Spiritual Vitality is one of the eleven competencies that Acts 29 considers essential when assessing church planters. You can explore the Competencies further on the Acts 29 Competencies page.
CORE IDEA
Spiritual vitality is the heart, center, foundation, cause and goal of all that we do as church planters and as Christians. Spiritual vitality is spiritual life, and spiritual life is the life we were created for. The thrust of such life is articulated with great glory and immense challenge by Paul in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain”. A church planter with spiritual vitality will be a person whose life is shaped by Christ’s gospel.
SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
- Are you born again? Do not simply shrug and remember that you have a testimony or dismiss this question as obvious. Not every church planter is saved, and to attempt this work without Christ is ruin and misery.
- How is your prayer life? This is the first key indicator of your spiritual vitality. If you love and trust God, you will be prayerful. If you are not prayerful, the solution is not to work on your prayer life, but look to Christ. Meditate on him, and you will find yourself praying.
- How is your Bible study? This is the second key indicator of your spiritual vitality. If you love and trust God, you will want to hear his word. If you are not reading the Bible often and with desire, again, do not work on your Bible reading, but look to Christ. Meditate on him, and you will find yourself reading scripture.
- How important to your church planting plans is love? A spiritually alive church will love the Lord and love her neighbour. Everything else will spring from this source. Would an outsider say that love is the heart-beat of your church family, core team or plans?
- Ask your wife, parents, children, church elders and friends if you live for Christ. Maybe ask them to read this and then speak into your life. This could be hard; it will be humbling, but it is a useful way to assess who you are.
