Engage

So, Pastor Richy sent me this link for this project called Engage with the Willow Creek Community Association. I took a survey, similar to the one for Strengths Finder, except it's for your spiritual growth. Kind of helps you gauge where you are at spiritually. Here are my results.

My Portrait

Your Engage Life Survey highlights that you are a devoted believer whose life is centered on the person and life of Jesus Christ. Your walk with God is strong, your love for him is unquestioned, and your view of the world around you flows primarily from this deep connection. Through your well-established relationship with God, it is practically second nature for you to love him from the heart. Anything else is almost unthinkable—the old life you used to live apart from him is a distant memory. Core doctrines of the Christian faith form the basis of your understanding of what’s most true in life, and biblical teachings have become an integral part of your everyday living. For you, many forms of prayer—including honest confession of sin—are an almost daily reality. You frequently cultivate your connection to God through reading and reflecting on Scripture. Not surprisingly, hope and peace characterize most of your life as you naturally lean into God and trust in his provision. As the Psalmist says, your cup overflows and goodness and mercy are following in your wake. You have made an important spiritual transition: the “mind of Christ” is now the preeminent driving force in your life. You are increasingly living out of your new identity in Christ. People who are “free” do whatever they like; and to be free in Christ is to like the things he likes such that they are your natural first choice. You don’t even really need to think about it, because your wants and his are so frequently identical. That’s because your heart has been renewed to the extent the deepest desires in you line up with the desires of God himself. And even when you make mistakes, you realize how much that does not represent who you want to be at your core. You quickly get back on track, ready and willing to rejoin with God and his plan for you. Despite your deep, abiding connection with God, relationships with those you might naturally influence aren’t as strong as they might be considering your maturity. People can be disappointing, and given how much you enjoy God, it certainly is understandable that you might prefer his company to theirs. Once you increase your involvement with the needs of others and initiate meaningful, spiritual conversations with those who are far from God, you will see your fruitfulness increase dramatically. Also, despite your belief in and strong love for God, you still find yourself hesitant in taking steps to follow his call into risky territory. As you look to your ultimate destination in life, you realize your spiritual progress is also intended to be an inspiration to others who are not as far along in their journey. Jesus spoke of and modeled “making disciples” through connecting with a few people for the purpose of mentoring them in the ways of God. That is clearly going to be a growing opportunity for you, and will increasingly define the mark you make on the next generation of Christ-followers. Your personalized growth plan will help you live out more fully your identity in Christ in the context of community, take you to even greater levels of freedom, and guide you toward leaving a lasting legacy for God and his Kingdom.

My Next Step Themes

• Spiritual Coaching in Practice
  This theme deals with the importance of leaving a spiritual legacy. Your growth path includes learning about how to influence the next generation of Christ-followers so they too will carry the message of God’s love to your lost world and continue the progress of the gospel world-wide.
• Your Identity In Action in Community
  This theme deals with how your new identity in Christ spurs you on to get involved in ministry. Your growth path includes:
  • learning about how God’s new heart in you leads to service
  • comprehending the sweeping implications of the “one another” commands in the New Testament that will redefine how you relate to others
  • stepping into the exciting adventure of personal evangelism.
  
• Living Free
  This theme deals with how you keep your minds and souls free and unencumbered through focusing on core spiritual realities. Your growth path includes:
  • being reminded of your eternal home in heaven and the hope that infuses your life
  • learning to stay connected to God even in the midst of suffering
  • gaining freedom from your painful past by forgiving grudges.

P. Richy is testing this out to see if it would be something beneficial to Bronx Bethany. I am a part of the preliminary process, giving feedback about what works, what doesn't work. Here is the description of what Engage is:

It is an online tool that helps you engage in your spiritual growth, in spiritual friendships and conversations, and in relevant ways with your church community and the world around you. One key aspect is that you will receive an Engage Portrait© that helps you understand where you’re at spiritually and a direction for growth. It then provides personalized recommendations or next steps you should consider taking to grow. These are steps that will challenge you to learn, connect with others and pursue new experiences. While Engage brings a broad perspective, it is anchored by the opportunities, experiences, teaching, expertise and relationships that your church community has to offer.

So this'll be a cool process. A cool tool. That's the thing though; it's a tool. It is a tendency of my to try to fit descriptions of me. No longer.

-Salmon

7:15 pm.