SPIRITUALLY DEAD

Vision

When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. What is the cause of Christ? People! When we love with Jesus — when His Holy Spirit resides in us — we care about what He cares about.

Foundation • Framing Out Structure

Every person is born into this world spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-3). Those who receive Jesus are born again according to God’s purposes (Ephesians 2:4-9). The Holy Spirit moves in and the spiritually dead come to new spiritual life. They become spiritual infants (1 Peter 2:2-3). As they grow and mature, they move from the infant stage to the child stage, to the young adult stage, and finally to the parent stage, in which they disciple someone else through these same stages.

The chart works like this: The inner circle describes the stages of spiritual growth (DEAD INFANT -> CHILD -> YOUNG ADULT -> PARENT). People will reveal where they are by what they say and do.

The Spiritually Dead: The spiritually dead are characterized by their unbelief in Christ, which shows up in various ways, such as a rebellious attitude toward God. Because the sinful nature is allowed to rule in the heart of the spiritually dead, the relationships of an unbeliever tend to be shallow or broken.

The beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors of the spiritually dead include:

• Disbelief in the supernatural, or belief in many forms of the supernatural (multiple deities, interactions with the dead, superstitions, astrology, and so on)
• Disbelief in God (atheism) or belief in the possibility of God (agnosticism) or belief in a God that is different from the God of Scripture
• Belief in one God but many ways to get to Him
• Anger toward Christians or the church
• Ignorance and or confusion about God, Jesus, and the church
• Misinformed about spiritual/biblical truth; spiritual blindness
• Belief that the answers they are seeking lie in worldly prestige, power, fame, and so on
• A belief that they are as good as anyone else, so they don’t need a Savior
• A belief that they have done too much wrong and a fear that they can’t be saved
• A belief that what is right for you is right for you and what is right for another is right for him or her; there is no absolute truth — right or wrong

Some of the representative things the spiritually dead say:

• “I don’t believe there is a God.”
• “The Bible is just a bunch of myths.”
• “I don’t believe in miracles.”
• “Evolution explains away a need for God.”
• “God is just a crutch.”
• “I am not a Christian because Christians are responsible for all the wars in history.”
• “There are many ways to get to God.”
• “I don’t need to be saved since I am as good as anyone else.”
• “A good person gets to go to heaven and a bad person goes to hell.”
• “I believe in heaven, but there is no hell.”
• “I am a Christian because I go to church and I am a good person.”
• “There is no hell because God is a God of love.”
• “I have been a good person, so I will be okay.”
• “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.”
• “There is no absolute right and wrong.”
• “I don’t know where I am going if I die.”
• “I believe in Jesus, but my friend is a Mormon. I told her it didn’t really matter as long as we believed in Jesus.”

Needs of the Spiritually Dead: Every person is unique (misinformed theology, atheists, polytheists, agnostics, spiritual PTSD, etc.). Despite the differences in their backgrounds, the needs of the spiritually dead are simple. Some of the things they need include:

• A secure relationship with a mature believer
• A picture of the real Jesus lived out in front of them
• Answers, evidences for Christianity, and answers to life’s hard questions
• An explanation of the gospel message
• An invitation to receive Christ

If we are to share our faith with the spiritually dead, we must build an ongoing relationship with them. As we do, we will discover their reasons for not being a Christian if we listen well. We must earn the right to speak into their lives so that we can deal with these issues one at a time. The best evidence for our faith is the kind of love we give to others.