Over the past years, several resources have been developed to assist church leaders and communities in measuring discipleship and spiritual formation both within their congregations and in their personal lives. All these tools involve an online questionnaire with some simple questions to go through, which then results in a particular shape or specific advice for the participant.
We asked some church leaders from a range of traditions to spend some time interacting with three of these tools and provide some honest feedback.
Making Disciples – Finding Your Discipleship Shape -
https://www.wearemakingdisciples.com/findYourShape.aspx
Making Disciples is a program developed by Revd Cris Rogers with accompanying videos and workbooks.
It defines discipleship as, ‘the surrendering of all things to the love of God: our heads (thinking), hearts (desiring) and hands (action)’
The diagnostic tool gives individuals within church communities time to explore and discover their ‘discipleship shape’ including areas of strength, struggle and stagnation, as well as blind spots. This highlights areas that need attention in order to progress as disciples living life fully for Jesus.
After registering your details, there are 20 online questions to answer with a slider recording how true each statement is of you. While feeling that needing to register could discourage use, our testers found this part of the assessment ‘quick’, ‘user friendly’ and ‘easy to use.’
The questions cover 3 areas: The head (our thinking), the heart (our loves), the hands (our contributions) – a ‘simple’ and ‘balanced’ way of thinking about discipleship in the view of our testers, though some of the questions felt ‘simplistic’, ‘subjective’ or ‘lacking in clarity.’
Making Disciples understands discipleship formation to be ‘the combination of the disciplines of the inward life with the activity of the external life forming us into the likeness of Jesus.’ This is a real strength, though some of our reviewers would have liked to see more emphasis on embodied spiritual disciplines as well as intellectual ones.
Completed questions result in a diagram displaying the discipleship shape and outlining areas of strength and areas for growth. While the assessment directs its users to accompanying resources, such as workbooks, practical guides, videos and podcasts, some of our testers would have liked more concrete clarity on next steps for growth in discipleship.
“The Discipleship Formation pie chart, in particular, was helpful as it clearly illustrates that discipleship involves both the external actions of Jesus at work in a person and the internal disciplines aimed at creating a holy rhythm.”
Practicing the Way – Spiritual Health Reflection -
https://www.practicingtheway.org/reflection
Practicing the way is a suite of online free resources based on the book of the same title by American pastor, author and podcaster, John Mark Comer. The resources provide a pathway for apprenticeship to Jesus and include an eight-session course, nine core spiritual practices, and a rule of life builder.
The aim of the Spiritual health reflection tool is to take a snapshot of your progress as an apprentice of Jesus and recommend resources to aid growth going forward.
The tool is intended to be repeated after 6 months to mark change and growth.
To access this online tool, users must first create an account. Again, our reviewers felt this might deter some but once registered, the tool is ‘easy to use’ and visually accessible. 38 reflection questions – answered with a slider recording how true each statement is of you – encourages thoughtful examination of one’s spiritual life.
The questions cover broad areas: Spiritual practices (e.g. Solitude, sabbath, fasting); Impulses/Desires (e.g. obedience, seeking God’s presence); Heart/Inner life (e.g. Self-control, honesty) and even charismatic gifts. Our testers liked the emphasis on spiritual practices but questioned whether the emphasis on scoring highly in these broad areas feels unrealistic and begs the question of what spiritual health looks like in its entirety.
Completing the questionnaire identifies next steps and ‘excellent resources’ to aid growth in areas of weakness.
Overall, our testers found the measurement tool to enhance collective spiritual awareness and growth. A particular strength is seeking to measure the impulse and desire for intimacy with God and for godly character as a measure of spiritual health. The emphasis on regular spiritual health check-ups was also particularly appreciated.
LICC - Vital Signs Assessment Tool -
https://licc.org.uk/vital-signs/
The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) has a strong emphasis on whole- life discipleship. Vital Signs is a tool specifically for church leaders to assess how well they are equipping their churches in living out their everyday-faith in the world.
The format consists of 20 online questions, covering four church contexts: 1) When it’s just us – Personal spiritual life, 2) When we gather – church services and meetings, 3) When we plan – programmes and activities, 4) When we respond – in times of crisis.
Immediate results include a summary highlighting both the ‘Strongest areas’ and ‘Areas to work on,’ along with short videos aiding in planning next steps. Registering or signing in grants access to the full results.
All of our testers agreed that the tool is very straightforward and easy to use. ‘The wide range of answers to questions allows for more accurate responses, making the measurement more meaningful.’ The resulting insights and resources were found to be ‘very helpful’, ‘thought provoking’ and ‘practical’
The narrow focus of the assessment was seen as both a weakness and a strength:
The tool does not measure or give insights into spiritual practices, disciplines, health, or maturity. But as a prompt and encouragement for church leaders to seek to integrate mission and whole-life discipleship into the life of the church it’s particularly good.