The Three Stages of Christian Life for Teachers and Mentors

The Three R's/ Three modalities of Christian life 

There are three stages of teaching or mentoring our life in Jesus that cross all theological and church lines.

I use the three R's, like reading, writing and arithmetic to make it easily accessible. Our living spiritual framework usually centers in these three area's: Revival, Renewal, and Restoration.

These are not closed systems or steps we attain, they are spiritual lifestyles of our life in God.

Revival

Revival is our coming alive to God in all its aspects...coming to Jesus, awakening to the Body of Christ, the Presence of God, and the Scriptures jump off the page.

This is the stage of our foundational teaching and mentoring.

As we move 'higher up and further in' as C.S Lewis puts it, we will cycle through this stage throughout our Christian life. The problem arises when we remain here. We become stagnant and life becomes a stage where we perform.

Mentoring To The Trade: The Tradesman

Institutionally, this is usually the realm of the evangelist, the teacher, and the preacher.

Again, Revival is where we come alive to God, 'just as I am'. This is where we awaken and accept Jesus as our Lord, and this is a process as well as an event. This is where we seriously enter our journey of faith.

Now here's the downside: 

We can be taught to the test, mentored the rules instead of awakening us to more.

We can be led to become good Church people, good labors for the church system.

With every good intention, we can be 'guilted' into staying in revival mode. That happens when it's all our mentors know. We are encouraged to live lives of perpetual revival, running from fire to fire.

As it's usually taught and mentored, revival becomes an outside-in approach and it's usually steeped in the Responsibility of Man ie holiness.

Spiritually, To stay here is to live on the margins of the spiritual life God has provided for us to live out of in Jesus. Let's jump into more of God into more of you and me.