Maps for the Journey: Developmental Models and the Spiritual Life

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Cut Adrift Without Guidance

Imagine you wake up to find yourself alone on a boat in the middle of a vast ocean. Slowly turning in a three-sixty-degree motion, you desperately look for but find no land in sight, as wave upon growing wave of disorientation slams against your consciousness. You immediately wonder, “Where am I, and which way should I go from here?”

These anxious thoughts lead you to urgently assess the condition of the vessel in which you have awakened. There is both good news and bad.

The good? The vessel itself is in splendid shape. It appears to have been well-maintained by a master technician; its powerful engine purrs like a kitten; and its fuel tank is filled to the brim.

The bad? There is a conspicuous absence of navigational equipment on board. No sonar, no radar, no antenna, no radio, no compass, not even a map in the glove compartment.

Summary: You are in unexpected possession of a rather magnificent piece of machinery, but without some form of navigational guidance—some way of figuring out where you are and where you should be going—you are able to do little more than drift aimlessly, drive in random directions, or stay in place revving your engine.

James Hollis, in his book The Middle Passage, describes this metaphorical condition, and the literal one of modern society, with these words, “Our culture has lost the…map which helps locate a person in a larger context.” And he goes on, “Without [such a map], modern individuals are cut adrift to wander without guidance, without models and without assistance through the various life stages…with little help from one’s peers who are equally adrift” in the ocean of life.(1)

We need maps to help us successfully navigate our journeys. We need compasses. We need guidance. Addressing this phenomenon is one of the chief goals of developmental models.

Benefits of Developmental Models

“My observations,” Richard Rohr muses, “tell me that if we can clarify the common sequencing, staging, and direction of life’s arc a bit more, many practical questions and dilemmas will be resolved.” (2)

Developmental models, in other words, have the potential of offering significant benefits to those who are exposed to them. Take these three benefits to start.

• By helping us know what is coming, developmental models better prepare us for the stages that follow.

• Moreover, they all affirm that growth and development have a direction, the importance of which is difficult to overstate, for unless we can chart and encourage both movement and direction, we have no way to name maturity or immaturity.

• And with the capacity to name maturity and immaturity comes the ability to stop misdiagnosing growth as deviance, a gift that would unleash many who experience intracommunal resistance along their developmental journeys.

Developmental Models and 2HC

During the first retreat of each 2HC cohort, the developmental model of Order | Disorder | Reorder is put forward for consideration. 

Mirroring the progression found in Israel’s wisdom literature (Proverbs | Ecclesiastes | Song of Solomon), the Order | Disorder | Reorder framework helps 2HC participants understand where they’ve been, where they are, and where their spiritual journeys seem to be taking them.

But outside of joining an upcoming 2HC cohort (which we can’t help but enthusiastically recommend), where else might we turn to find developmental models that can help us chart our courses of spiritual maturation?

There are many insightful options, each varying in the granularity of their presentations. Let us highlight two. 

Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich’s The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith is a classic in the field. Their model includes six stages of faith-development plus a close look at the spiritual experience many refer to as “the dark night of the soul.” Readers from a wide range of denominational backgrounds will resonate with Hagberg and Guelich’s depiction of the spiritual journey.

For an even more recent and personal account, Brian McLaren’s Faith After Doubt might also be considered. McLaren offers a four-stage model of spiritual development: Simplicity | Complexity | Perplexity | Harmony. If those headings sound intriguing, Faith After Doubt could very well be a place where Christ’s Spirit meets you—and draws you forward developmentally.

Many other works could be underscored, but whatever model of spiritual development with which one may interact, our prayer remains the same. May we all be graced with the courage to consent to the Spirit’s invitation to the next stage of our developmental journeys in Christ.

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(1) James Hollis, The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife (Toronto, Canada: Inner City Books 1993), 23.

(2) Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011), xv.