Some Concluding Implications
In this series we have been looking at various stages of faith and some of the implications of each stage. Now I’d like to conclude with some reflections on the big picture of these stages and their implications for making our way in a challenging world.
First, I don’t want to leave the impression that people march through the stages with lock-step precision. Things are more complicated than that. It is possible to live in more than one stage at a time. Everyone has a “home” stage at any given time, but we may move back and forth between stages; more like the progress of the stock market than a straight-line journey. The one clear progression is that each stage builds on the ones before it. One cannot leap forward to stage five from stage two, the stages in between are a natural development, like stages in the life of a plant. But it is possible to go back a stage or two, either a natural, unconscious slipping back if a new stage is too challenging, or a deliberate moving back for selfish or altruistic reasons. A certain amount of ambiguity is natural and normal. This underlines the fact the spiritual growth, like plant growth, must be natural, in God’s time, rather than a program forced on someone else or one’s self. Let God grow you at His pace.
Second, every one of these stages is natural, normal, good and appropriate. Later stages are not “better” than earlier stages. Each stage is the best place for a person to be in a natural progression of development. To be in a particular stage is only negative if one is stuck in that stage and becoming mired in the negative elements that can cause concern at each stage. Stage two, for example (the discipleship stage), may sound negative and inferior because of its tendency to rigidity and judgmentalism, but it is actually a beautiful stage of learning and growing and integrating into a spiritual community. It only becomes negative when people lose the courage to keep growing.
Third, it is extremely helpful for leaders and mentors to learn the characteristics of each stage so they can recognize where people they mentor are in this continuum. We are attracted to people who are one stage ahead of us. We are perplexed by people who are two stages ahead of us. And people who get three stages ahead sometimes get killed (Jesus Christ). So effective mentoring occurs when the mentor willing goes back a stage or two in order to meet people where they are (at stages one, two or three). This is not hypocrisy, it is recognizing that people learn best when the information is in a form they are prepared to handle (John 16:12), which is usually at most one stage ahead of where they are at the moment. Moving backwards for the sake of others is an act of grace, not selfishness. It is an act of mission. On the other hand, to move backwards out of fear, selfishness or the need for control can lead to to spiritual stuckness or fossilization, a dangerous position to be in.
As you mature spiritually, the mentors get fewer, at least finding a mentor who can help is harder. But as you mature spiritually, the opportunities to mentor increase. We mentor those who are in earlier stages, we have been there and done that. We learn from those who have explored stages where we have not yet been. Mutual nurture takes place between people at the same stage of spiritual development. Stage six people are mentored by God alone!
Fourth, the Bible addresses all six stages of spiritual development and the dark nights of the soul that often accompany them. That’s one of the reasons parts of the Bible are closed to us. They may speak to stages we have not yet experienced and, therefore, cannot fully understand. But as we grow spiritually, more and more parts of the Bible are opened to our understanding. I suspect that parts, at least, of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5-7) are written to those at stage six, the stage of unconditional love. How many people do you know who could be slapped in the face and yet feel no stir of resentment inside? How many people do you know who despise or resent absolutely no one in their hearts? How many people find it natural to bless those who curse them? For most of us, the Sermon on the Mount is aspirational but not always experiential. The good news is that the Bible has something for everyone who is on the journey of faith. That’s why no matter how many times we have read the Bible, we still need to read it every day, seeking those insights we may have missed before. As we grow spiritually, the Bible grows with us, so to speak.
This blog is already long enough and I have one more major implication to share. The stages of faith help one understand and cope with institutions of religion. I have met few people (stage six types?) who do not find religious institutions frustrating in one way or another, no matter how helpful they may be. I’ll reflect on that next time.
First, I don’t want to leave the impression that people march through the stages with lock-step precision. Things are more complicated than that. It is possible to live in more than one stage at a time. Everyone has a “home” stage at any given time, but we may move back and forth between stages; more like the progress of the stock market than a straight-line journey. The one clear progression is that each stage builds on the ones before it. One cannot leap forward to stage five from stage two, the stages in between are a natural development, like stages in the life of a plant. But it is possible to go back a stage or two, either a natural, unconscious slipping back if a new stage is too challenging, or a deliberate moving back for selfish or altruistic reasons. A certain amount of ambiguity is natural and normal. This underlines the fact the spiritual growth, like plant growth, must be natural, in God’s time, rather than a program forced on someone else or one’s self. Let God grow you at His pace.
Second, every one of these stages is natural, normal, good and appropriate. Later stages are not “better” than earlier stages. Each stage is the best place for a person to be in a natural progression of development. To be in a particular stage is only negative if one is stuck in that stage and becoming mired in the negative elements that can cause concern at each stage. Stage two, for example (the discipleship stage), may sound negative and inferior because of its tendency to rigidity and judgmentalism, but it is actually a beautiful stage of learning and growing and integrating into a spiritual community. It only becomes negative when people lose the courage to keep growing.
Third, it is extremely helpful for leaders and mentors to learn the characteristics of each stage so they can recognize where people they mentor are in this continuum. We are attracted to people who are one stage ahead of us. We are perplexed by people who are two stages ahead of us. And people who get three stages ahead sometimes get killed (Jesus Christ). So effective mentoring occurs when the mentor willing goes back a stage or two in order to meet people where they are (at stages one, two or three). This is not hypocrisy, it is recognizing that people learn best when the information is in a form they are prepared to handle (John 16:12), which is usually at most one stage ahead of where they are at the moment. Moving backwards for the sake of others is an act of grace, not selfishness. It is an act of mission. On the other hand, to move backwards out of fear, selfishness or the need for control can lead to to spiritual stuckness or fossilization, a dangerous position to be in.
As you mature spiritually, the mentors get fewer, at least finding a mentor who can help is harder. But as you mature spiritually, the opportunities to mentor increase. We mentor those who are in earlier stages, we have been there and done that. We learn from those who have explored stages where we have not yet been. Mutual nurture takes place between people at the same stage of spiritual development. Stage six people are mentored by God alone!
Fourth, the Bible addresses all six stages of spiritual development and the dark nights of the soul that often accompany them. That’s one of the reasons parts of the Bible are closed to us. They may speak to stages we have not yet experienced and, therefore, cannot fully understand. But as we grow spiritually, more and more parts of the Bible are opened to our understanding. I suspect that parts, at least, of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5-7) are written to those at stage six, the stage of unconditional love. How many people do you know who could be slapped in the face and yet feel no stir of resentment inside? How many people do you know who despise or resent absolutely no one in their hearts? How many people find it natural to bless those who curse them? For most of us, the Sermon on the Mount is aspirational but not always experiential. The good news is that the Bible has something for everyone who is on the journey of faith. That’s why no matter how many times we have read the Bible, we still need to read it every day, seeking those insights we may have missed before. As we grow spiritually, the Bible grows with us, so to speak.
This blog is already long enough and I have one more major implication to share. The stages of faith help one understand and cope with institutions of religion. I have met few people (stage six types?) who do not find religious institutions frustrating in one way or another, no matter how helpful they may be. I’ll reflect on that next time.
Posted by Jon Paulien at 11/1/2010 2:01 PM 
Categories: Relational
Tags: Fowler stages of faith spirituality spiritual development
Categories: Relational
Tags: Fowler stages of faith spirituality spiritual development
Hi Jon - very interested in your series of blogs on stages of faith and would really like to see this expanded.
It is interesting that many of the authors of the theories you have canvassed Fowler etc would see themselves in the so called higher stages and few people have the ability to see themselves where they really are. We all have the ability to think more of ourselves than we ought. Can someone on a "lower," level actually define and describe a higher level?
I know that spiritual formation and stages of faith while not biblical terms are current and useful buzz phrases, but don't you think that having thecommand of Jesus to make disciples of all nations only a level two stage in the stages of faith, lead some to think that God's plans for us were aimed pretty low. Is God really only calling us to help people to stage two?
Personally, I feel morecomfortable having the whole process of faith development called discipleship and the stages of faith various arena's of faith that are part of growth as disciples.
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Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Wayne. Note the newest and final posting on the subject just today. One thing I probably didn't make clear is that Hagberg does not see this as a ladder with each stage superior to the previous. Each stage is exactly right and appropriate for the person who is there as part of a natural and God-directed development. Stages can only be considered "inferior" if a person is stuck at a stage and then experiences its "dark side." So the idea that people who are in stage five are somehow "better" defeats the whole idea the at the higher levels self is increasingly banished and God increasingly the focus. We want to go there and be there, but it is not about being superior, only about attaining God's purpose at the time and place when that purpose can be best exercised.
I loved the idea of discipleship in the broad sense that you characterized it in your comment. Every stage but the last needs mentoring and all are involved in discipleship, so that works for me. But if we call the whole thing discipleship, what do we do call stage two? How about the Commitment Stage? We commit to a community and we learn and grow our way into that community. The dark side of stage two in those terms would be enmeshment in the community, where we lose our personal identity and purpose in the expectations of the whole.
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Thanks for your response Jon and like your idea of changing stage two tocommitment stage. As I mentioned I do feel ucomfortable calling what God says our call to the nations to be ie make disciples (as Adventists we have added "in the context of the Three Angels Messages") being actually only stage two. The inference could be that some of us will "advance," further than the Gods call in Gospelcommission.
I appreciate that you say that Hagberg does not see each stage as superior to others and I know that is what you are saying as well but it is hard not to take that inference that some are more superior than others. In your last blog entry for example you use the phrases "upper stages," "higher stages," "more mature," and upper level mentors." etc.
A question I have wondered about for a few years now is at what stage do you think, Hagberg and Foster saw themselves in, and conversely is it actually possible for someone in say stage four to actually define stage six.
How much of the stages of faith is predicated on spiritual maturity verses stages of life in general. In other words - outside of Jesus Christ do we know of any example of a stage six person under the age of 50-60?
When is your book on thiscoming out?
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Another great comment, Wayne. I know it is a little awkward to talk about higher stages and yet say that one is not superior to another. Perhaps it is both/and rather than either/or. The"higher" stages bring one closer to God and are more purified of self, on the other hand, whatever is better about them is God's work, not ours. So any sense of hierarchy can be an invitation to pride all over again. I guess I'll just leave it there. Life at its best is complicated.
I don't think Fowler or Hagberg would have to be at certain stages to describe them in others. And I do think that people can have a taste of stage six from time to time, even if they are mostly based in four or five.
I agree that there is some correlation between spiritual stages and life stages. In fact, Hagberg has a secular version that focuses on leadership in corporations, etc. An interesting read.
At the moment I have no plan to write a book on this, as the details have been better handled by others. But I do think the short outline presented in these blogs is uniquely useful in its own right (with some significant modifications and deletions, based on my understanding of Scripture). I hope readers feel blessed and helped.
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Jon, do you think a person classified as a saint by the Catholic and Protestant churches is an example of a stage 6 person ?
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