When was the last time you made an appointment with your doctor for a physical examination? Have you avoided it because you thought he might tell you something you wouldn't want to hear, something like, "You could stand to lose a few pounds," or maybe, "A little exercise would do you some good," or "Your cholesterol is looking a bit high, time to cut out the bowl of ice cream before bedtime"? Like our physical health, our spiritual health needs to be assessed and managed so it can continuously grow and mature into all that God desires it to be.

Getting a picture of spiritual health

So what does spiritual health look like? At Saddleback we believe health is based on living a life that balances the five purposes of God: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism. Too many times we tend to major in one aspect of health while ignoring the others. For some, spiritual health is measured by having the right answers to theological questions. For others, spiritual health is demonstrated by acts of service. While these are good things, our spiritual life suffers if we do not balance all five of God's purposes in our lives.

Assessing our spiritual health

In order to help people get a better sense of how well they're doing this, we put together a tool called The Purpose Driven Spiritual Health Assessment. This self-assessment tool is designed to help a person take a snapshot of his life and see how well he is balancing the five purposes. Our goal is not to measure and score spiritual health. Rather, we want to provide a starting point from which people can begin to pursue a healthier spiritual life. The process of balancing the five purposes in our lives takes time and reflection. First, we need to evaluate where we are. Once we have a picture of where we are we then need to determine where we need to grow by focusing on one or more of the purpose areas. Once we've targeted a specific growth area, we need a plan. By answering the questions under each purpose, the user will see where their strengths are and identify where they need to focus more of their attention for growth. Another aspect of the tool is the ability to get valuable feedback from a few people that know us best, such as a spouse, a small group member, or a mentor, by having them complete the same assessment on us (called a Friend Feedback Assessment). We don't always see ourselves as others do. The valuable, godly relationships in our lives can pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses that we may not identify in ourselves.

Setting a plan for growth

After taking the Health Assessment and evaluating where one currently stands in their spiritual journey, it is time to chart a course for personal growth by setting up a Health Plan. The Health Plan is designed to provide a practical next step that a person can take for each of the questions on the assessment. Each of these areas are broken down into what we call a Crawl step (a goal easily attained within 30 days), a Walk step (a goal that stretches you, attainable within 60-90 days), and a Run step (a Holy Spirit-inspired goal). As the user chooses their next step(s) they begin to move progressively toward attaining the growth goals that have been laid out before them.