Growing in grace

by Sunday Ready
on April 27, 2026
in stat, quote, story

After taking a few weeks to rest and recharge with my family, I’m back with more stats, quotes, and stories to help you manage the pressure of weekly preaching.

This week, I want to help you preach on discipleship.

We’re a few weeks after Easter, and people are typically more spiritually aware and eager during this season of the year. Not to mention anyone who began a relationship with God on Easter.

So how do we preach on discipleship without making it legalistic?

I’m reminded of the words in 2 Peter where he told them to “grow in grace and knowledge.”

In general I think we do a good job of emphasizing the “growing in knowledge” part of discipleship. But how do we help people “grow in grace?” How do we teach them to live the Christian life feeling completely loved and accepted by God?

Sadly, our human nature is more motivated by guilt and shame than love and acceptance. So we end up making spiritual habits requirements instead of invitations.

Today, I’m giving you 1 stat, 1 quote, and 1 story to help you preach on discipleship.

Stat

Lifeway Research performed a study asking Christians to “score” themselves on a scale of 1-100 on eight key practices that measure spiritual maturity.

The eight practices were Bible engagement, obeying God and denying self, serving God and others, sharing Christ, exercising faith, seeking God, building relationships, and living unashamed.

The average total score was 68.1.

Takeaway: I’m leery of giving “grades” for spiritual practices, but I do think it’s interesting how Christians view themselves.

The average churchgoer scored the highest in seeking God (78.5), followed by obeying God and denying self (75.1), serving God and others (73.1), exercising faith (71.6), Bible engagement (69.8), building relationships (64.0), and living unashamed (61.0). The lowest score was in sharing Christ, where the average churchgoer reaches (54.8).

Source: Lifeway Research

Quote

Eugene Peterson always liked to describe the spiritual journey as “a long obedience in the same direction.”

Peterson adapted this phrase from Nietzsche, but it’s become synonymous with his work.

Source: Peterson has a book by this title, but I first read it in his memoir, The Pastor (pg. 247).

Story

You may have heard the famous story about a teacher named Edward Kimball.

In 1858, he personally visited all the children in his Sunday school class, and one of them was a young man named D.L. Moody.

One day, Kimball decided to visit D.L. Moody at the shoe store where he worked. He found Moody in the back stocking shelves. He shared the Gospel with Moody, and there, in the back of the shoe store, Moody accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

Moody grew up and became an evangelist. He preached the Gospel to millions of people. But one of those services was in a little chapel pastored by Frederic Meyer. Moody inspired Meyer to become an evangelist as well.

So, in one of Meyer’s services, a young man named J. Wilbur Chapman responded to God’s call on his life. Chapman also became an evangelist. He invited a man named Billy Sunday to help him set up for his evangelism crusades. Billy Sunday learned how to preach by watching Chapman preach.

Billy Sunday’s preaching brought thousands of people to Christ, including a man named Mordecai Ham, who later became an evangelist.

One day, a 16-year-old boy named Billy Graham walked into the last night of one of Ham’s revivals, and went forward and gave his life to Christ. And it all started with a Sunday school teacher named Edward Kimball taking the time to invest in his Sunday School class.

Takeaway: While study is an important part of spiritual growth, Christian history shows that personal relationships are the primary factor in a Christian’s development. We follow Jesus together.

Source: There is no single source that documents the entire chain as a single, documented sequence. Rather, it’s pieced together from stories and other historical events.

Interesting Links

Discipleship Is a Priority Without a Plan for Many Churches
This article from Lifeway presents several statistics from surveys of pastors on the topic of discipleship.

My Favorite Books for Becoming a Healthier Pastor
I put together this list of my favorite books for the spiritual and emotional development of pastors. It’s important to recognize that we need to be growing as well.

Want Next Week's Email?

I send emails just like this one to pastors every Monday. The goal is to help lighten the load of weekly preaching. I would love to add you to the list.