Why Don’t Some Christians Grow Spiritually?

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The elders are launching a new discipleship initiative this fall. We want to help the folks in our fellowship think about their spiritual formation and choose to take steps to grow spiritually. One question we must consider is why some people grow spiritually while others seem to plateau.

The late Dallas Willard was something of a guru in the spiritual formation conversation. In his book Renovation of the Heart, Willard takes up this question. He uses a simple acronym – VIM – to describe what it takes to grow spiritually:

Vision: This gets to the matter of motivation.

Spiritual formation starts here. And it begins not with the negative emotions of guilt but with the positive emotions of vision. I must get a clear and compelling view not only of what I want, but more importantly, why I want it.

Willard uses language learning as an example. If I am studying a foreign language only to satisfy a course requirement, I don’t have much of a vision. But if I am moving to another country, my motivation will be high; I will be motivated by the vision of myself speaking freely and fluently in the new language, and I will be afraid of the difficulty and isolation that linguistic ineptitude would cause me.

In our spiritual formation, the vision – the goal the Spirit is aiming for in our sanctification – is inner transformation. God’s Spirit wants to change me from the inside out so that the grace and character of Christ – His compassion, His courage, His submission to the Father’s will – becomes increasingly natural.

This is a crucial distinction: My vision is a new and different version of myself, a man who finds it easier and more natural to be compassionate and courageous. Behavioral change without inward change is short-term and unstable. Inward change makes life-change stable, long-term, inevitable.

Intention: My vision of a different version of myself must lead me to a decisive moment.

Thanks to the magic of algorithms, my social media feeds keep bringing exercise videos to my attention. I keep seeing them because I have liked and saved dozens of them. I am, it is true, intrigued by the vision of me getting into good physical condition. But the fact that I have not integrated exercise into my daily routine is evidence that I have not yet made the inward pivot; I don’t yet have any real intention of exercising.

The same thing is true in our spiritual formation, says Willard. Vision means nothing without intention. I must make the inward turn from admiring spiritual formation to committing myself to holy habits like Scripture engagement, prayer, and service. We don’t earn our spiritual formation, but we must create the space for it to happen. So long as my attention is dissipated and my heart is cool toward God and His Word, I will not form serious intention, and I cannot expect to grow spiritually.

Means: Here, instruction and technique are significant.

The means are necessary but insufficient in and of themselves. Sometimes people give up on a significant endeavor because of lack of training and instruction, but more often their problem is the lack of vision and intention. Once I have been captured by the vision and I have made the inward pivot toward change, the means are necessary to help me accomplish the goal.

This is why books on how to study the Bible are helpful for some people but not others. Until I have caught the vision of what the Bible is – the very Word of the living God – my attempts to improve my Bible study skills will quickly lose momentum, and I will get discouraged and quit.  

So why don’t some Christians grow spiritually?

For many, it is the lack of vision and the failure to make the inward turn of intention. Their hearts have never been captured by the vision of what a vibrant life in Christ would look like in their skin, and they’ve never committed themselves to change. They might be momentarily motivated and make a New Year’s resolution to read their Bible, but their vision and intention are stunted: they can get excited about the thought of reading the Bible, but once that excitement wears off in the bleak days of February and the tedium of Leviticus, they give up.

I am glad to say that my spiritual formation is not all up to me. He who began the good work of forming Christ in my inner life is committed to this project; He will carry it through to completion. When I fail, He restores me. When I am discouraged, He uses His Word and the fellowship of His people and His own inward Presence to build me back up.

So our prayer for our people is not so much about changes in behavior – more faithful attendance at Sunday worship, an increase in the number of our people involved in service and classes and small groups, more inter-generational interaction in our ministry spaces. All these are good and important goals, but our deepest desire is that our people experience inward life change, that God’s Spirit will ignite our vision and establish a new trajectory in our inner lives.

Persevere.