One of my greatest passions is helping others grow closer to Christ. It is often portrayed as this mystical process that no one understands, which just happens over time. Although time does indeed play a factor, some things can be done to help create a structure for your spiritual formation that will promote and support that growth while providing an ability to make it pseudo-quantifiable.
If something cannot be measured, how could it ever be known if it changes? Therein lies the challenge of anything spiritually related. It is very challenging to measure. Is self-awareness enough, or does it require external resources?[1] Many online and book quizzes and surveys try to quantify spiritual formation, which requires a baseline comparison.[2] Although those quizzes have unfortunate flaws that cannot account for all variables, they can do a good job of giving general questions to ask oneself for something like self-awareness to play a part.
The great secret of measurable spiritual formation is remembering the goal: becoming like Christ. Because that is the foundation of what is trying to be achieved, there becomes a fantastic and inerrant comparison that can be used as believers. Jesus Christ is the comparison metric that can be used to evaluate oneself. However, using Christ as a comparison poses a new challenge due to his perfection because mankind will never be able to reach Him. This is what brings forth a great solution in self-assessments. Self-assessments take the significant parts of asking oneself reflective questions, as the books and quizzes often do, while comparing oneself to Christ as a standard and the person you were six months ago. It is a relative spiritual assessment based on the standards of Christ found in the scriptures.
My Spiritual Assessment
A spiritual assessment includes four elements: Spiritual Diet (1 Corinthians 3:1-2), Spiritual Model (Eph 4:13, 1 John 2:6, 1 Peter 2:21-23), Spiritual Character (Galatians 5:22-23), and Spiritual Offspring (2 Timothy 2:1-3, Hebrews 5:12-14). Closely connected to Stephen Lowe’s theory of one’s spirituality: “God’s Word, God’s Son, God’s Spirit, and God’s People.”[3]
Spiritual Diet is God’s Word. The first of the four personal assessments asks whether your desire for God’s word is increasing. Do you desire to read the Bible more than you did six months ago? Do you want more knowledge, understanding, and wisdom from God, or is it the same as it has been for a while? This is an excellent indicator first of where your heart’s position is and can reveal what might need to change. It is often said that what you feed grows, and what you starve dies. What are you feeding yourself with? What is your spiritual diet?
The Spiritual Model is Christ Jesus. Does your desire to be more like Christ increase? 1 Peter 2:21-23 says, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” Be an investigator of yourself and whether you desire to be more like Christ. Is Christ your great role model, or has someone or something else taken ground there?
The Spiritual Character is how we live our lives. It is how you choose to live. You were set apart when accepting Christ as Lord. If there was a trial on whether you were a Christian, would you be convicted based on the evidence? Evaluating your spiritual character is one of the easiest parts of the spiritual assessment. Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Does your life produce more, the same, or less fruit of the spirit than it did six months ago? Reflect on where you have been and where you are. This is the opportunity to make the adjustments.
Finally, Spiritual Offspring are the disciples that we create. Do you have someone or a few people you are disciplining to build God’s kingdom? Are you more intentional about discipleship now than you were six months ago? Discipleship is not regimented only for pastors and elders but is a call for all. It cannot be a sideline sport; spiritually mature believers are disciple-makers and must be exercised (Heb 5:12-14). Make sure you pursue discipleship and reflect on how to begin or advance that process.
These four self-assessments are not complicated or challenging but highlight specific parts of the life each believer should ask during growth evaluations. It might not be in terms of numbers, but it can be in terms of these things. Evaluate your diet, model, character, and offspring to see where you are about your previous self and where there might be a weakness.
Effectiveness Assessment
Have you ever asked yourself whether or not you were making a difference as a believer or if your labor was going in vain? Thankfully, Peter wrote a simple and effective way to identify whether believers are growing in spiritual effectiveness. In 2 Peter 1:5-10, Peter lists seven things in succession to determine effectiveness in the faith: Goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, Godliness, mutual affection, and love. He noted at the end that if these qualities are increased in measure, it will prevent ineffectiveness and unproductivity. As done before with the four spiritual assessment questions, ask yourself if you are growing in Peter’s listed qualities. Are they all being hit, or might there be one or two that are missed? Identify yourself in each one through honest reflection, then seek correction.
Measuring Spiritual Health
After taking both spiritual and effectiveness assessments, look at the flowchart below. This will help guide you through the following steps. In the long term, basing one’s previous spirituality on memory is ineffective. It is much better to take some time to write down the questions above and then respond with your answers. This will give you a distinct advantage in six months when the next assessment time hits, and you have a new reference point on which to base your assessment. It is an iterative process of growing closer to Christ through intentionality in our actions and our reflection to best position ourselves for spiritual formation.
[1] Jane I. Lu “Educational Models of Spiritual Formation in Theological Education: Introspection‐based Spiritual Formation.” Teaching Theology & Religion. 24. (2021): 28–41.
[2] James C. Wilhoit and Dallas Willard, Spiritual Formation As If the Church Mattered: Growing in Christ
Through Community (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2022), 17.
[3] Stephen D. Lowe, “Community Formation,” Liberty University, accessed May 20, 2024,