Why are many Christians not very loving? Or kind? Or patient? Or even joyful? And why do most of us as pastors seem to have only one or two tools to help people grow, that of prayer and worship?

Although prayer is undoubtedly a part of the solution and worship focuses us on what we value, we often stop at these two aspects and miss the fact that like everything else in this world, spiritual growth is systemic — an ecosystem of disciplined interactions with God and others.

So what is this ecosystem of spiritual growth? What other activities work together to bring a person to spiritual maturity?

If God is so complex that we need to engage the Divine in a variety of ways, then what are those ways and how do we actively participate in this growth that God intends for us? What grows the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience and kindness within us so that we do by nature what Jesus would do if he were in our place living our lives?

In a new approach that combines the wisdom of the ages with the new understandings of systems thinking, Dr. Denny Wayman has written a new book, Discipleship Ecosystem: Developing The Fruit of the Spirit by the Presence of God, to help teach a way of life to live.

For decades, Wayman taught on spiritual gifts, fruit and disciplines but did not see their systemic interaction. Describing the moment of insight, he writes:

“What I did not see was how God had given me the answers, but I was looking at them isolated from one another, as though fruit grows away from the branch and needs not be rooted. Or that spiritual gifts were used with disregard for the character of the person, as though a gifted communicator did not need goodness or self-control to be spiritually fruitful in the lives of listeners. It was then that the vision of a tree came into my mind. I saw that what I was teaching in disparate isolation required an understanding of God’s discipleship ecosystem.”

As lead pastor of Free Methodist Church of Santa Barbara and lead superintendent of the Free Methodist Church in Southern California, Wayman has more than four decades of experience in spiritual guidance.

Having earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena in pastoral counseling, he is an experienced shepherd of souls and a student of Family Systems Theory created by Dr. Murray Bowen.

Wayman is also the author of Healthy Biblical Communities and The Church as a Just, Redeeming Community. He is the co-author of a social and spiritual commentary on film called Cinema in Focus, which is published in Noozhawk, and is a past author of the Human Behavior column in Light + Life Magazine.

Discipleship Ecosystem: Developing The Fruit of the Spirit by the Presence of God focuses on the systemic interaction of being rooted in God’s presence to produce the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and the other characteristics of a mature Christian life, allowing the use of the spiritual gifts to be flavored in delicious and nurturing ways.

The book also takes the insights of Peter Wohlleben in his seminal work, The Hidden Life of Trees. Studying old-growth forests, he notes the community aspect in which “The roots are the most important part of the tree,” which is true of the Discipleship Ecosystem as well. The lessons learned from the ecosystem of the forest are found in the 12th chapter and applied to the discipleship ecosystem.

Discipleship Ecosystem is a part of the FreeMo journals. The 198-page book is designed as both a guide for a three-month small group study with 13 chapters and questions, and also as an individual study that focuses each person on his or her own unique spiritual journey.

Click here to order Discipleship Ecosystem: Developing the Fruit of the Spirit by the Presence of God.