About 40 years ago, I became interested in theories of human development with their various stage models.

Over the decades, I've studied well over a dozen models that try to describe general patterns in the way humans grow.

I've seen with increasing clarity how spiritual development describe general patterns in the way humans grow.

I've seen with increasing clarity how spiritual development is affected by each new stage of our human development.

The reverse is also true.

Our growth or lack of growth in spirituality inhibits or unleashes our cognitive relational and emotional

growth. Their relationship is reciprocal. How could it be otherwise? Whether or not you choose

to stay Christian, here's what I recommend. Pay attention to your human development,

to the stages you're entering, inhabiting, or leaving. If you're ready to grow to a new stage,

but your current form of Christianity keeps you from doing so.

You're going to be frustrated, and rightly so.

You may let your current beliefs and practices trap you, so you stagnate or even regress.

That sense of stagnation or stuckness may eventually drive you to leave Christianity entirely,

seeking room to grow elsewhere.

That's certainly understandable.

But you have another option, too.

You can leave your current form or stage of Christianity and enter a new form or stage that allows and

even encourages the growth that you desire and need. A lot of people leave Christianity when really

all they needed was to leave a confining form or stage of Christianity. Some people think leaving Christianity

will solve their problems, not realizing that their problems are as rooted in their stage

of development as in their religion. The reverse is also true. Some atheists, agnostics, or people

of other religions become Christians because

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