Our Part in Transformation

 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (II Corinthians 3:18 NIV).

The apostle Paul takes us back to the scene where the Lord gave Moses the new stone tablets. During that encounter, God allowed Moses to look at His back as He passed by. Moses was so impacted by that moment that His face shone with the glory of God. His face was radiant. He was physically changed. But each step away from the mountain was a step away from God’s presence, and the radiance eventually faded.

Paul says that with us it is different. We have unveiled faces and our glory is ever increasing, because we never leave the presence of the Lord. We never leave the mountain. By His Spirit, He is with us. He is in us.

As we consider our own spiritual transformation and the transformation of the people in our churches, what is our part, our role? God did the transforming, but Moses played a vital role in the process.

Moses walked up the mountain. He placed himself in the right place to be transformed by God. He discovered the place where God would move in his life, and he put himself there.

Church leaders must do the same. Your part as a church leader is to place people in the pathway of God’s transforming power. Your part is to design a process that partners with the transformation process revealed in Scripture. The ministry or discipleship process is not where the power lies. Only God does the transforming.

God has designed spiritual maturation to be a process. It is to occur with ever-increasing glory. Thus leaders of churches with a clear and focused discipleship process have designed their simple process with movement in mind. The ministry process moves people to greater levels of commitment—with ever-increasing levels of discipleship. In those churches, people are not stuck in the same place. There is a plan for transformation.


Adapted from Simple Church (B&H Publishing Group, 2006)