Preface
As a teenager I began to wonder why college aged church members would drop out. I was preparing to go to college myself and
I was curious about the motivations of the age above me. Our church was good at teaching the doctrines of Christianity and the
necessity of a lifetime commitment. Parents brought their children to church faithfully and families were active in the programs.
But somehow religious training broke down for many when they went off to college. I would often hear that people trained up in
the way of the Lord would eventually return, but in practice it didn't seem to happen much, and over the years I've seen very few
people return who left the church as a young adult.
When I went to college myself I began to understand the problem better. I thought I was prepared to defend my faith, but I quickly
learned I was not. I felt like a kindergartner going up against college graduates as far as spiritual matters were concerned. I did
not have the knowledge or the character to deal with the skepticism and hostility of educated unbelievers.
God showed me that I was unprepared to live as a Christian adult, and that first of all I needed a stronger commitment to
learning His ways. It was apparent that merely learning doctrinal positions and a few platitudes about putting faith into practice
would be insufficient. A more life altering application of Christianity would be necessary to escape the fate of so many I knew
who grew up to leave the church.
I never left the church, mainly because of my dogged commitment to find answers. I began to allow God to teach me and change
my character, a long and difficult process.
As a young man I was a fiery idealist, ready to condemn church leaders and pastors trying to use the old ways that I knew didn't
work.They didn't seem to understand what my problem was.
I saw some churches try new ways to nurture and educate the young, but after a while they mostly seemed to be the old ways
tried harder: more Bible study, more prayer, more scripture memorization, more evangelism. They didn't work so well either. My
measure of success was always different from the organizers of these youth programs. Theirs was how many young people it
reached. Mine was how many young people were still in church at age 22.
Then, God showed me a different angle through secular knowledge. When I went to graduate school to get my Master of Social
Work at age 27, I was introduced to several developmental theorists whom we studied extensively. I learned about the physical,
psychological, emotional, and social development of people during the life cycle. But spiritual development wasn't talked about
or studied much.
I began to wonder about spiritual development as the key to solving my riddle. Maybe young people drop out of church as young
adults because their spiritual side is not young adult. They see it as a vestige of childhood that is no longer needed. Perhaps
concentrating on spiritual development of the young would prepare people to live as Christians in the adult world.
In 1990, I began to study for and write the Spiritual Life Cycle. It is my attempt to show the pattern of spiritual growth for
Christians. I started with the idea that since God has made people to grow in definite patterns in their other natures (physical,
psychological, emotional, and social), there must be a definite pattern of spiritual growth as well.
I started a broad study of the scriptures to find the patterns of spiritual growth. I also studied everything I could find on
development that seemed useful to the project. At the same time, I opened my life to God to allow Him to develop me in the path
I saw in the scriptures.
It has taken several years for me to get the knowledge and experience to be able to write the Spiritual Life Cycle. The time has
been well spent. If nothing else, my personal relationship with God has grown stronger. But I also hope that this work can be
helpful to others. I believe that if churches put these principles into practice, they will be able to keep and nurture their people to
spiritual maturity.
This is a beginning step toward a Christian understanding of spiritual development. I hope that as individuals and churches
study and apply this book our knowledge will grow.