5 Things You Need to Know about Personal Growth

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I've been at this awhile. I started in ministry as a volunteer leader of a small college ministry in 1983. I was a college student myself (on the 10 year plan it turned out) but only a few years older than many of the students. It was a life-changing experience for me and led to a vastly different career path.

In those early days I had several mentors that helped me begin well. More importantly, they helped me see the long view and encouraged me onto a path of personal growth that shaped me over time and as I went. I am still on that path.

Here is what I know about personal growth:

Personal growth is daily

Personal growth is daily. It is not something that happens as a result of a single step or a one time commitment. It's a daily commitment to go again, to try again, to take another step.

Yes, there is a need for Sabbath. And there is a need for rest and days off and vacations. But those don't deter or defer personal growth. They make it possible.

Personal growth is daily. How are you growing today?Personal growth is daily. How are you growing today? Click To Tweet

Personal growth requires challenge

Personal growth requires challenge. There is effort and endurance required. Spiritual, emotional, mental and physical. The easy path, the path of least resistance, rarely leads to growth.

Personal growth requires challenge. What are you up to that is requiring effort?

I like what John Maxwell said. "Everything worth while is uphill. People have uphill hopes and downhill habits." Everything worth while is uphill. People have uphill hopes and downhill habits. —John Maxwell Click To Tweet

Personal growth is about being a learner

Personal growth is about being a learner. It is about being a student. It is about being a student of the pathway, of those ahead in the near distance and of the One at the front of the line.

Being a learner requires curiosity and a preoccupation with questions. "What would have to be true for that to happen?" "How might we do that?" "What causes that to happen?"

Personal growth is about being a learner. What are you learning?Personal growth is about being a learner. What are you learning? Click To Tweet

Personal growth requires commitment

Personal growth requires commitment. Commitment to today's effort to be sure, but also commitment to the journey itself.

Personal growth requires commitment. How's your commitment level? Click To Tweet

Personal growth requires authentic community

Personal growth requires community. The truth is, there are very few among us who are able to self-initiate personal growth and change. The rest of us require authentic community, the kind where in addition to camaraderie there is a deepening awareness of not-like-Jesus that needs shaping, truth and grace, loving affirmation and loving rebuke.

Personal growth requires authentic community. Do you have that kind of community?Personal growth requires authentic community. Do you have that kind of community? Click To Tweet

A final thought

One of the 8 habits of a life-changing leader is to follow the best example and offer a good example. Whatever you want to happen in the lives of the members of your groups, must happen in the lives of their leaders first. And your example sets the course for the leaders in your ministry.

One of the 8 habits of a life-changing leader is to follow the best example and offer a good example. Whatever you want to happen in the lives of the members of your groups, must happen in the lives of their leaders first. And your… Click To Tweet