Change: A Group Effort (pt. 1)

We’ve been talking a lot about the growth process for you and me as individuals but the reality is that growth is never an individual effort. And while some growth we see in ourselves, other growth is best seen in the context of relationship.

God, Jesus and the Spirit: your parent, your friend and your guide

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I have nothing to ultimately offer you through this blog apart from the transforming love of God. So while I get the privilege of diving into the nitty gritty and practicalities of spiritual formation with you, we have to keep coming back to where any power to change actually comes from.

The Trinity is a complex topic above my pay grade ;) but I do want to point out that God, although one, exists in community as the Father, Son and Spirit. Each play a role in this “family” and also provide us with exactly what we need as we are also now part of this union.

God, the perfect Father, is our Creator and provides our identity, security and provision.

Jesus, our advocate is also our friend, our brother who sympathizes with our experiences and lived the life we couldn’t live. We are credited with his righteousness so we are not striving to earn acceptance.

The Spirit, our counselor and indwelling power to live like who we truly are, always pointing us back to Christ. Until Christ returns this is the guarantor of what God has promised to those of us who been transferred from darkness to light, from death to life.

When we talk about change, you can probably see how the truths mentioned above are KEY to the change process: knowing our identity, being safe and understood, having power outside of ourselves to help us in our weakness make lasting change possible.

In contrast, no lasting, transformative change will happen without our deepening understanding and dependence on the Trinity.

The Church: your family and primary community

The church is God’s plan for the world to hear the good news of the gospel. There have been beautiful parts of church history and horrific parts. The church may have been part of your hurt but the church is also meant to be part of your healing.

The church functions as the body of Christ. The hands and feet of God on this earth. Created in God’s image, brought to life through salvation we get to mirror the gospel to the world through being the bride of Christ.

The wayward bride? Yes. The ugly bride at times? Yes.

But the beloved bride awaiting the marriage supper of the Lamb when we are with God forever as it was back in the garden. No sin. No shame. No separation.

We are meant to process our relationship with God with others within our church family.

We spur each other on in spiritual disciplines and the good works God is calling us to do.

We help each other find out how we are gifted and where we need others to help fill in for our weaknesses.

We remain committed to each other when life is hard, stepping in to bear each other's burdens caused by sin and suffering.

Ideally, we strive to know each other as fully as we can and love each other as we have been loved by God.

This will be messy. This will be hard. But, name one thing in life that is really GOOD that does not hold challenges with it? I can’t think of one.

Be committed and connected to a local church. This is KEY to your growth process.

No lasting transformative change will happen without relationships with other believers.

Anyone wondering why I haven't mentioned anything about counseling, spiritual direction, mentorship, etc.?

We will dive into that into the next post...stay tuned...

In this with you,

Lauren