It feels like I’ve spent most of my adult lifetime searching for the holy grail. Not the treasure made famous in Arthurian literature, but the illusive, seemingly unattainable prize of finding a helpful, simple, spiritual formation assessment tool.
For years I’ve taught classes on the spiritual formation of mental health professionals and pastors. And for a long period of time this almost always involved introducing a new plan for attempting spiritual formation measurement. My continuing search had nothing to do with their being a lack of excellent books, ideas and instruments.While there are many laudable resources in this area, we recommend here the work of Peter C. Hill’s, et. al., Measures of Religiosity and Spirituality; also Todd W. Hall’s Spiritual Transformation Inventory, https://www.spiritualmetrics.co/.
However, even after trying numerous approaches, each year typically ended with me feeling a little empathy with Goldilocks’ search for the best fitting beds. Some assessment plans seemed too long, some too short, some too hard, some too soft, but none just right.
Eventually, as is often the case for me, I was inspired by Dallas Willard. His psychology text, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ, places the spotlight on the heart/spirit/will—an aspect of the person given very little, if any, attention by modern psychology—and narrowed the focus to the five key components of the person.
Willard also offered a snapshot for how these personal aspects would be functioning in a spiritually mature individual, whom the apostle Paul called, a Child of Light.See Ephesians 5.8–14.
For Children of Light, Willard suggested that as they approach spiritual maturity, the key aspects of their personhood would be moving along the following glowing pathways:Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ—20th Anniversary Edition. (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2021). See in particular Chapter 12, “Children of Light and the Light of the World,” 227ff.
- Thoughts: Learning to be thinking constantly about God.
- Feelings: Love is becoming the dominant emotion.
- Will: Becoming habitually devoted to doing what is good and right as it approaches a joyful and knowing surrender to the will of God.
- Bodies: Becoming habitually poised to do what is good and right
- Social Interactions: Transparency and an other-centered love is becoming the norm in social interactions.
In then continuing to look for more simple models of spiritual formation assessment that gave specific attention to the aspects and outcomes listed above, I became intrigued by the simplicity a model presented by Randy Frazee, The Christian Life Profile Assessment Workbook.Randy Frazee, The Christian Life Profile Assessment Workbook: Developing Your Personal Plan to Think, Act and Be like Jesus, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011). Not only was this approach endorsed by Dallas, but it provided a focus key aspects of the person, beliefs, practices, and virtues.
Even so, I continued to wonder about the possibility of an approach that was even more singularly focused on a daily check-in, or examen if you will, that concentrated more specifically on Willard’s five aspects of the person and the development of a simple rule of life inspired by the ideal of becoming Children of Light.
01. Background
Then, a few years ago, I became aware of the SPIRE model which began in a very popular positive psychology class at Harvard Universityhttps://wholebeinginstitute.com/course-overview/whole-person/. Part of the intrigue was that his model was focusing on the same five aspects of the person Willard writes about in Renovation of the Heart. This should not be a surprise, since there are only five things a person can do: think, feel, behave, choose, and relate. I have long been promising a $10,000 reward to anyone who could think of a sixth thing a person can do—but this usually involved someone else’ money
With the SPIRE model the arrangement of these five aspects, or functions of the person, is presented using the following acronym: S, Spiritual (Willard adds will and heart here); P, Physical (Willard often says body); I, Intellectual (Willard uses the word cognitive or thought) R, Relational; and E, Emotional.
The SPIRE model is based in positive psychology and has a specific focus on happiness and well-being. Athough, it is not tied to the tradition of Christian thought or world view, I found it very intriguing for two key reasons: (1) the obvious overlapping agreement concerning the five key aspects or functions of the person, and (2) the very simple plan for assessment and intervention it uses.
With the SPIRE model, a person is asked to take a few minutes each day to rate his or her day from the perspective of each of the five aspects on a scale of 1 to 10. They are to note their lowest score and write out a simple strategy for improving that one low score each day. For example, if one’s lowest score for the day was in the domain area of their physical life because of needing five cups of coffee to jumpstart the day, then he or she might plan on sleeping a bit more and caffeinating a bit less the next day.
It wasn’t long after I became familiar with the SPIRE plan that I contacted Megan McDonough, the founder of the, appropriately titled, Wholebeing Institute.https://wholebeinginstitute.com/about/founders/ It was a delightful conversation during which time I found out more about the work of this Institute and also relayed information concerning Renovation of the Heart and Dallas Willard’s model of the person.
In the end, it was agreed that she would not think we would be copying off their paper, so to speak, for using the same five aspects of the person that we both agreed were foundational. And she graciously agreed that it would be okay to mirror their simple methodology of focusing on assessing each of these dimensions each day and then focus on a simple plan for improving the lowest rating of the five scores—one day at a time.
We are calling our model RESPIRE. In part, this is certainly a tribute to the work at the Wholebeing Institute. And with the prefix “RE,” we mean to communicate two important differences. First, our model is specific to the journey of Christian Spiritual Formation. And part of this distinction will involve our giving special attention to “RE-visioning” one’s view of God, view of themselves, and view of what is involved in the journey toward wholeness.
Secondly, we love the obvious connection between “respire,” “respiration,” and the foundational role of breathing in sustaining life itself; and the connection breathing has to our closeness to the omni-present God as Spirit.
02. How it Works
Listed below, you will find three simple steps for developing a monthly practice with the RESPIRE Model.
STEP 1: Rate Yourself Each Day
At some point during the day (evening is our suggestion), rate yourself on each of Willard’s five aspects of the person. Please click in the box that corresponds to which day (from 1 to 30) of the 30-day program that it is for you. Then, for each of the five cells, enter a number from 1 to 10 which represents a subjective opinion of how your day went for that aspect of your personhood. That is, the higher the number, the more positive the rating. No need to be ultra-precise, just go with your gut. How do you feel, in the moment, spiritually (Connection to God with a sense of an “easy yoke”? That would be a 10. An “average day” for an individual may be more in the 5 to 7 range. You get the idea.)? Physically (rested, fit, your body poised to what is good and right)? In your thought life (Constantly thinking of God, dwelling on Divine greatness and loveliness )? Relationally (It is easy to be transparent with others and to act in love)? Emotionally (Your emotions are dominated by a deep sense of Love—which is pulling along other emotions such as peace and joy)?
STEP 2: Explore the Rating
What more is behind those numbers? Please write a word or two in the space to the right of each numeric rating to indicate what was going on that day to create the rating you used. What are the drivers? For example, you may have given yourself a 3 on “Physical” because you missed sleep the night before, or just polished off a quart of ice cream and really need a nap. So, you might write in a few words after the number in that cell such as: “behind on sleep” or “too much food for entertainment today.”
Step 3: Action to talk
Identify your lowest number for the day. If two or more numbers are tied for that reverse honor, pick whichever aspect of the person you feel most drawn to address. Then decide which action you can take during the next day (24-hour period) to raise your lowest number? Use the space at the end of the row to briefly describe the action you plan to take. What action would raise your overall sense of well-being? Do this for each of your lower ratings each day. For example, you may have decided to “treat” your tiredness with a nap? Or perhaps, your lowest number was in the social dimension and you have decided on a specific way to intentionally act on what is good for a friend or family member.
STEP 4: Keeping the End Goal in Mind
As referenced above, Dallas Willard suggests the Characteristics of Children of Light (e.g., Your “10+” Scores). Keep this endgame in mind as you proceed.
- Thoughts: Children of light think constantly about God, dwelling upon His greatness and loveliness.
- Feelings: Love is the dominant emotion of a child of light.
- Will (spirit, heart): They are habitually devoted to doing what is good and right. The will is habitually attuned to surrender and obedience.
- Body: Their bodies have come over to the side of their will to do what is good and are constantly poised to do what is right and good.
- Social Relations: Children of light are completely transparent in relations with others.
- Soul: All of the above are not just at the surface, they are deep and effortless.
03. Locating the Tools for Getting Started
In the drop-downs that follow, you will find the key tools for getting started. These are:
- RESPIRE Monthly Report Sheet: Note this sheet is described in the four steps above and you will find these same directions repeated on the writable PDF form.
- RESPIRE: Creating a Rule of Life
- Hopko’s List of 55
- Ideas for small groups.