The Matrix of Maturity Development

¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.  (Eph. 4:11-16 NIV)

Christ has given the Church those with gifts and abilities designed to equip his people for all sorts of ministry, resulting in the building up of the body of Christ, the larger community of faith, with the objective of achieving unity in faith, and maturity in the knowledge, wisdom, and the character qualities of Christ.  In other words, the objective of those who laid the foundations of the church, the apostles and prophets, was ultimately that the church would one day grow into full expression of the character of Christ.  The objective of those who are equipping the church to expand and to grow in caring and character, as well as knowledge and wisdom, that is, the evangelists, pastors, and teachers, is that their service would equip people for ministry that would result in growth in the body of Christ, both in numbers and in character.  Each and every member of the body of Christ contributes to the overall objective of growth.

By observation and meditation, a matrix of maturity development has emerged in the mind of this author.  It is submitted here for your further study and provocation.

Maturity Development Program Matrix - Adult

 

Maturity Development Phases

Development Processes	Phase I Seeds of Faith	Phase 2 Roots of Faith	Phase 3 Fruits of Faith	Phase 4 Harvest of Faith
Growth	Commitment to	Commitment to	Commitment to	Commitment to
Objective	Christ	Christlikeness	Ministry	Life Mission
Key Commitment	Faith Covenant	Discipleship Covenant	Ministry Covenant	Mission Covenant
Growth Perspective	Open-minded Participant/	Learning obedience	Learning servanthood	Example of Life-time learning
	observer
Motivators	Personal	Personal	Personal	Personal
	Exposure	Experience	Recognition	Insights
Mentors	Models	Disciplers	Coaches	Spiritual Guides
Knowledge	Assurances	Survey	Sharpened	Reproductive
Set	of the Faith	of Truth/	sword	Wisdom
		God's principles
Skill/Discipline	Devotional	Developmental	Directional	Duplicatable
Set
Character	Fruit Insights	Self Insights	Work on	Work on
Set			Strengths	Weaknesses
Values	New Life	Lordship	Bodylife	Kingdom
Service	Ministry	Ministry	Ministry	Ministry
Contribution	Participation	Responsibility	Leadership	Development
Evangelism	Contact/	Participant-	Leader/	Leader/
Involvement	Inviter	Observer	Example	Trainer
Sense of	Believe in	Keep my	Love as I have	So send I you
Sovereignty	Me	Commandments	loved you
Tests/	Faith	Consistent	Cheerful	Perseverance
Challenges		Obedience	Faithfulness	in doing well