Adult Faith Development Pt 3

It is important to keep note that each stage includes and builds upon the previous. Each stage is essential to faith development, the problem is when we get stuck and stop moving upward.

The next level that contains the next stages of development is called the Conventional level of development. This level is where the bulk of society resides. This level contains the cognitive and faith levels of adolescence. It makes sense that most of our society is stuck here. Much of the marketing and media that we see is aimed at teenagers and their record amounts of disposable cash. I think that this conditions the mind to think that adolescence is the heyday of life. We could get into arguments of chicken and egg here, but it does not really matter at this point.

Now for the stages of this level. The First stage of the Conventional level is the Diplomat. This person starts to move away from a self oriented life and leans on a group of peers who define them. “Being a part of this larger entity allows one to be protected and share in its power. The price for protection is loyalty and obedience.” Teenagers' peers are their social protection and they will give loyalties to them even when it goes against the value systems they may have been taught. This stage moves away from the self love for self sake and moves into a love of others, but it is still for personal benefit that they love another. I love you for what you can do for me or how you make me feel. This is a necessary stage of development in the human mind, much social interaction is learned here.

Many legalistic, fundamental churches are stuck in this stage. They would say, “If you adhere to our rules then we give you the power of being in the elite club as well as the protection of not going to hell.”

The next stage is an in-between stage of 3 and 4 called the Expert. The Expert has come to a place of wanting their own identity apart from the crowd, yet desiring their acceptance by proving his/her superiority to that crowd. This is a crucial stage in development in which one desires to become an individual, yet does not possess the confidence to break from the crowd. They still seek their identity and self worth from the crowd. You see this stage practiced in the pursuit of more stuff/knowledge/position for the sake of bragging rights. My car is nicer, my story is better, my trophy is bigger, my salary is higher: now am I acceptable? These people often feel they have all the answers and feel self-righteous in their knowledge.

In Cook-Greuter’s study, she found that 36.5% of American adults surveyed were stuck in this stage. This stage adheres to a system of rules and has a high capability of feeling “shame and guilt.”

Many Christians seem to be found at this stage. These Christians love the writings of Paul and all of his lists of morality, but are confused when they read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which ironically is the foundation of Paul’s writings! What they do not understand: any paradox, mystery, or discussion of true transformation outside of the chief end of becoming more moral, is often “intellectualized, rationalized, and explained away.”

Many churches are stuck here as well, and the next generation of young people can see through the intellectualizations and often steer clear of this church because of its institutionalization of rules that are foreign to their own circle and value system.

The Capacity of love of these individuals is still self-focused, but disguised. Experts love God and others for what they get in return from them.

Adult Faith Development Pt 2

Discussed in the previous post was the two different types of growth, horizontal: growing ins skill, knowledge, and facts. In this growth we become smarter, but not necessarily more mature as a Christian. Just because we have memorized the book of John does not mean that we are now living the truths found therein.

Vertical growth is when we become more aware of God; His working in our life and world. We awaken to God moving in areas of life that we were previously blinded to. Everyone can see the blessing and working of God in finding a $20 bill on the ground, it does not take much to see blessing there, but when you can see God in the face of poverty, in the sick, the least of these, then you are moving up in your awareness of God's presence that is saturating the world.

We also move up in our capacity of love. As we start to awaken to God's presence and working in the world around us, it becomes more natural to love those we encounter, even those that irritate us or are outright hostile to us. Vertical growth means that we are becoming more spiritually mature whereas horizontal growth is merely getting more intelligent.

How does this work itself out? Let me illustrate with an example of a description of a stage one and two individual from the Pre-Conventional level the Impulsive:

The Impulsive, treats other people as a “source of need gratification or supply.” Naturally a baby is at this level of mental development, but there are a few who do get stuck in this stage for life, most of the time these individuals end up in prisons due to their self centered existence. The awareness of God in this stage is very low, and these individuals are unapologetic in their self centered-ness. "The world and its participants exists for me, and me alone."

The second stage of the Pre-conventional level is the Opportunist, illustrated here, who “sees the world only from the perspective of their own needs and wants…[and gets it] by controlling others and protecting oneself.” These individuals have become masters of manipulation. They have matured a bit in their thinking, now they can take into effect others' perspectives, but only to get what they want. Toddlers have matured into this stage and are well known for their skills at manipulating parents to get needs met. Some people do get stuck in this stage and do not mature beyond it.

Thompson, in the Congruent life, sums up these two stages saying, “Stage 1… sees the world in terms of the gratification of one’s own basic needs and the avoidance of personal harm. People at stage 2 become capable of assessing the needs of others…but usually only as a means of getting what they themselves want.”

Bernard of Clairvoux would say that the capacity of love for these individuals is self focused: they love self for the sake of self.

Adult Faith Development Pt 1

I am very close to finishing my Masters Degree in Spiritual Formation and Leadership. In this program, I have learned that there is a process to being formed into the image of Christ, and while mapping out the process is like mapping the ocean floor, I have found that there are milestones along the way and different levels of function.

When we think of stages of development, we may think that some stages are inferior to others and create a hierarchy. This is a mistake, we know that God can be equally found in the poor in spirit as he can with a whole individual. When I speak of stages of development, I am speaking of a way of functioning in the world and with God, not a higher level of value as a human being.

I call this a modified Cook-Greuter scale of faith development. Susane Cook-Greuter has done some amazing work with the study of adult development, and I have stood on her shoulders along with St Bernard of Clairvoux's four degrees of love, and integrated many concepts of Spiritual Formation into a working illustration of faith development.

You can see illustrated in this philosophy of Christian leadership that there is room for 3D movement in both vertical and horizontal directions. Not all growth will result in a greater awareness of God and capacity of love. Cook-Greuter suggests that a person can have horizontal growth when they “learn new skills, new methods, new facts, even new ways of organizing knowledge, but their current action logic mental model of the world remains the same.” This means that we can grow horizontally without growing vertically.

I have observed that much growth in the church has been horizontal: more knowledge of theology, scripture memorization, church program involvement, preaching skills, strategic planning, missional models, administration of vision; but, in this model, horizontal growth does not equal vertical growth. Horizontal growth is what “discipleship” has come to mean in these later years of the Enlightenment. Christian Spiritual Formation, however, emphasizes vertical growth with horizontal growth as a consequential fruit. As we define the nine stages of adult development illustrated here, we shall see why an emphasis on mere horizontal growth becomes a problem to leadership and a corporate church setting.

The chart is broken into three levels of awareness: Pre-conventional, Conventional, and Post-Conventional. Each level brings with it new paradigms of thinking and being, an increased awareness of God; His workings in our own lives and the world around us, and a greater capacity of love for God, others, and our self. Each level has different stages within, which have varying capacities of function.