Making Spiritual Progress: Building Your Life with Faith, Hope and Love - Softcover

"Making Spiritual Progress is bold, but it is healing. Allen Ratta helps us discover what fuel we have in our tanks and how to switch fuels to faith, hope and love. He unpacks each one to reveal God's original design. Then he gives us step-by-step guidance toward God's best. This is a book long overdue!"--Wayne Cordeiro, founder and senior pastor, New Hope Oahu

"Refreshing! Unique! Practical! A wonderful book! A significant resource! One of God's primary love languages is to see his children grow and to, in the words of Romans 8:29, 'become conformed to the image of his Son.' This book will help you do just that. Making Spiritual Progress, combined with the self-assessment at SpiritualProgress.com, is an invaluable resource that will help you make faith, hope and love a part of who you are and not just something that you do. His chapter on love alone is worth the price of the book, and it will open your eyes to new ways to cultivate a life characterized by a rich, deep and Christ-like love. This book will be a sound investment in your spiritual life. It's a resource you will return to, refer to your friends and read more than once."--Gary J. Oliver, executive director, The Center for Relationship Enrichment

"Where does true spiritual growth come from? Most of us spend time trying to fix our behaviors: we try to read our Bibles more, pray more, etc. While these are fine, Allen Ratta points out that they only focus on outward behaviors. What we need is something that will change us from the inside out, down to our very DNA. God doesn't just want to change your behavior; he wants to change your character too. Making Spiritual Progress will help you to achieve spiritual growth."--Greg Surratt, senior pastor, Seacoast Church, and author of Ir-rev-rend

"It was thirty years ago that I first heard Allen Ratta's thoughts on spiritual growth as they were in the embryonic stages. My first response was that these thoughts must be capsulized in written form to help believers and churches advance in their walk with God. Making Spiritual Progress is the culmination of Allen's lifelong pursuit of spiritual growth written through the lens of practicality, life experience as a pastor, but most importantly, the leading of the Holy Spirit. Thanks, Allen, for providing an in-depth look into the journey every pastor, church and believer in Christ must take into faith, hope and love in order to advance their spiritual growth!"--Gary Morefield, pastor, GV Christian, Henderson, Nevada

"Christian living is not about trying really hard to be good. It is about having the right heart, the right character, the right motives. We are changed from the inside out. Making Spiritual Progress is about changing our lives, starting with our motives. When we are motivated by faith, hope and love, our behaviors will fall into line. Allen Ratta shows us how to change lives, starting with the heart."--Josh Hunt, author of Good Questions Have Groups Talking

"Faith, hope and love aren't Christian clich?s. They're the stuff of spiritual maturity: the ground floor, intrastructure and scaffolding that the Holy Spirit uses to make us more like Jesus. The SpiritualProgress model fits so well with the biblical paradigm that it's almost "a priori" obvious once you step back and look at it. It makes you wonder, Why hadn't I seen that before?"--Larry Osborne, senior pastor, North Coast Church, Vista, California

"Allen Ratta's insight will help you in what is a lifelong pursuit: growing. Read and continue the journey of developing. Making Spiritual Progress is a book that will enlighten your path."--Johnny Hunt, pastor, First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Georgia; previous president of the Southern Baptist Convention

"Zeroing in on our hearts and motivations, Allen Ratta diagnoses the critical factors that often block our spiritual transformation--what keeps us from real change of character in who we are and what we do as Christ-followers. . . . In this compelling volume you'll find biblical and practical information to be able to assimilate for growing in grace and truth!"--Rich Guerra, superintendent, SoCal Network Assemblies of God

"Allen has knocked it out of the park! The Spiritual Progress model is so thoroughly biblical that I'm instantly drawn to it, and I think you will be too. This book is about understanding and managing our motivations--the energies that propel us and drive the decisions we make. Understanding that there are behaviors that flow naturally out of our character is eye opening and life changing. Devour this book and live a Spirit-filled and Spirt-led life."--Greg Atkinson, pastor, coach and author of Strange Leadership

"Amongst a plethora of books about discipleship and spiritual formation, Allen Ratta introduces a fresh approach that integrates both and focuses on the character outcomes of faith, hope and love. Instead of discipleship being the endgame, Allen demonstrates how discipleship is the means to the ultimate goal of developing our faith, strengthening our hope and increasing our love for God and others. Want to make progress in your spiritual journey? Read this book."--Jim Tomberlin, founder and chief strategist, MultiSite Solutions, and author of Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work

We often think of "spiritual growth" as a matter of behavior. In reality spiritual growth is a matter of the heart. In Making Spiritual Progress Allen Ratta introduces a revolutionary system for monitoring your motivations faith, hope and love, the virtues out of which spiritual growth grows. Fully integrated into the self-assessment and growth tools found at spiritualprogress.com, this book will help you identify your core motivations for how you practice your faith empower you to grow in faith, hope and love increase your redemptive impact in the world If you want to transform your life, start with your heart. Everything else will follow."