CHRISTIAN GROWTH CYCLE: 1

BELONGING

Tim Britton

INTRODUCTION: THE CHRISTIAN GROWTH CYCLE

We aim to grow in relationship with God
– Father, Son and Holy Spirit –
and to bring others into that relationship.

	The Christian Growth Cycle is designed to help us to make the most of our Christian life and fulfil our potential as children of God.  

	Our spiritual growth takes place in four dimensions, which correspond to four important spiritual laws.  We grow in:
1) Spirituality – our relationship with God.  The law corresponding to this is the one Jesus called the greatest commandment: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your hear and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (Matthew 22:37)
2) Social and Environmental Life – the way we relate to people at home, at work, and in our leisure, and the way in which we relate to the environment as a whole.  The corresponding law is the one Jesus said was second in importance: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:39)
3) Corporate Life – our relationship with other Christians.  The corresponding law is the new commandment Jesus gave his disciples: ‘Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’ (John 13:34)
4) Mission – our involvement in the work Christ came to do.  After his resurrection Jesus gave the command known as ‘the great commission’: ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’ (Matthew 28:19,20)

	The Christian Growth Cycle revolves around these four dimensions.  Three complete circles will help us to be fully functioning Christians, able to fulfil our part in Christ's purposes. These three circles are: 
1) Belonging.  Becoming a Christian means that we now belong to Christ, and are members of God’s family, the Church.  The first stage explores what it means to belong, and introduces the different dimensions of the Christian life.
2) Serving.  We belong to Christ, so what do we do?  How do we become active members, serving God and enjoying his presence here and now?  The second stage looks at how we can function in all four dimensions.
3) Maturing.  God wants us to grow to maturity.  The third stage aims to help us mature in the four dimensions.

	The new Christians formed as we grow begin the growth cycle at the first circle, and so the cycle continues.  The three circles are not mutually exclusive: even as we learn about belonging we will be serving God and maturing as Christians, and helping others on their spiritual journey.  

	The teaching offered in the Christian Growth Cycle is but one way of enabling our growth in relationship with God to happen.  It is particularly appropriate for use in cell groups, where there can be the mutual accountability and encouragement necessary for spiritual growth.  It is not meant to be a rigid programme, but a resource which can be adapted or added to in whatever way promotes growth. If you find other resources helpful, please let the church leadership know about them.  In the end, all that matters is that one way or another our aim is fulfilled: we grow in relationship with God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and bring others into that relationship.

CHAPTER 1:	BELONGING TO GOD'S FAMILY 
		  	- CAN I BE SURE?

	We begin by asking the question, 'How can I be sure that I really am one of God's family?'

	God wants us to be sure!  One of the letters in the Bible contains these words: 'I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.' (1 John 5:13)  We are all prone to doubts; but we don't have to stay in doubt; we can justifiably become certain that we are Christians belonging to God's family, and that we have eternal life - life with God for ever.

	Becoming a Christian is a bit like getting married.  Christianity is first and foremost a relationship with Jesus, just as marriage is a relationship between husband and wife.  Relationships don't happen immediately; they take time to develop.  The usual pattern in this country is that first the man and the woman get to know one another - a process that often results in them getting to know themselves a bit better as well.  They eventually develop a belief that they are right for each other.  But before they take the step of commitment in marriage there is usually a point when they weigh things up - is this what I really want?  The defining moment is the marriage ceremony when they make public vows and promises to each other.   That's the beginning; afterwards the relationship continues to grow and develop. 

	Our relationship with Jesus follows a similar pattern.  We get to know who he is and who God is - and in the process get to know ourselves a bit better too; we come to the point when we believe we can't do without a relationship with  Jesus; so we weigh up the pros and cons and eventually make a commitment to him.  That's just the beginning; we expect to see changes in our lives and we expect our relationship to grow.  

	How do we know that our relationship is genuine?  We know people are married if we see their on-going relationship and hear about how it began, and also see physical signs of the wedding in the form of the wedding ring.  When Paul visited Ephesus, he found some men who appeared to be Christians.  They had been baptized, and that is for Christians a physical sign of our relationship with Christ.  But Paul wasn't sure about them, so he asked them about their on-going relationship: 'Did you receive the Spirit when you were baptized?'  They didn't know about that, so Paul probed a little more into their history, and discovered that they weren't Christians at all.  Reviewing our spiritual journey can help us be sure of our relationship; so let us look at five steps in that journey, using the first five letters of the alphabet as markers.  I'm putting them in a logical order; however, life is rarely logical, and you may not have taken the steps quite in this order.  It doesn't matter, as long as you have taken these steps somehow and now have an on-going relationship with Jesus Christ.

A:  Accept.  
	As we got to know God, we had to accept some basic truths about him and about ourselves.  First, about God.  
	We all now accept the fact that God exists.  But who is he?  What's he like?  We do not know all the answers to the questions we have, but we believe we can get to know God, through nature, through the Bible, and especially through Jesus Christ.  So we accept that God isn't just an impersonal force, or a power far removed from us; he is personal, and it is right to call him 'him' rather than 'it'.  (Calling God 'him' does not imply he is male - he is beyond gender.)  We accept the teaching in the Bible that God created the world and keeps it going, that he is good, that he made human beings able to have a personal relationship with him, and that he loves us and cares about what happens to us.  We also accept that while there is only one God, there is a threeness about him: God is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  We can't really understand this, but we can still accept it!  We're Christians, not Godians.
	Then there are things we have had to accept about ourselves.  
Since God made us, it follows that we are important to God, and also that we are ultimately accountable to him for our actions.  However, we've had to accept that our  deeds, words, thoughts and motives have all fallen short of God's requirements - in religious language, we have sinned against him.  We have no automatic right to a personal relationship with God.  We need to be forgiven to have any hope.  But we have also had to accept that we can never do enough to earn forgiveness or deserve God's favour.  Left to ourselves, our situation is hopeless.  If ever we were to enjoy a relationship with him, we needed help.

B: Believe. 
	The next step in our journey was to believe that Jesus is the saviour we need.  We came to believe he is God - God the Son - and that he became a human being, that he was crucified, came to life and is now with God the Father, and all for the purpose of bringing us into relationship with God.  We have believed that somehow Jesus took responsibility for all who entrust themselves to him: that he took the punishment for our wrong-doing, and opened the way for all of us to have a personal relationship with God and the prospect of eternal life with him in perfect happiness and fulfilment.  No-one else could do this for us; we certainly couldn't do this for ourselves.  You may know the story of the soldier who needed to see President Lincoln, and could only do so when Lincoln's son took him in.  We believe Jesus can do a similar thing for us.

C. Consider.  
	The third step is to consider.  Stop and think!  It is one thing to believe someone is right for us.  It is quite another  to commit ourselves to that person.  Jesus told us to count the cost.  A relationship with God has to be on his terms, not ours.  He promises eternal life, fulfilment and happiness; but he also warns us that in this life we will also have suffering and struggle.  Often when we first get to know about Jesus no-one warns us of the difficulties a relationship with him might bring.  They only tell us the attractive bits!  But by now I hope you've seen both sides, and that you've weighed them up and seen that whatever difficulties lie ahead, a relationship with Jesus and with God is infinitely worth while.

D. Do.  
	This is the fourth step,  and possibly the most important, for it is the equivalent of the marriage ceremony.  We all need to have done something: to have deliberately and freely put ourselves in Jesus' hands.  The exact form of words doesn't matter; all that matters is that we trusted Jesus to take away our guilt and to bring us into a relationship with God, giving us forgiveness and eternal life; and that we promised to follow him, and accepted his complete authority in our lives.  This is what it means to 'believe in' Jesus.  The physical sign that marks it is baptism; but baptism on its own is as worthless as a ring without a wedding - the commitment is the important thing.
	It is surprising how many people miss this step out.  Some people seem to want a kind of live-in relationship with Jesus, believing the truth about him but never really committing themselves to him - or maybe they have been brought up as Christians and have never realized the need for such a personal commitment.  Whether or not we can remember the time or occasion isn't important, so long as we know we are committed to each other.  If you want to make sure, pray this prayer:
	'Jesus, all I know about myself I give to all I know about you.'
	Has Jesus accepted us?   Look at his promises:
'Whoever comes to me I will never drive away.'  (John 6:37)
'All those who look to the Son and believe in him shall have eternal life.' (John 6:39)
'Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.' (Matthew 28:20)
	We can be certain that if we have committed ourselves to Jesus, he has committed himself to us.

E.  Expect.
	There is one more step at the beginning of the Christian journey, which is important both in helping us to grow as Christians and in helping us to be sure of our relationship with God:
	Expect the Holy Spirit to show his presence in you.  In the Bible we read that Jesus said, 'Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flowing from within.'  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. (John 7:37,38)  God the Holy Spirit lives in all who believe in Jesus; he makes Jesus real to us and helps us to live with him and for him.  
	There are three particular things we can expect to see if the Holy Spirit is in us:
1) We can expect a sense that God is indeed our loving heavenly Father - better than any human father - and that we are his dearly loved children. (Romans 8:16)  At the same time the Holy Spirit gives us an increased love for our brother and sister Christians. (1 John 4:12)

2) We can expect some gift or talent which can help people spiritually. (1 Corinthians 12:7)
3) We can expect a change in our behaviour.  If the Holy Spirit is in us, he changes us from the inside so that we find it more and more natural to live the Jesus way.  (Galatians 5:22)
	When these things are happening, they show that the Holy Spirit is in us, which in itself shows that we really are accepted by God.   This is what Paul expected to see in the Ephesians he met.  If this is not your experience, you have only to ask.  Jesus said, 'If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!' (Luke 11:13)  Pray, 'Heavenly Father, fill me with the Holy Spirit.'  Then expect the Holy Spirit to show his presence in you, and count on his help as you learn to live the way Jesus is leading you.

	One more thing needs to be said.  If we really want to be sure of our relationship with God, we cannot rest on our laurels, as it were.  The relationship needs to be an on-going one.  As with marriage, so with God - keep working on it!  There is so much of God to know, so much more to experience!  We need to keep going, and to keep growing! (2 Peter 1:5-11)  And that's what this Christian Growth Cycle is all about.

CHAPTER 2.  BELONGING TO GOD'S FAMILY - WHO AM I?

	Are you happy inside your skin?  Are you glad you are you?  Or would you rather be someone else, with better circumstances, better brains, fitter body, more beauty, better skills, and lots more money?  If you don't particularly enjoy being you, you're not alone; there are many Christians who suffer from feelings of failure and inadequacy, and don't think they'll amount to anything much - people who tell me they're a waste of space, who believe that God loves them but can't see why, who feel deep down that they and their lives are all one big mistake.

	Our sense of identity and self-worth depends on having a true sense of who we are.  Do you remember the story of the ugly duckling?  The ugly duckling suffered from a terrible inferiority complex, reinforced by all the others saying how ugly he was; driven out of the farmyard, he grew up in lonely isolation until one day he saw his reflection in the water and discovered that he wasn't an ugly duckling, but a beautiful swan.  Let's look at our reflections in the Bible, to see exactly who we are.

	Who am I?  You are probably aware that scientists argue about whether who I am is more a product of my nature or more a product of my nurture: some say who I am depends more on my genes, others say it depends more on my environment, the circumstances of my life.  The Bible teaches us that there is a third element, which outweighs both the others: I am a product of my genes, my circumstances, but chiefly of grace - by the grace of God I am what I am.  So what has God done for me?  What has he made me?

	If we are Christians the most important thing that has happened to us is that God has united us spiritually with Jesus Christ.  As Jesus said, 'I am the vine, you are the branches.'  We are now part of Jesus, as it were.  In the first session we compared becoming a Christian with getting married.  In marriage, two people become one.  They don't lose their identities; but their identities are changed by the fact that they are united to the other person.  I doubt whether many of us would have heard of Dennis Thatcher, were it not for the fact that he was married to a certain Margaret Thatcher.  Although he was very much his own person, he could not escape from the consequences of being the Prime Minister's husband - the fact that she was Prime Minister affected both their lives.   In the marriage service, at the exchange of rings, the bride and groom say to each other, 'All that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you.'  And that is exactly what has happened to us when we were united with Christ.  We are committed to Jesus: we say, 'All that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you.'  All.  Not just a part, everything.  We don't just give to Jesus the good parts of our lives, those things we think he might find acceptable.  We give him all of ourselves, with all our sins and failures and hopes and joys.  We are united with Christ!  And what a difference that makes.  Because although we don’t lose our own identities, our identities are changed by the fact that we are united with Christ.  He is the vine, we are the branches.  If the branches are ugly and deformed, what does that make the vine.  It of course is ugly and deformed.  But if the vine is perfect, the branches must be perfect too – you can’t have a perfect vine made of imperfect branches.  So if Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, his perfection swallows up all our imperfections.

	How does this affect us?  First, it means that we are free from guilt and blame in God’s eyes.  If Jesus is united to us, he is united to our sins and failures - and because he died on the cross for us, those sins and failures are blotted out of God's sight.  The debt is paid!  When I married Frances, we united our bank accounts to form one joint account.  At the time, my account was overdrawn and hers was in credit.  What happened to my debts when the accounts were merged?  They were cancelled out, of course.  And that's what has happened to our spiritual debts, our guilt and failure, when we are joined to Jesus - all that is on the debit side of our lives is cancelled out by his overwhelming credit!  And the result is that as far as God is concerned, he sees us as Jesus people, people who are united to Jesus and who therefore have nothing in the way of their relationship with God.

	Our union with Jesus does more than cancel out the negative aspects of our lives in God's sight.  It also perfects all the positive parts.  We come to Jesus as unique individuals, each one a special creation of God.  We know that we are not by nature the perfect specimens of humanity God would like us to be - but we know also that there is a lot of good in each of us.  When we are united with Jesus all that we bring to the union is caught up and made perfect in God's sight.   And it isn't just a paper transaction, as it were - a real change happens.  The Bible talks about us being 'born again'.  We are given a new human nature - a new nature of the same kind as Jesus has had since his resurrection.  The unique person that is me is recreated with the kind of nature that will never be spoilt by sin, that will never die.  This work of new creation starts at the very deepest level, in our spirits.  The old nature is still around – we still have the same physical bodies, the same emotional reactions and ways of thinking we had before.  But the new nature is now our real nature; during the rest of our life on earth it can grow and affect every aspect of our lives - our thinking, our feeling, our behaving.  It won't be fully grown until we receive new bodies, when Christ comes again.  Then we'll be seen to be the unique, special, glorious individuals that we already are inside, through our union with Jesus Christ.

	What we give to Christ, both good and bad, is only one side of the exchange.  The other side is that Jesus says to us, 'All that I am I give to you, all that I have I share with you.'  It's not just that all our debit is wiped out by his credit.  It is that all his credit is also counted as ours.  All that Jesus is and has is counted as ours.  Is Jesus perfect?  So are we, in the eyes of God.  Is Jesus God's beloved child?  So are we - God has adopted us into his family, not simply as sons and daughters-in-law, but as actual sons and daughters with just as much right to be in his family as Jesus himself.  Is Jesus in the place of highest power and authority in heaven and on earth?  So are we - we are united to him.  Jesus is the vine, we are the branches; what is true of the vine is true of the branches – you can’t say that a vine is healthy if the branches are sick -  and what is true of Jesus is also true of us.

	What difference does this teaching make?  It makes a huge difference, if we really take it in.  Paul told the Corinthian Christians, ‘If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come!’  Let’s look at some of the changes our union with Christ brings.
1) We have already seen that through our union with Christ we have forgiveness for all that is wrong in our lives. All condemnation, guilt and rejection is replaced by forgiveness and acceptance by him who is the only one who really matters. We have peace with God, and God is at peace with us.  We don’t need to gain acceptance by struggling to achieve, or to look good, or whatever it is we thought in the past would make us OK.  We are already fully acceptable because of our union with Christ Jesus.  As Romans chapter 8 says, ‘There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’.
2) Our union with Christ enables us to come freely into the presence of God.  We are in touch with the awesome power and majesty of God our heavenly Father, more awesome than any power of nature, more tender and loving than any human lover.  The presence of God evokes in us a reverent fear as well as wonder and love; and this increases our trust in him and makes us want to obey him.  It also gives us a sense of peace, whatever our circumstances: God’s in control and he loves us, and we love and trust him.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  We don’t have to be afraid of people or adverse situations any more. 
3) Our union with Christ enables us to be truly human, in the way God intended.  He did not intend us to be independent agents, going our own way – such independence is the basis of all sin.  We are created beings, dependent on our Creator.  Now that we are united to Christ, we know that we need to ‘remain in him’; apart from him we can do nothing.   So we are learning joyful dependence & submission to God; we are learning to grow in obedience and Christ-likeness.  We know we are not perfect - we may in fact be worse than some non-Christians – but we want to be obedient, we are aiming at Christ-likeness, and we are growing better!  We have exchanged a false independence for a true and joyful dependence on God.  
4) Through our union with Christ we have become children of God, heirs together with Christ. No longer are we outcasts, or irrelevant or hopeless.  We are people of destiny, we are significant, we are privileged.  There is meaning and purpose for our lives.  Self-denigration is out of place; instead, we can have a proper respect and love for ourselves, and expect joy as opposed to despair.  We are special!
5) Through our union with Christ, we have become members of a body of people, where there should be no need for anyone to feel isolated and alone.  In our cell groups we aim to see this working out in practice; for the cells to function properly there does need to be a real commitment to each other, so that while no-one’s privacy is invaded, yet no-one suffers from isolation, and everyone knows that they are needed and valued.  We are together, as branches of the one vine.

	God has united us to Christ Jesus, through our faith in him.  How do we stay there – how do we remain in Christ?  In John 15 Jesus tells us to let his words remain in us, in other words to hold on to his teaching; and he tells us to obey his commands, especially to love one another.  He reminds us that he loves us, and promises all the help we need – we have only to ask.  We will think more about these things in the next chapter.  But for now, the important thing is that we know who we are in Christ.  Make the following affirmation now: if you belong to Jesus, these things are true of you.  Read the whole statement through aloud.

I AM
I am united to Jesus Christ.  
In union with him:
	I am made new.
	I am forgiven by God.
	I am as righteous in God’s eyes as Christ himself.
	I am accepted by God.
	I am God’s beloved child.
	I am a co-heir with Christ.
	I am equipped for fruitful service.
	I am destined for glory.
	I am special.

	We began with the ugly duckling; we’ll end with Cinderella.  Imagine what the prince would have thought if after the marriage Cinderella went back to sweeping the kitchen for the ugly sisters.  Think about it…

CHAPTER 3: SIGNS OF BELONGING

	We have already compared our relationship with God to marriage.  At the heart of marriage is the idea of covenant.  A covenant is a binding agreement between two or more parties, and in marriage vows are exchanged between the bride and the groom.  The rings are exchanged as a sign of this covenant, a proof and a reminder that the vows have been made.  Our relationship with God is also based on a covenant: God takes us as his own and promises to be our God, while we for our part respond in loving, faithful, obedience.  This covenant also has signs; in the Old Testament circumcision was the sign of the covenant, while in the New Testament baptism and holy communion are the proofs and reminders of God’s covenant with us.  

	The covenant between God and his people is at the centre of the whole Bible.  The word ‘Testament’, as in the Old and New Testaments, is from the Latin word testamentum which was used to translate the Greek word for covenant.  The essence of the covenant is this: God says, ‘I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.’ (Exodus 6:7)  The Old Testament tells the story of the people of Israel, and their relationship with God.   Unfortunately, they rejected God and worshipped idols; so God said that he would make a new covenant.  He said, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time: I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people… I will forgive their wickedness & remember their sins no more.’ (Jeremiah 31:31-34.)  Notice, it is the same covenant, but with a spiritual dimension; instead of depending on rules and regulations, God would work in their hearts.  

	When Jesus came, that prophecy began to be fulfilled, and the New Testament tells the story. By his death and resurrection Jesus established the new covenant, a covenant that includes both Israelites and non-Israelites.  God takes us as his people, not on the basis of our nationality, nor of our good behaviour, but on the basis of our relationship with Jesus; and he forgives us and works within us, giving us new life and nature so that we can fulfil his laws and purposes.  The Holy Spirit now lives in us, proof that God has accepted us.

	The signs of this new covenant, baptism and holy communion, are more than just signs.  These ceremonies are ‘sacraments’ , which the Prayer Book defines as an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.  Each sacrament consists of both the physical sign and the spiritual reality.  The physical signs are important – after all, Jesus commanded us both to baptize and to remember his death by means of  holy communion – and they help us to grow spiritually by reminding us of what God has done and helping us to take it to ourselves.  Nevertheless, without spiritual reality the signs are meaningless.  Let us look at each in turn.

BAPTISM
	In baptism the outward sign is water, and the spiritual meaning is what God has done in giving us new birth, beginning the Christian life of faith and leaving the old way.  It marks the time when we first join God’s covenant community and it can truly be said that God is our God, and we are his people.  In many cultures, this radical change is also marked by a new name – a Christian name.   Baptism is commanded by Jesus: ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ (Matthew 28:19).  All Christian churches practise baptism, which is seen as the entrance into the universal church, not just one part of it.  That’s why if you have already been baptized you don’t need to be baptized again if you join another church.  

	Different churches, however, have different beliefs and practices about baptism.  One area of discussion is about whether baptism should be given to babies, or should be only given to those who have made a genuine commitment to Jesus Christ.  Those who believe that baptism should only be given to believers are the many Baptist and Pentecostal churches.  They argue that baptism marks the beginning of the Christian life, and that we become Christians only through faith in Jesus Christ, so we should only baptize those who believe; they point out that the Bible does not specifically mention baptism of children.  However, this view is not without its difficulties.  A Baptist missionary in Indonesia wrote about a problem facing some new converts.  The parents had been baptized, but the children were not old enough to understand, so although they had been dedicated to the Lord, they had not yet been baptized.  One of the children died.  The relatives and friends refused to let them have a Christian burial.  ‘That child is not a Christian,’ they said, ‘she has not been baptized into the Christian faith, so she is still a Muslim.’  They knew that baptism was the ceremony that marked the beginning of the Christian life; without it, they felt they had the right to assume the child was still a member of the same faith community that the rest of the tribe belonged to.

	On the other extreme, there are those who believe that the act of baptism actually brings about new birth.  Some missionaries in the early days forced people to be baptized - they genuinely thought the baptism would ensure that they went to heaven eventually. But Jesus taught us that the Holy Spirit gives a person new birth, not just a physical act of baptism.  Nevertheless, this belief still hangs on in the superstition that you need to get your baby ‘done’ in order for it to have a good start in life.  Fortunately that superstition is slowly dying out.  

	Other churches take the middle route.  They would argue that the Christian life begins at birth for those brought up in a Christian family.  These children are brought up to believe in Jesus, God is their God and they are his people, and although they may drift away, that can also happen to people baptized as believers.  So these churches say baptism should be given to babies born to Christian families.  That is my position.  I believe the Bible supports it, when it talks about whole households being baptized – in those days, as in the Third World today, there were very few households without children.  It is important to ensure that when children are brought for baptism, they will be brought up within the Christian faith – which means that at least one parent must be a genuine follower of Jesus, fully involved with his covenant community.

	Another area of discussion is about whether baptism should be by total immersion or by pouring or sprinkling water on the person.  The word baptism comes from a Greek word which first meant to immerse; however, there is a manuscript of Mark’s Gospel which talks about Jews baptizing cups, pitchers, kettles and dining couches – obviously cups could be immersed, but dining couches?  Nevertheless, the symbolism of total immersion is very powerful, especially in the light of Romans 6:3,4: ‘Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ Jesus was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.’  So the view of a person being totally immersed and then coming out of the water is a powerful symbol of death and resurrection, and is one reason why even churches which practiced infant baptism tended to do it by total immersion until recently.  My own feeling is that God doesn’t worry about how much water is used.  The important thing is that if we believe in Jesus, we need to be baptized; and if you have not already been baptized, then talk to somebody about it as soon as possible.

HOLY COMMUNION
	In holy communion the outward sign is bread and wine, which represent Christ’s body and blood given for us.  Unlike baptism, we are encouraged to take communion regularly, because it helps us continually to remember and benefit from our Lord’s death.  It is a covenant meal, giving us spiritual food as well as reaffirming that we are God’s covenant people through Jesus Christ.

	Again, churches differ in their beliefs and practices.  Some call it the eucharist, others call it the Lord’s supper.  Some use bread, others use wafers. Some use non-alcoholic wine.  Some urge their people to take communion each week, others three times a year.  Some believe that only properly ordained priests can lead the service, and that when they do the bread and wine actually become Christ’s body and blood.  At the time of the Reformation, people were burnt at the stake for their differing beliefs in this area, including archbishop Cranmer, who wrote the prayer book.  He was put to death in Queen Mary’s time because he did not believe that any physical change took place when the bread and wine were consecrated.  Thankfully we don’t burn heretics any more!

	The important thing in holy communion is what is happening spiritually. When we take the bread and the wine, we are sharing in an action which has its origins with our Lord distributing the bread and the wine and telling us to do the same in remembrance of him.  We need to remember that Jesus’ body was given for us, and his blood shed for us, so that we might be forgiven and accepted by God.  We live before God today, only because Jesus died. St Paul tells us that when we take communion, we are proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes – we are making a statement, and will continue to do so until his coming renders it unnecessary.  He also reminds us that the communion is with each other as well as with the Lord; it is a covenant meal for the covenant people, and we who share this activity are members together of the one body of Christ.  As we eat the bread or sip the wine, it is difficult if not impossible to remember all this; but we can think of Jesus’ death on the cross for us, and simply receive it into ourselves, letting it become part of us so that we can go on to live in the power of his resurrection life.

	In the church of England we ask that those who take communion be confirmed, unless they are already communicant members of other churches.  Confirmation is an act of witness, when we declare our faith in God for ourselves, thus showing that the  inward part of baptism is a reality in our lives.  It is linked with communion, because it is felt that those who can declare their faith in this way can also understand what is going on in communion.  There is an on-going debate about this issue; but for now it is still the case that you need at least to be ready to be confirmed before you take communion.  If you have not been confirmed, please see one of the church leaders; don’t neglect this gift of our Lord, of holy communion.

CHAPTER 4:  BELONGING TO ALL SAINTS'

	We started by looking at the broad picture - what it means to belong to God’s people. All those who belong to Jesus belong to the one universal church, which is composed of all God’s people from all of history, regardless of what denomination they belong to, if any.  Another word for it is ‘catholic’.  It is sometimes called the invisible church, because only God knows who its members are.  However, we are also called by God to belong to a visible, local, expression of that invisible church.  This visible church may or may not consist of members of the invisible church – only God knows that – but one thing is certain: it will not be anywhere near perfect!  It is full of human beings, and has humans organizing it!  Nevertheless, God calls us to belong to a local church, and to play our part in helping it to grow in faith and effectiveness.   In this chapter we narrow down the focus to look at what it means to belong to All Saints’ Church in Allesley.

	All Saints Church is Church of England – and that means membership is very difficult to define.  When the Church of England wants to count numbers of members, it does a most incredible calculation, involving the number of people taking communion at Easter and Christmas, the number of people who usually attend Sunday services, and the number of people who are on the Church Electoral Roll, that is, who have signed up so that they can take part in the Annual Meeting and vote people on to the Parish Church Council (PCC).  It used to be the case that everyone in the parish was regarded as a member of the church, unless they were members of some other church; they were baptised and confirmed and married and buried in the church, and most people attended public worship.  Times have changed, and we can no longer regard everyone as a member; yet the Church of England does not want to have an exclusive membership list, because it wants its churches to serve every parishioner.  So what is the Church of England?  What does it stand for?

	The Church of England is part of a world-wide fellowship of Anglican churches, which were originally planted by Church of England folk who were either emigrants or missionaries.  Some Anglican churches overseas maintain their ‘Englishness’; yet within each nation the Anglican church is encouraged to promote a national expression of Christian faith, life and worship.  Today there are more Anglicans in Africa than in England.  The average age of Anglicans world-wide is around 20, and the majority are black.  They all have bishops who are in charge of dioceses, which are divided up into parishes with clergy serving the people in each parish.  All will use a written order of service of some kind at some point in their church life, and these services mostly can trace their line of descent to the Prayer Book of 1662.  And that’s about all you can say the Anglican churches have in common.  Some are more like the Roman Catholics, some more like Pentecostals, and there’s everything in between.  There are people who believe every word of the Bible, and people who threw the Bible away long ago, and everything in between.  Whilst some may view with grave suspicion all those Anglicans who believe and behave differently from them, I think that one of the glories of the Anglican church is its comprehensiveness.  We are all so different, yet there is a unity as seen by the fact that the Bishops meet together every ten years and thrash out policies between them under the chairmanship of the Archbishop of Canterbury.  He isn’t like the Pope, he can’t tell the other bishops what to do or believe – but he is still a potent symbol of unity.

	In England the Church of England is the ‘established’ church.  This means that it is recognised by law as the official religion of the State.  This affects us in various ways.  It means that some bishops can sit in the House of Lords; but that means that no Anglican clergy can be elected to the House of Commons. The church cannot change its laws or doctrines without reference to parliament. Everyone living in the parish has the right to baptism, marriage and funeral services in their parish church.  These things may bring problems, not least because anything connected to the establishment tends to become an aunt sally; but they also give us tremendous opportunities to explain the good news of Jesus.  If you have questions about the Church of England and its organisation, feel free to ask at any time!  I don’t guarantee to know the answer!

	Let’s turn our attention to our own church.  All Saints’ is a parish church, with a parish running from Kingsbury Road, Grayswood Avenue and Lincroft Crescent north-westwards to the boundary of Coventry and Solihull.  No parish church can hope to provide all its parishioners with all the different kinds of worship and activities that they might want; so each church develops its own distinctive characteristics, while remaining within the Anglican fold.  What is All Saints’ about?  What is its place within God’s scheme, and where do each of us fit in?

	Our purpose as a church is summed up in our vision statement: ‘We aim to grow in our relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to bring others into that relationship.’  It is vital for every Christian to aim to grow spiritually, wherever they are on life’s journey; we either grow or die.  Our growth isn’t just a matter of knowledge or skills; it is primarily a growth in relationship.  That relationship is with God in all his fullness, including the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit – we don’t miss any of them out.  And we cannot be content with a purely private religion; God wants everyone to come to know his love to the full, so we must not keep it to ourselves – we aim to bring others into a growing relationship with him as well.  How we do all this, we’ll look at in a moment.

	This purpose – to grow in relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to bring others into that relationship – needs to underlie everything we do as a church, and everything  we do as individual Christians.  A full relationship with God has four dimensions.  It has to be personal, as we spend time with him one-to-one; this is the ‘spirituality’ dimension.  Our relationship has to be corporate, for we grow as we interact with the members of the body of Christ; this is the ‘corporate life’ dimension.  Our relationship has to be practical, as we live and work with God in every aspect of our daily lives; this is the dimension of social and environmental life.  Our relationship with God also has a mission dimension, as we find ourselves caught up in his mission to the world.  Growth needs to take place in all four dimensions.   It happens as God reveals himself to us, opening himself to us; and as we respond in obedient faith and love and service, opening ourselves to him.  We grow in spirituality as God reveals himself through his Word, the Bible; we respond in praise and prayer.  We grow in our corporate life as God reveals himself to us through the words and deeds of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we respond by using our gifts to serve them.  We grow in our social and environmental life as God reveals his love and purposes for the world around us, and as we respond by getting involved in practical ways.  We grow in mission as we see God’s heart of love for sinners and respond by seeking to play our part in Christ’s continuing mission.

	We find the four laws a useful way of keeping ourselves focused on the right priorities as we respond to God.  These four laws are all commands of Jesus: love God with all your heart, love your neighbour as yourself, love one another, and go and make disciples.  They correspond with the four dimensions of the Christian life: the spirituality dimension involves loving God, the corporate life dimension involves loving one another, the social and environmental dimension involves loving our neighbour, and the mission dimension involves making disciples.  Jesus said that the most important command is to love God with all that we are.  It is vital therefore to get to know him, so that we can love him.  The second most important command is to love our neighbours as ourselves.  Some churches take that to mean we should be looking for them to become Christians; while that is true, we prefer to see our neighbours as important individuals who can be loved for their own sake, whatever their faith or lack of it.  It is this that gives meaning and value to our lives at work, in the family, and in the community – all are aspects of loving our neighbour.  The third command is similar; it is the command Jesus gave to his disciples to love one another just as he loves us.  It is specifically a call for Christians to love one another, and to relate together as brothers and sisters united in Christ.  This applies not just to ourselves within this church, but also to our relationships with other Christians in Coventry and beyond.  The fourth command is to go and make disciples everywhere.  Without this command the church would cease to exist; we are Christians only because people in the past have spread the good news from one country to another and from one generation to another.  We need to play our part, and help fulfil Christ’s mission.

	These four laws are important for all Christians everywhere, not just here.  However, they can just become whips to flog ourselves with if we are not careful.  In seeking to fulfil them we need constantly to remind ourselves to be thankful and practical.  Thankful, because our relationship with God is not on the basis of how well we keep these laws.  We are already forgiven, accepted and loved, because of what Jesus has done for us.  We need to be practical, because we need help in doing God’s will as far as these laws are concerned.  And that is why we have cell groups.

	The cell system is simply a practical way of helping us to grow in relationship with God.  During cell group meetings, we focus on God, on each other and our particular concerns, and also on the world around us.  We are aiming to become outward-looking communities, missionary communities, where the love of God can be seen not only in our relationships with each other but also in our practical concern for people at work or in our neighbourhoods or in the wider world. The advantage of a cell group is that it always is small enough for us fully to support one another, wherever we are in our spiritual journey.  We aim to grow as new members are added; but when we are large enough, we multiply into two groups so that we are not too large to maintain the level of support for each other.

	Alongside the cell system is the central organisation of the church.  We need small cell groups, but we also need congregational worship and activities, and we need specialist groups to help us as a church to fulfil our ministry.  Take the cross of nails group, for instance.  That group specializes in the ministry of reconciliation, at home and abroad, and has been doing so well that on May 14th 2000 we as a church received a cross of nails from the cathedral in recognition of this ministry.  Now the cross of nails group is not simply a small group of people who are interested in that kind of thing.  They are there for us as a church.  The ministry of reconciliation is part and parcel of loving our neighbours, and we need to find ways both of supporting the cross of nails group in their research and activities, and also of getting their insights into the heart of all our cell groups.  Similar things could be said of other ministries like the bereavement group.  These ministries are not alternative cell groups, but are resources for the whole church.

	So what does it mean to belong to All Saints?  Do I expect everyone to belong to a cell group?  Are those who are not, second class citizens as it were?   I personally believe that everyone could benefit from being a member of a cell group, and would encourage everyone to find a suitable cell group to join!  But I am an Anglican, and believe both in Anglican comprehensiveness and in the power of the Holy Spirit to work in people in his own way and according to his own agenda.  All that matters is that we are learning to be obedient to Christ, and are seeking to fulfill all four laws in our own lives.  As a church, we believe our systems can help; but they are there for everyone’s benefit, not as a stick to beat people with. The main thing is to make the main thing the main thing; and that is, as our vision statement says, to grow in relationship with God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, and to bring others into that relationship.  Let us all aim to do just that.

CHAPTER 5:	BELONGING TO GOD’S FAMILY 
			- GROWING IN CHRIST

	Jesus said, ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he cleans so that it will be even more fruitful…  I am the vine; you are the branches…   This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples…   I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.’ (John 15:1-16.)   What does Jesus mean?  What is this fruit that he’s talking about?  How does it grow in our lives?

	Our fruit shows us to be Jesus’ disciples, it brings glory to the Father, and it lasts.  When Jesus is talking about Christian fruit, he is talking about the results of God’s work in our lives, both internally in our characters and externally in our service.  God is working in us, to make us more like Jesus, and he is working through us to bring about his purposes in this world.  God’s main purpose is to bring as many people as possible into full relationship with him – that’s why Jesus came – so that his creation can be transformed and achieve its full potential, with love and truth and justice and goodness flourishing.  But for that to happen, we need to grow and become fruitful.

	How do we grow and become fruitful? When a branch is connected to the vine it receives all the nutrients it needs from the roots and from its leaves, and grapes grow naturally.  You could imagine an intelligent branch deciding whether or not to stay connected to the vine or to disconnect itself and do its own thing; it would have to weigh up whether it really wanted to be involved in the vine’s purpose of grape production, and whether it really needed help from the rest of the vine.  Likewise with us; remaining in Jesus involves being committed to Jesus’ purposes and being dependent on his provision.  We need to want his purposes to be achieved, and to be willing to play our part; so we accept his authority and obey his commands.   We need also to depend on him for the help and resources we need.  Much of the help he gives us comes in the form of teaching, so he tells us to let the words of his teaching remain in us instead of going in one ear and out the other.  His resources are given in answer to prayer, so he tells us to ask for what we need rather than trying to do it all by ourselves.  The result of this obedience and trust will be spiritual fruit growing naturally: we will become more and more the people God created us to be, and we will be more and more effective in fulfilling God’s purposes at work, at home, or wherever we happen to be.  God will increase our fruitfulness by ‘pruning’ us – removing those unproductive parts of our lives, or even removing good parts so that the best may grow.  He might find it necessary to use painful circumstances to do this good work; however, Jesus told his disciples that they had already been pruned, simply by listening to his teaching (v. 3).  I have a feeling that if we listened more carefully to God, we would spare ourselves many problems!

	Notice how this fits in with the four dimensions of Christian life.  Our spirituality and corporate life provide us with resources from God to serve him fruitfully in our social and environmental life and our mission.  Let’s look at this in more detail.

1) SPIRITUALITY
	Our spirituality is our personal relationship with God.  As with any relationship, it has two sides: we relate to God, and he relates to us.  In practical terms, the main ingredients of spirituality are prayer and the Bible.

	First,  PRAYER.  Jesus said, ‘If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you’ (John 15:7).  There is no secret about prayer; it is simply communication with God.  It can be corporate prayer and worship such as in a cell group or congregation, or it can be private, one-to-one with God.  Lots of books have been written about prayer – it is such a deep subject that there is always something to learn.  Yet it is also the simplest thing, so simple that any child can pray.  So many people say that they don’t know how to pray – they can’t find the words.  They have the impression that because God is so great, they have to use fine words or a special language.  They look at the Lord’s Prayer, and see words such as ‘hallowed’ and ‘trespasses’, and don’t realize that when Jesus taught that prayer all the words he used were easily understood by his hearers and didn’t need explaining.  Jesus taught us to talk to God as our Father, the best of all possible fathers.  God doesn’t need us to address him in formal language, as if the words we use will influence his answer.  There is a time and a place for formal prayers, and if we can’t quite put our thoughts into words we may find prayers written by other people a help; but on the whole God wants us simply to be ourselves, and to express ourselves to him just in our normal way of speaking, especially when it’s private, just us and God.  Remember also that God listens to the heart more than to the voice – words may not be needed at all.
	God is always with us, and we can communicate to him and he to us at any time, in any place, about anything.  ‘Lord, help!’ in the middle of a problem, ‘Lord, where is it?’ when looking for something – these are prayers!  However, it is good also to spend quality time alone with God, and many people find something like the word ACTS a help:
A stands for Adoration when we praise and love God for who he is, 
C stands for Confession when we bring into the open the wrong in our life, 
T stands for Thanksgiving when we thank God for what he has done, and 
S stands for Supplication, which is the only way people could think of fitting a word that means ‘asking’ into ACTS.  Let’s not belittle asking; it is not a lesser form of prayer.  Indeed, it shows that we are utterly dependent on God, and that is honouring to him.  Don’t ever be afraid to ask God for something good – and don’t worry if he says ‘No’ or ‘Wait’ – you can trust him to do what’s best.  But he does like to be asked.

	Second, the BIBLE.  ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that God’s servant may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’ (2 Timothy 3:16,17.)  It is from the Bible that we learn the teachings of Jesus, and the commands and promises of God.  ‘Be transformed by the renewing of your mind,’ says Paul (Romans 12:2), and this only happens as we absorb God’s truth through the Bible.  This means we need to read it or hear it, in private as well as in groups or congregations.  Don’t be put off by the difficulties and the ‘foreignness’ of it.  I’ve read it through I don’t know how many times, and I still find some bits boring, and some bits impossible to understand.  It may help to remember that the Bible is spiritual food.  When we first started eating food we didn’t immediately tuck into a 16oz steak or nut cutlet.  Our mothers gave us milk, and then very simple food.  Our ability to appreciate food grew as we grew.  So it is with the Bible.  If a bit seems indigestible, you do not actually have to swallow it whole.  Don’t dismiss it – you will probably come to value it later.  But for now, skim over it until you find something that is more digestible – then read, mark, learn and inwardly digest that passage (as the Prayer Book says).   Aim to be able to answer the question, ‘What is God saying to me today?’  (Ask the same question during discussions or sermons.)  
	You will probably find it helpful in private to use some form of Bible reading notes.  Not everyone does, so don’t be disappointed if you don’t get on with them.  However, whether you use notes or not it is important to have a regular diet, a sufficient diet, a balanced diet, and to chew it over properly.  
•	Have a regular diet.  Try to read at least something each day. Don’t leave all your Bible reading to one day a week. 
•	Have a sufficient diet.  Don’t just make do with one verse at a time: aim to have sufficient to get your teeth into. 
•	Have a balanced diet.  Don’t just make do with sweeties – those passages that mean a lot, that you keep reading again and again.  Aim in the course of time to read the whole Bible – it doesn’t matter whether it takes you one year or ten.  You’ll probably find it helpful each day to read something from the Old Testament and something from the New. Ask others in your cell group what they find helpful.
•	Chew it over properly.  Always ask, 'What is God saying to me today?'  It may be something about himself, about his world, or about yourself.  It may be a promise or truth to believe, or something to do.  Look in the passage for the answers.  After you've answered that question for yourself, then (and only then) is the time to look at any Bible notes you may be using.

2) SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL LIFE
	God’s purposes for us cover every aspect of our lives.  There is no boundary between ‘religious’ and ‘secular’; God is as interested in what we do at work or at home as he is in what we do during worship. God created us to live in society, God wants society to function, God has plans for our society; and what we do as members of that society is part of God’s purposes for us. In our prayer and bible reading we need to look for God’s way to live in all our circumstances, and to trust God to teach us to relate as his children to the society and environment he has put us in.   As we learn to love our neighbour as ourselves, we become more and more what God created us to be, and at the same time we affect our society and environment for good so that they become more what God wants them to be.

3) CORPORATE LIFE
	We need each other.  If we try to live God’s way we soon discover we need the support and help of other Christians who are doing the same. It is vital for us to have good Christian friends – just as long as we don’t neglect our non-Christian friends. We all probably acknowledge the debt we owe to Christians we respect, whose example or encouragement have helped us along the way.  But we also need the people who are on our level, who know no more than we do, and sometimes a great deal less.  They, too, are branches of the vine; they, too, are children of God through their union with Jesus Christ, they, too, are the home of the Holy Spirit who has given them gifts for the benefit of all.  It is important for us to see them in this way, and to expect God to use them to draw us closer to himself – and to expect God to use us to help them.  We must not expect the way in which God uses them to be immediately obvious.  Often we only look out for things that tie in with our own personalities – if we are thinking people, we look for insights, if we are people people, we look for warmth and friendship, if we are practical people, we look for practical help, and so on.  It may be that God gives a practical person a helpful thought from a brother or sister in Christ;  but the practical person does not see the immediate practical use of what was said, so does not pay attention to the thought God has given.  Even more secretly, God may use the weak and faltering prayer of a weak and faltering Christian to open the flood-gates of blessing, and nobody knows why the blessing has come, least of all the one praying.  Let’s not limit God, and let’s recognize our need of each other.  In our cell groups especially, let us learn how much we need the other members; we may not yet appreciate them all, but God has given them all to us for our mutual help and support.

4) MISSION
	God’s purpose for us is more than to play our part in helping his creation to keep going.  God wants us to play our part in saving creation through spreading the good news of Jesus.  We cannot keep the good news to ourselves!  We need to look for opportunities to share the good news of his love, and trust him to use us when those opportunities come.  We don’t have to worry about what to say; just share what we know!

	No true growth happens without the Holy Spirit.  He is the one who is helping us through other people, he is the one who speaks to us through the Bible, he is the one who helps us to communicate with God, and who speaks directly to us.  In his letter to the Galatians, Paul says that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5:22,23), and that this fruit grows as we ‘live by the Spirit’, or ‘keep in step with the Spirit’ (Galatians 5:16,25).  The Holy Spirit speaks to our consciences or intuition, deep within our spirits, to give us an awareness of what God wants us to do or understand at that time.  Let’s be sensitive to him, and listen to that ‘still, small voice’ within, whether we are with other Christians, reading the Bible, praying, or simply going about our business.  And when he tells us to do something, or gives us an opportunity to serve God by serving other people or by sharing with them what we’ve found, then let’s go for it!  Our purpose is to co-operate with God so that his purposes may be fulfilled in us and through us – that is spiritual fruitfulness, and that will only grow as we try it!  Let’s not be afraid of making mistakes – those who never make mistakes never make anything - and if we’re willing to keep on learning God is willing to keep on teaching.  He’s the gardener, and he wants to see as much fruit as possible.  May he be glorified in all of our lives!

ACTION POINTS
Arrange to meet up with your mentor/cell leader/spiritual director to decide what you can do to get started on each of these points.  You will need to talk about:
1.  Your spirituality.  How can you grow your relationship with God through the Bible and prayer?  Make sure you end up with practical suggestions that you feel happy with.
2.  Your social and environmental life.  How can you live for God in your home and in your work?  Talk about any problems you may have relating what you do to what you believe.  It would be best if  you can find other Christians in these environments to share with.
3. Your relationship with other Christians - especially in the cell.  Talk about how you can contribute to the cell, and how you can benefit from others.
4. Mission.  Think about how you can share what Jesus has done for you. Is there anyone who springs to mind whom you could talk to privately?  Are there any cell or church initiatives you could be involved with?
You may need several meetings, and you will certainly need to meet again to talk about how you are getting on

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CHRISTIAN GROWTH CHECKLIST
Please tick all the boxes that apply to you.
Agree with your mentor any amendments or additions you wish to make.
Keep adding ticks as you grow!

I believe there is a God, and that he is good.
•	I know the story of Jesus.
•	I understand the basics of Christianity, through an Alpha course or similar.

STAGE  1: BELONGING
•	Jesus is the Son of God, and is my Lord and my Saviour.
•	I know I am united with Jesus.
•	I know by experience the difference union with Christ makes.
•	I am committed to a cell group.
•	I share the values of the cell group.
•	I read the Bible regularly to let God speak to me.
•	I pray to God each day.
•	I am baptised, and value my baptism.
•	I receive Holy Communion regularly and it is very meaningful to me.
•	I know something about the history of my church.
•	I share the vision of my church.
•	I am a committed member of the church.
•	I support my church financially.
•	I tithe my income.
•	I have been released from bondages of the past, through an encounter weekend (or similar).
•	I have been filled with the Spirit.

STAGE 2: SERVING
•	I can lead the Welcome section in cell meetings.
•	My prayer life is satisfying and growing.
•	I intercede most days for my family and friends, members of my cell, my neighbours and for three people I want to get to know Jesus – as well as for current affairs.
•	I intercede regularly for a missionary or mission society, for my community, country and leaders.
•	When someone is leading worship or prayer, I am spiritually fully involved.
•	I am able to pray aloud in a group, off the cuff.
•	I can lead the Worship section in cell meetings.
•	I am able to pray with another person when the need arises.
•	I understand what evangelism is and why it is important.
•	I pray for my neighbours to come to Christ, and that I may have opportunities to serve them and to share the good news of Jesus.
•	I know how to tell my story to someone who is not a Christian.
•	I know how to lead someone to Christ.
•	I have experienced being part of an evangelistic programme.
•	I understand the message of the Old Testament in its broadest terms.
•	I understand the message of the New Testament in its broadest terms.
•	I use the Bible to help me in my daily life - in my thought life and my words and my deeds.
•	I have used the Bible to help others.
•	I can lead the Word section in cell meetings.
•	I keep being filled with the Spirit.
•	I have helped others be filled with the Spirit.
•	I walk with the Spirit.
•	I understand the variety and usefulness of spiritual gifts.
•	I know my own gifts and use them to help others.
•	I use my gifts to help people outside the church.
•	I know how to apply biblical principles to issues of life such as justice, work, sex, money, power, leisure.
•	My lifestyle is a good example to others.
•	I can lead the Witness section in a cell meeting.

•	STAGE 3: MATURING
•	My prayer life is deeply satisfying.
•	I  engage with God in public worship, whatever its style.
•	I am seeing more and more answers to my intercession.
•	I know my style of evangelism.
•	I am able to answer those who question me about my faith.
•	I am aware of different evangelistic strategies.
•	I have been part of several evangelistic outreach programmes or events.
•	I have studied at least two books of the Bible in depth.
•	I am learning to discern good and evil.
•	I am growing in knowledge and humility.
•	I am learning to be content in all circumstances.
•	I am learning to be self-disciplined, with no unresolved conflicts.
•	I am learning to live for others and to learn from others, especially of other cultures.
•	I am becoming increasingly effective in at least one area of ministry outside the church organisation.
•	I am involved in issues of justice and reconciliation.
•	I know how to grow the church, especially through cells.
•	I am training up someone in the ministry I am doing.
•	I am usually discipling at least one other person through the Christian Growth Cycle.

•	FURTHER GROWTH
•	I am deepening my prayer life in new areas.
•	I am training people in making disciples.
•	The church recognizes me as a leader.
•	I read the whole Bible again and again.
•	I have undertaken further theological study.
•	I understand the times we live in and am able to apply the gospel to them.
•	I am growing in those gifts that are of greatest use to the kingdom of God. 

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POSTSCRIPT: ENCOUNTER WEEKEND

Many people find that, however much they want to grow spiritually, there is something holding them back, and they can’t quite put their finger on it.  Often this is due to something which has happened in the past, or something they’ve done, which has had the effect of putting up spiritual barriers of some kind. 

The ‘Encounter Weekend’ is a short course lasting a Friday evening and Saturday morning, which removes the spiritual barriers from our lives and frees us to move forward on our spiritual journey without those hindrances.   It is the spiritual equivalent of a ‘Spring Clean’, except that it does not need to be repeated every year. 

An alternative to the Weekend is to use the Encounter! booklet with your mentor, cell leader, or spiritual director if you have one.  (Do not do it alone; you need someone to be supporting and praying for you., which is why a weekend is so helpful.)

The next Encounter Weekend will be advertised in the church; if in doubt, ask one of the leaders when it will be.  Other members of the cell could tell you what it’s all about.  Do all you can to go on it as soon as possible!