GROWTH TRACK
How To Grow Spiritually
BELIEVING – Your relationship with God begins with believing in His Son, Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6. Jesus was not being mean, or exclusive when He said this. It is simply true because He is the only One who could die for your sins because He is the only One who lived a sinless life. When He died on the cross He was exchanging His perfection for your imperfection, His righteousness for your unrighteousness. Then, once He paid for your sins, and then rose from the dead, defeating death, He invites all to come to the Father through Him. This is love. “There is no greater love than for someone to lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus
BELONGING – People do not only want to believe, they also want to belong. This is a basic need we all have as human beings. That is why Jesus not only invites you to believe in Him but also to belong to His eternal family. This is the first step on our Spiritual Growth Track. Christianity is not a solo sport like boxing or MMA. No, Christianity is a team sport. You need others and others need you to grow spiritually. When you gave your life to Jesus you automatically became a member of His family. When you go through #101 you are going to meet teammates, family members, new friends who will join you on your journey.
BECOMING —The ultimate goal God has for your life is for you to become just like His Son. That sounds impossible, doesn’t it? That’s because it is! That is why God gives you His Holy Spirit when you give your life to His Son. He supernaturally transforms you from day to day. When you go through #201 you will learn the five basic habits of spiritual growth:
· Prayer – how to develop a lifestyle of relational prayer
· The Bible – how to enjoy and understand the Bible
· Money — how to manage your money
· Community – connecting with a group of Christian friends
· Serving – Jesus said that He came, not be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a sacrifice for many. You are never more like Jesus than when you are serving others!
BUILDING – Jesus said that He is building His Church. He began doing this when He first came to the earth and He is still doing it today, and He is inviting you to join Him. That is why Jesus gives every believer a spiritual gift – to bless others. “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.” 1 Peter 4:10 NLT It could be teaching, preaching, giving, serving, healing, etc. There are so many spiritual gifts that we have developed a process whereby you can discover your spiritual gift and learn how to use it to bless others. In our #301 class you will discover your spiritual gift and learn how and where to use it.
BRINGING – The way we like to describe evangelism is that we are bringing Jesus to people, and bringing people to Jesus.
We do this by both sharing and showing the gospel. What we mean by that is we share the Good News by telling others what Jesus did for us on the cross. But we show them, Jesus, through the way we share the Good News with them – not only telling them about the Good News of Gods’ love but showing them God’s love through acts of compassion. Our goal is to be Jesus to those who are far from Him so they will want to know and follow Him. In our #401 class, you will learn the heart of God for those who are far from Him, as well as some very simple and yet effective ways to lead someone to Jesus.
CHANGING OUR WORLD
One Life At A Time
Our Vision – Gathering people from all walks of life to love Jesus, love one another, and to love our world.
Loving Jesus
This is where it all begins. Jesus is the epicenter of all we do. It is an encounter with His love that initiates change. Jesus taught us that the first and greatest commandment is to love God, “with all our heart, soul, mind and strength…” Luke 10:27, which we believe is a natural outflow of the person who has experienced the love of God for themselves. The Bible says, “We love Him because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 Experiencing His love is what changes us and motivates us to love Him back with our lives. This is true worship. Jesus’ love changes everything. “For the love of Christ compels us…” 2 Corinthians 5:14
Loving Others
Jesus said the second greatest commandment is, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39 Loving others is proof of our faith. The Bible tells us that we can have all the faith in the world, but without love we are nothing. Therefore love is all we do, expressed in a thousand different ways.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12
“By this, all will know you are My disciples if you have a love for one another.” John 13:35
Loving Our World
We were saved to serve. The Bible says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…” John 3:16a. Jesus said of Himself, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” We are to do the same with our lives. Jesus told us to pray, “… your kingdom comes and you will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Our passion is to bring heaven on earth – the kingdom of God – everywhere we go through acts of service, both locally and globally, as well as through a demonstration of the power of God through signs, miracles and wonders, just like Jesus did. We believe our destiny is to go to heaven, but our assignment is to bring heaven on earth. Come join the vision.
Worship is you BELIEVING in Jesus.
Fellowship is you BELONGING to the family of Jesus.
Discipleship is you BECOMING like Jesus.
Ministry is you BUILDING the Church of Jesus.
Evangelism is you BRINGING people to Jesus.
GOING DEEPER
Going through one class on the Spiritual Growth Track is a great introduction to growing spiritually, but it is not enough. Believing, Belonging, Becoming, Building, and Bringing never end. That is why some of our steps have a “going deeper” component.
After completing #201 you will have the opportunity to go deeper in all five spiritual habits of growth with courses such as “Contemplative Prayer”, “Enjoying the Bible with the Author”, “Financial Peace University”, as well as joining a Connect Group where you get to walk it all out with a group of friends.
After finishing our #301 course, there are two ways to go deeper. One is to find a place to plug in and begin using your gift. Secondly, if you find you have the gift of leadership, you can apply for our Leadership Track.
After finishing #401 you can take the “7 Commands of Christ” Discovery Bible Study. This course will give you a very simple and easy way to disciple someone as soon as they give their life to Christ. Let’s grow!
Mailing address: PO Box 1078 Poway, CA 92074