“The Father rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
“The life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it...so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
The Christian life is immersion. It's seeing. And belonging. And becoming what God has destined us to be in Christ Jesus. Christian formation takes:
Coordination
Spiritual growth and authenticity rise from the coordinated work of the Holy Spirit, preachers of the Word, and hearers of the Word. God initiates. He is always at work in us and it's God who empowers us to grow spiritually. God is preached—in nature, verbally, in writing, through the arts, and by example. And the hearer engages with Him in ways the apostle Paul compares to running a race to win the prize and disciplining one's body (1 Cor. 9:24-27). Preachers, eyewitnesses, and hearers are all participants in God’s sovereign activity.
Balance
Our faith journey can develop unevenly and with gaps. It's easy to focus on a few areas and to neglect others. Here, you are encouraged to reflect on and assess yourself using five signals. Five gauges. How real are each of these becoming in your actual lived life? To ripen in each is to grow deeper into Christ (Col. 2:6-7) and to grow upward into his fullness (Eph. 4:11-16).
- HUMILITY — We ripen in our dependence on God. We stay present with him and respond with reverence, wonder, and awe. "God is great. God is good. And God is near."
- RESPONSIBILITY — We ripen in our handling of God's gifts. We receive and take hold of everything he wants to give us. "We are faithful stewards of the many forms of God's grace." 1
- ACCLIMATION — We ripen in our life sourced from the Father's household. We adapt to (live into) our true identity and the culture of his kingdom. "People like us (new identity) do things like this (new culture)." 2 or "As God's treasured possession (new identity), we live Jesus-like lives (new culture)."
- IMITATION — We ripen in our love for the world. We are bearers of God-like love, mercy, kindness, and help. "We so love the world that we give our first and our best."
- MISSION — We ripen in our pervasion of world culture. We creatively enter every sphere of society to set things right and bring freedom — to lovingly bend society toward God's kingdom. We act like salt, light, yeast, or a pleasing fragrance. "Our everyday story is for God's glory."
Movement
Followers of Jesus grow in every gauge over a lifetime; we never grow past any of them. Movement won’t be seen in a day or a week. But if we're paying attention, we should see growth over months and years. Even better, others will notice that growth in us.
“There are no experts in the company of Jesus. We are all beginners.”
Energy
Every gauge is important. But energy, sustained passion, authenticity, and credibility flow from center to circumference—from HUMILITY to MISSION. It's like a five-story building project: every floor is important, but unfinished lower floors must be in place to support the unfinished upper floors. Operating in any gauge, without paying attention to the more foundational gauges, can lead to collapse: wrong motives, worldly patterns of behavior, idolatry 3, and exhaustion.
The pages ahead describe each gauge. A few self-reflection questions are provided to help you interact with the gauge and to see trends over time. Devotional questions can be kept in the back of your mind as you read Scripture or listen to a sermon. And the suggested next steps may help you orient to the gauges in daily life. But before we get to The Gauges, let’s look at four Stages of the journey that actually become dispositions.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good.”
1 The word 'grace' used here to mean the unmerited God-given desire, ability, and resources to participate in our Father's economy (purpose, plan, activity) as His beloved. 2 Adapted from Seth Godin, This Is Marketing, ©2018 pp. 102-113 3 Idolatry in this context doesn't mean worshiping rocks or statues. It means depending on something or someone—more than on God—for our purpose, our provision, or our security. Discern these tendencies by noticing what makes you anxious or what gets most of your attention and energy.