| The command of Christ is clear; we are to make disciples of all the nations. Or as the Apostle Paul declared in Galatians 4:19, "I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you". The spiritual formation of the believer lies at the heart of the mission of the church, and herein lies the problem: the church is not providing adequate biblical soul care for the lives of its members, which leads to spiritually immature or stunted followers of Jesus. The purpose of this study is to stimulate measureable spiritual growth through systematic preaching and teaching on the soul and biblical soul care. The researcher's hypothesis is that an eight-week expository sermon series covering biblical soul care, integrated with Sunday school and small group lessons over preparing one's heart, will stimulate measurable cognitive and experiential spiritual growth in the lives of the participants of FBCA. The researcher identified three areas crucial to the development of biblical soul care: (1) the biblical view of the soul, (2) essentials for the spiritual formation of the inner man, and (3) how Jesus cared for his inner man. Also presented are three major resources identified in Scripture that followers of Jesus have available for their spiritual formation: (1) the word of God, (2) the Holy Spirit, and (3) the chastening of the Lord. The literature review confirmed the church's practice of utilizing these resources in the process of making disciples over the past 1900 years.;The hypothesis was confirmed by the project's research, and results from the project appear to show measurable changes towards spiritual growth in members' responses in the post-surveys. There was 10 percent or more growth in over 60 percent of the areas measured. However, due to the small sample size, very few correlations can be made between the study completed at FBCA and any other group. |
