Using the Lessons
Taking the first Step
So you're ready to begin?
The “Marks of Maturity” lessons were created to help church and organizational leaders mentor others into Christian maturity to the 4th Level.
We designed the Marks of Maturity Grid to explain what it means to be a disciple who lives with gospel-intentionality. These lessons are meant to be a transferrable tool for you to give to your leaders to use and to give to others as they train future leaders reaching the 4th Level.
Pillars of Maturity
1. Gospel Love
2. Gospel Life
3. Gospel Embrace
4. Gospel Planting
12 Marks & 36 Submarks
Each Pillar of Gospel Maturity features 3 marks that define the Christian life (e.g., Gospel Love: Continual, Corporate, Conviction). Thus a total of 12 marks have been identified to guide believers into Christian maturity. And within each of the 12 marks, there are 3 submarks to help go deeper. The 36 submarks help Christians and leaders identify how the Bible calls us to become more like Christ in everyday life. Although the Grid is not meant to be exhaustive, we believe every aspect of gospel maturity lives within these 36 submarks and 12 marks. Simple, biblical ways to categorize growth.
Structured & Organic
Our hope is that our resources will be used in a structured organic way. None of the lessons (except for the Bible study lessons) created with the Maturity Grid follow each other. Disciplemaking leaders can feel free to pick any lessons they want from week-to-week. Grab a submark and work through one or more lessons before moving onto a new submark.
Points & Application
Each lesson is simply a skeleton, giving you the foundation and structure for you to take and personalize for your group. We recommend reviewing the passage first on your own and then using the lessons as a guide to formulate your personalized lesson for your meeting. Feel free to mix and match questions or strikeout any questions that do not fit the direction for your meeting.
The Lesson outline
Each lesson consists of 4 parts: passage points, passage questions, personal application, and group application.
Passage
Points
Points
We share the mountaintop highlights of a particular Scripture passage and how it relates to the sub-mark we are teaching about in the lesson. Our points are simply highlights we don’t want your group to miss. However, you may find other points from the passage to serve your hearers. And we encourage you to do so!
Passage
Questions
Questions
We hope these starter questions “prime your pump” to think of questions for your particular group. Use some and ask others. We do not want you to ask every question. That will be too much for any group. Simply choose the best questions. Knowing some questions may be difficult to answer, we provide a brief answer in parenthesis.
Personal
Application
Application
James tells us to “be doers of the word, and not just hearers only” (James 1:22). We want to apply the truth of God’s Word to everyday life. Choose questions to ask your group to help them personally apply truths from the text to their lives. You will find heart questions and activities to help drill down deeper on the point of the lesson.
Group
Application
Application
Christians are called to live in community. We want to apply the Bible’s truth to the entire group and then help one another live out. Select the best questions for your group and come up with some of your own. The goal is to regularly remind people about the gospel of Jesus Christ so that they can take steps of faith for Jesus!
A Note for Your Church
We get it. Your church mission and direction may be different than the terminology used the 4 Pillars in the Marks of Maturity Grid and Lessons. However we believe that these 12 marks and 36 sub-marks are areas where we can all grow. Please feel free to mix-and-match these marks in any way that will best serve your church or organization. The best part about this resource is that all of the lessons (outside of the Bible study lessons) and marks are independent of one another, so chart your own course and live with gospel-intentionality!