Goal

This course aims to:

1. Expand your understanding of spiritual maturity (fully grown, Christlike character) and to enrich your experiences and practice of the Christian life. 
2. Help you see clearly that the goal of the Christian life is spiritual maturity (full-grown, adult, discipleship) and to help you recognize the connection between your hunger for God and that goal.
3. Provide firm grounding in scripture and Christian teachings to sustain commitment to grow to maturity.
4. Find your commitments and behaviors shifting to align with this scriptural understanding.  You will get stronger and more consistent in the expression of your faith.
5. Begin to recognize how changes in behaviors and practices influence your desires, affections, motives, dispositions and actions.  You gain freedom and you feel righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).  

Outcomes

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

1. Describe the basic concept of spiritual maturity as the goal of the Christian life.
2. Connect representative scriptures to that description.
3. Practice the means of grace, the habits that put us in the position to grow.
4. Practice tracking your thoughts and feelings through notations or journaling, keeping a notebook or a note-taking app to capture your thoughts.  

Syllabus

Session 1.  The Heart's Hunger

Session 2.   What is Spiritual Maturity?

Session 3.  Jesus as Exemplar

Session 4.  Jesus, Master Teacher

Session 5.  The Heart

Session 6.  Humanity:  Beautiful and Tragic

Session 7.  Grace Changes Us

Session 8.  The Communal Dimension of Grace

Session 9.  Spiritual Maturity and the Means of Grace

Session 10.  Three Dimensional Maturity

In addition to lectures and readings, each session has a set of exercises to complete on your own.