Five Tools Saddleback Uses to Develop Spiritual Maturity

Christian (itching ear scratching) Post (online) ^ | Sat, Aug. 25 2007 | Rick Warren

[Terriergal]

In 1990 Saddleback was already one of the larger churches in America. On our 10th anniversary I stood up and said, “What’s next?” In our first 10 years we became one of the largest churches. But my goal now, our goal, is that we become one of the most spiritually mature churches in the nation. Spiritual maturity is not automatic. It’s got to be cultivated. This is your role and your responsibility as a leader in your church.

You might be saying, Rick, that’s a pretty audacious goal! No, it’s not. It ought to be the goal of every church. Every church should want its people to be as much like Christ as possible. We want them to be spiritually deep.

When you go fishing, do you want quality or quantity? I want both! I want to catch as many fish as I can, and I want to get them as big as I can. I don’t want the little fish. I want big fish. I don’t want minnows. We want Saddleback to grow in quality and quantity. There’s no contradiction there.

Just as it takes certain tools to cultivate a garden so it will grow, there are certain practical tools that you need to cultivate spiritual growth in the lives of your members. It’s not automatic. It doesn’t just happen. You have to help them grow.

In this article I want us to look at five tools that we use to cultivate spiritual growth. Really, if you want to know the secret behind Saddleback Church, it’s these five things. These are five very practical tools that we have used to develop the maturity level of people in our church.

1. Commitment cards

The commitment cards help our people respond to what we’re teaching in the weekend message. We use commitment cards all the time. We’ll even design special cards for Mother’s Day, Easter, Christmas, and other key days during the year.

This is one of the most overlooked tools that pastors have at their disposal – just giving people an opportunity to respond. A lot of people get right up to that point but never cross the line. We need to teach people what to do and then ask them to do it. You must ask people for their commitment or you’re not going to get it.

2. Classes based on the purposes

We have four core classes at Saddleback (101, 201, 301, and 401) – each of them focuses on one of the purposes of the church: membership, maturity, ministry, and missions. Through these four-hour classes, we try to help our congregation live out these purposes in their everyday lives. These classes are the building blocks of Saddleback. They have consistently produced mature believers who walk the walk, talk the talk, live the life, and sacrificially give.

Most Christians know far more than they’re putting into practice. If you have application-focused classes centered on the purposes, that’ll change. Your people will start to learn how to actually live out the biblical purposes in their lives. I cannot over emphasize the importance of setting up a regular class system like this. Once the system is set up, you just improve it every year. People say, "What are you going to do next year?" Same thing that we did last year. We’ll just do it better. You can find the classes that we use on Pastors.com.

3. Covenants

Covenants are the most important part of our classes. We have a membership covenant, a maturity covenant, a ministry covenant, and a missions covenant. We have our members sign the covenants at the end of each of our classes. Why?

- We become whatever we are committed to.
- Every church is defined by what it’s committed to.
- People want to be committed to something that gives them significance.
- If your church doesn’t ask for your people’s commitment, other people will.
- The greater the commitment you ask for, the greater response you’ll get.

4. Small groups

Your church members can’t grow spiritually on their own. We all need other people to help us grow. At Saddleback we use small groups, built around the same core New Testament purposes that our church is, to help our members develop the kind of relationships they need to grow. In these groups they can practice all of the “one anothers” of Scripture (pray for one another, love one another, etc.). It’s a central part of our church’s spiritual growth plan. And by making sure that these groups center on the biblical purposes, we help our members worship more fully, build meaningful relationships, develop the character of Christ, discover their shape for ministry, and share their faith with lost friends.

5. Campaigns

We also use spiritual growth campaigns to boost the growth of our people. A spiritual growth campaign is an intensive, extended, all-church emphasis involving every age group that focuses on some particular aspect of spiritual growth. Campaigns like 50 Days of Faith, 40 Days of Purpose, and 40 Days of Community have paid eternal dividends in the spiritual growth of our church.

In the last 27 years at Saddleback, nothing – I mean nothing – has produced spiritual growth in our people deeper and faster than campaigns. Through 40 Days of Purpose alone (in just 40 days):

- 671 new believers came to Christ and were baptized
- 1,200 new members took C.L.A.S.S. 101 and joined the church (in a 40-day period)

worship attendance increased by 2,000
- 1,600 new small groups were started
- 2,200 more people started serving in ministry
- 3,700 people committed to a world missions project

It was truly a transformative experience for our church. All of our campaigns have been.

Each of these five tools has been instrumental to the spiritual depth of Saddleback Church. They’re all fully transferable as well. Any church can use them. I encourage you to give them a try.

_______________________________________________

Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., one of America's largest and best-known churches. In addition, Rick is author of the New York Times bestseller The Purpose-Driven Life and The Purpose-Driven Church, which was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th Century. He is also founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community for ministers. Copyright 2005 Pastors.com, Inc. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Rick Warren
Christian Post Guest Columnist

[Terriergal]

What? Five tools and not one of them is Scripture? These are 'five tactics.'

You can't 'maneuver' someone into maturity.

Feed a baby pablum, he'll be malnourished. Feed him good food and he'll grow. You don't have to use 'tools' or 'techniques.'

Hebrews 5:8-14 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Commitment card!

(credits to Chris Rosebrough at www.alittleleaven.com)

[secessionist]

“They have consistently produced mature believers who walk the walk, talk the talk, live the life…”

As always, it’s the little things that are so telling…How many Walk the Talk?

[Manfred the Wonder Dawg]

Commitment cards and covenants are tools to manipulate people; far removed from making disciples. Warren is sly - whether he means to be or not. Most folk do not discern the angle of departure from God’s Truth and end up so far afield they know not where they are.

Some hold to what is called the “normative principle” - that which is not prohibited in Scripture is permissible. I give you Robert Schuler and Rick Warren as exhibits 1 & 2.

Others hold to what is called the “regulative principle” - that which Scripture permit and direct, do. Spurgeon comes to mind.

If we hold the Bible loosely, we will sin against God - individually or corporately as a church. God alone is our refuge and His Word alone is our true revelation of Him and His will for us.

“The Message”, beloved by Warren, is NOT the Bible.

[secessionist]

Amen.

[MarkBsnr]

I’ve been to the Crystal Cathedral a few times. Rev. Schuler is nice, warm, personable, agreeable, soothing, uplifting, agreeable, nice, warm, personable, soothing, agreeable, nice, uplifting...

Wasn’t a whole lot of Scripture, praying or theology, though.

[Manfred the Wonder Dawg]

Robert Schuller holds this view of the Lord and humanity:

“I don’t think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and, hence, counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise that the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.” from a Time magazine interview dated 18 Mar 1985.

Robert and his son teach the demonic doctrine of human potential and deny the truth of the crucifixion of Christ. I have no doubt that these two make the flesh fell good. That is not the goal of Biblical preaching nor of the Lord.

[DragoonEnNoir]

While I’m not a big Rick Warren cheerleader, I think it’s a bit unfair to say that none of his ‘tools’ is scripture.

If you look at what he has posted, you’ll see that within classes and small groups there is probably a lot of emphasis on scripture. I say probably because it’s not certain, but there is no need to criticize and condemn a Brother in Christ merely because the Spirit has led him in ways that are different than ours.

The others may be rooted in scripture, in essence being scripture applied.

I think Warren’s emphasis on progression in faith (in his classes) is also sound, though I would question the order and specific content of them. Is ministry only for the ‘hyper mature’, or is it the life blood at the centre of a follower of Christ?

[MarkBsnr]

People don’t have a lost and sinful condition?

Maybe he believes that everyone is of the elect. :)

[melissa_in_ga]

References to:

New Testament - 1
Scripture (the word) - 1
Christ - 2
Biblical (the word) - 1

However, there are many references to the growth of his church. He wants the big minnows! Not the little ones! etc.

I have a PDL book at home that I bought years ago. After the first chapter I quit reading. As a non-practicing Catholic with a serious fundamentalist bent, I find the “feel good” churches a little off-putting.

This isn’t really a rebuttal to your post, merely an observation I made as I was reading. I read the Religion forum every day, but never post on it.

[melissa_in_ga]

Sorry, I think 3 references to Christ. My apologies.

[GOPPachyderm]

howling with laughter! but it is so sad, isn’t it?

[DragoonEnNoir]

Nice to have you posting.

As I said, I’m not a big fan of Warren, but God works through many different ways. Not all will be to our preference.

I’m not sure if I’d call him a ‘feel good’ church though... not in the ‘health and wealth’ genre anyway.

[HairOfTheDog]

Rick Warren could read the bible aloud verbatim and some would still complain that they just don’t like his voice.

It’s a little bizarre.

[Wheee The People]

671 new believers came to Christ and were baptized

How many came to Christ and were baptized at your church? It isn't about the numbers, but this opining from afar on the "quality" of these new Christians seems to lacking much of a foundation IMHO.

[Terriergal]

Nice straw man.

[Terriergal]

It’s highly unlikely people will come to a sincere repentance when presented with a ‘how to have a better life’ sermon and required to jump through hoops. Can’t you see how it’s legalism? (traditions of men?)

This opining from afar regarding my opinion (based on experience in a Purpose Driven church) is a little lacking in foundation too.

[Terriergal]

It’s not about my preference. Never was.

[Terriergal]

howling with laughter! but it is so sad, isn’t it?

Laughter seems to be the only way to emotionally cope nowadays with the rapid descent into delusion and apostasy going on all around, and no one really seeing and understanding, or caring.

[BlueNgold]

Excuse me while I ignore the Right Reverend Warren...

[Terriergal]

I think it’s a bit unfair to say that none of his ‘tools’ is scripture.

Oh yes. The Message. I forgot.

The church's primary "purpose" is to preach the word, in season and out. that's it. The rest of his so-called 'purposes' will come from that, because that's what the Word, rightly handled, does.

Focusing on polishing the cart will not put a horse in front of it.