Wisdom for the Journey

Sure, ideally it would be nice if we could all progress through these stages in a nice, neat, chronological manner. However, that is not reality. In fact, it is common for you to find yourself progressing cyclically. Meaning, don’t be discouraged if you find yourself reverting back to an earlier stage in order to keep moving forward. Remember, if your faith is alive, then it is constantly moving, adapting, making mistakes, correcting mistakes and starting again. Core to our shared faith is a belief that we are saved not by our efforts, but by grace alone.

Some of you using this tool might find the earlier stages were not representative of your experience. This is because you were born into faith. Your parents raised you in church. In that case, it is much more probable that you started in the Orientation Stage (4). If so, it is very common for those raised in faith to experience questions, doubts, or even skepticism later in life. This experience can often feel like reverting back to the Divine Pursuit (1) or Awareness Stage (2). To assure you, there is nothing wrong with this experience so long as the season of deconstruction leads to one of reconstructions. In faith, you might even discover a stronger faith than before.

As one pastor said, spiritual growth is not a sprint…it is a crawl. Please don’t be discouraged when you find yourself inhabiting one particular stage for a long period of time. Remember, the journey of faith is supposed to last an entire lifetime (and beyond!) Thus, it is very common for many of these stages to last not only months, but years. Remember, Jesus seems a lot more interested in the depth, rather than the speed, of one’s transformation.

When you read about the Spiritual Diet and Sample Exercises suggested under each stage, please know these are merely suggestions. At any point, you might feel farther along in one area, as opposed to another. In those moments, feel free to put down the recommended exercises to focus on what you need. For example, if you feel very strong in your Knowledge of God and Church Engagement, maybe it is time to focus on growing your Spiritual Disciplines or Service of Others. You know best the status of your spiritual health. Please tend to what you need most.

Although the divisiveness in the church is certainly an issue, one of the gifts we have a number of different theological denominations and traditions that each specialize in something different. Meaning, one church might be really gifted in areas of social justice and mission, while another possesses rich spiritual exercises and disciplines. While finding a denominational home is important, it is also important that we experience the rich depth of ecumenicalism. In other words, if you find yourself needing something your tradition cannot offer, experiment with rituals and practices found in other branches of Christianity.

It goes without saying that one of the dangers of this tool is creating the perception that Christianity is merely checking boxes until you reach the end of the road. Like all things, you will get out of this tool what you put into this tool. If at any point, ORDO starts feeling robotic or like you are merely going through the motions, put it aside for a while. At best, this tool is not meant to serve as a list of tasks, but a series of guideposts attempting to lead you further into the mystery of God. Again, the true purpose is our individual and communal transformation. Treating this tool as a task list not only isn’t effective, but tends to make Pharisees rather than disciples.

Especially for experienced Christians, do not be too alarmed if during a difficult season, you score much lower than you expect. For example, a seasoned Christian who is going through a spiritual crisis or an experience of theological reconstruction might score as low as a Stage 3 or Stage 4. This doesn’t mean you are starting over. Instead, it is merely a reflection of the current lack of participation in areas like Spiritual Disciplines or Church Engagement. When the believer is ready to resume those activities, they should take the assessment again and find they are back where they left off.

It is important to remember that outside of God, the most important assessment of one’s own spiritual health is YOURS. In some ways, it does not matter what an online tool says or what others say. Only you know the truth about your level of engagement with God. If for some reason you think the assessment results are inaccurate or if you are struggling to be objective with your answers, feel free to simply review all 9 Stages and select the one that best describes where you are in faith. At the end of the day, the only reason for this tool is not to sort Christians in one stage or another, but to support you in your journey with God.

One final piece of wisdom that we would like to offer is be careful about taking this assessment too often. Especially if/when we are not satisfied with our results, it can be tempting to want to take the test over and over again in order to improve our score. To use this tool in that way is to confuse the ultimate goal. The goal is not in the scoring, but in salvation. Meaning, Jesus will not grade us in the life to come on whether we were this Stage or that. Instead, the entire Gospel seems to suggest that Jesus only cares about one question: Do you know me? Again, we believe this tool can be a powerful way to get to know God, but only insofar as it is a means to an end…rather than the end itself. Thus, our general rule of thumb is one shouldn’t retake the assessment but every 6 months to a year (min).