons will be forced to give you this information because they must submit to the name of Jesus and His authority."
Experiential Model:
According to Cloud and Townsend, the Experiential Model held that you had to “get to the pain in your life-find the abuse or the hurt-and then somehow ‘get it out.’ Proponents of the more spiritual versions of this model either took the pain to Jesus or took Jesus to the pain. In a kind of emotional archeology, people would dig up hurts from the past and seek healing through prayer or and clearing out the pain. This model emphasized Jesus’ ability to transcend time: he could be there with you in your pain or an abuse and could change it" (Cloud and Townsend 16-17).
Experiential says, “We’ve talked enough. Stop talking and just do it.” Bill Carroll defines experiential worship as “interactive, bringing ideas to life, and taking people to a place they’ve never been.” People need to feel something different when they walk into our gatherings and when they walk out.
Louie Giglio said, “God is moving in fresh ways throughout the world. It’s the ‘wind of the Spirit’ Jesus refers to in John 3. The student culture seems more primed to be blown by that spiritual wind because they are not tied to forms, but more open to full-on mind, body, and spirit connection with Christ. There’s a hunger and a driving thirst for an experiential faith-one based in truth yet experienced on all levels of life.”
One thing to keep in mind as you bring different experiential aspects into your worship gatherings is that it must be guided. Too often in churches, we just expect that people will know what to do. Pastors and other worship leaders will say things like, “We’re going to take a minute to pray,” and then just let people try to figure out what to pray. I try to err on the side of guiding too much; people shouldn’t feel lost at gatherings.
Although a believer in Christ still has the ability and potential for grievous sin, but because of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and his power and direction, a Christian always has room for growth in sanctification. By the power of the spirit you can be enabled to manifest the fruit of the spirit namely, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Gal. 5:22-23) God uses the spirit in the human body as his instrument for manifesting these evidences of God's grace.
The progressive sanctification of believers also results in their service to God. In the Bible the Scriptures are clear that every aspect of the believers in God is a result of work of the Spirit and part of their increasing sanctification. As long as they listen and follow the word of God, God will show them the way to live their lives. "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children” (Romans 8:16). While the Scriptures teaches us that Christians are secure in their salvation as work of God, their experience and assurance of salvation are related on the path they are walking with God and the ministry of the spirit to them.
The prayer life of a believer is also related to the Holy Spirit. Because we are often not aware of our spiritual needs, the spirit of God is there to help us with our prayers and offers intercession on our behalf (Romans 8:26).
7 ways to stay Spiritually balanced.. 1. Maintain or start new physical activities. 2. Caring for others. 3. Keep financially stable. 4. Spend more time planning and setting goals. 5. Keep on giving. 6. Allow room for real people and relationships. 7. Recieving rumuneration is a gift.
Spiritual Poverty: Whether or not we have problems or struggles in life, we still need God and we need to know we are in the process in finding him. The Bible says that all of us not just some of us are in this state. Everyone needs God's grace and mercy. We are all just broken people looking to a place to turn and find the hope in God.
Spiritual poverty is really about living in reality. A good way to understand this is to think of spiritual poverty as experiencing our state of incompleteness before God. This can be due to weaknesses, unfulfilled needs, emotional injuries and hurts at the hands of others, or our own immaturities and sins. When people experience at a deep level their neediness, incompleteness and dependency—the way they actually are—they are often overwhelmed. Spiritual poverty is really the cure for things like narcissism, self-righteousness, and a host of other problems. When our eyes are opened to our brokenness, we do not "feel better about ourselves"; rather, we feel that something is terribly wrong.
People with life problems have more opportunities to recognize their need for God's healing, because the evidence is right there in front of them. There also are many believers who love God, they are living good lifes married or in relationships, without catastrophes. But they may lack poverty because they may not really be in touch with there neediness. The experience of poverty is both practical and spiritual. Being aware of our incompleteness orients us toward God and his ways. It draws us to the spiritual where he awaits us with love, truth, support and all we need to grow and repair. Spiritual poverty is a rich part of the growth process. The more broken we are the more God can grow us up.
The Truth Model
There was once this couple who lived in a beautiful world made just for them. They could do anything there heart desired. They always were happy and were always content. There was only one rule. The only rule they had in this world was to not touch the sacred stone in the center or their world or else it would be destroyed. Of course they obeyed, but one day they both looked at the stone with longing eyes. This is where the inner conflict begins. There hearts know the truth of the law and the outlying punishment. The search for the inner truth is a very mysterious thing, but knowing the truth just isn't enough of to match God's amazing grace and love. The truth of God's word can help us grow, but the other models are needed to help someone grow even more in knowledge and understanding about God's amazing plan for the Christian life.
The Truth Model is one that has fit in best with the book How People Grow. However, as the book proceeds further, the Truth Model doesn't solve all the problems. I decided to look farther into the Truth Model a little bit more. I asked myself what is truth. The definition of truth is as follows: the true or actual state of a matter, conformity with fact or reality; verity, a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like, the state or character of being true, actuality or actual existence, an obvious or accepted fact; truism; platitude, honesty; integrity; truthfulness, ideal or fundamental reality apart from and transcending perceived experience, agreement with a standard or original, accuracy, as of position or adjustment, fidelity or constancy, in truth, in reality; in fact; actually. Those are the very definitions of "truth." Truth also is absolute. One cannot define truth in any relative terms which downgrades the concept of truth to merely one man's opinion. No! Truth is a standard based on an absolute and solid foundation. That foundation is the Word of God. Jesus prayed for this very matter before His false arrest and mock trial. John 17:17 recounts: "Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth." This was Jesus' declaration to the Father. By this, we may understand that the Word of God is truth. Truth can be found in the bible and digging for truth in the Bible, but also a person must work on all the other models. One model can not stand alone. We must also watch ourselves to make sure that we do not make the mistake of only searching for truth alone in scriptures. We must also be weary of manipulating what the bible says to fit our way of living. Pual C. Vitz reminds us "Keep in mind that many of the particular expressions of self-rheory are apt to be very short lived" (Vitz 15).
Christian psychology employs the use of the truth model seen in the book How People Grow as well. “The psychologist many times uses biblical truths to help build a person up. Counseling, particularly counseling that skillfully employs and applies God’s Word, is a necessary duty of Christian life and fellowship” (Biblical Counseling pg 3). Counseling brings people together and can help build Christian character. Many times, however, Christian psychology is often overshadowed with secular ideas and not biblical ideas. “It has opened the door to a whole range of extrabiblical theories and therapies” (Biblical Counseling pg 3). Many of these theories and therapies are more focused oneself. It leaves God’s Word as insufficient or not good enough to cure someone’s deepest emotional discomforts. God knows more about the people than even we can even imagine! “For He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14 NIV). “As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things” (Ecclesiastes 11:5 NIV). “And now the Lord says ‘he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength” (Isaiah 49:5 NIV). “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5 NIV). God knows who everyone is and has a plan for their life. The search for truth in the bible helps people grow and learn their purpose in life.
Truth is a big step up in a Christian's life. Truth involves a lot of rules for governing Christian's lives. The Ten Commandments, Jesus' teachings, and the apostles’ teachings are full of laws and commandments. "You have heave heard that it was said 'You shall not commit adultery,' but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:27-26). "People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Timothy 3:2-4). Truth is very equivalent with the law. Truth, in a way, reinforces the law. Truth is very well a structured way of life. It provides a means of what is correct. At the same time, however, truth does not provide a way to reach God. You can know all about Him and keep all of his commandments, but that doesn't change the fact that Christians are still sinners.
In conclusion, searching for truth can help solve many questions in the Christian walk. It will help you grow as a person and help know the law of God even more and more. The truth model can help a person grow in his faith; however it will not do a very good job on its own. A person needs more than that to become a strong Christian. A person must search for the truth and find grace and mercy through the power of God as well. A good Christian will search for truth and will search for God through the use of the other models as well.
Conclusion
Overall, each model has some value for a Christian's spiritual walk. Something good can be taken from each of the models. To take each model, however, as a complete truth and authority is a mistake. Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend best sum up in How People Grow when they say, "Get to know God better, and take him and what you learn in every life situation you encounter...learn his teaching, and it will set you free to love God, to love others, to be all you were created to be, and to find the path God has ordained specifically for you. This is how people grow--grow for life" (Cloud and Townsend 362).
Bibliography
Baldwin, Edwin Chauncey. Types of Literature in the Old Testament. New York: Nelson. 1929.
Cloud, Dr. Henry, and Dr. John Townsend. How People Grow. "Five Views on Sanctification" Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.
The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984. Vitz, Paul C. Psychology as Religio Grand Rapids, Michigan William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 1977
Introduction to Job. The NIV Study Bible. Ed. Kenneth Barker. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995. 722-724.
MacAthur, John F. Jr. and Wayne A. Mack Biblical Counseling Word Publsihing, Dallas, London, Vancouver, Melbourne. 1994
Robinson, H. Wheeler. The Cross in the Old Testament. Philadelphia: Westminster. 1955.
http://www.youthspecialties.com/articles/topics/postmodernism/worship.php