30 2010/2011 . CSE Volume 14 Number 3 . Spirituality in Formation: The Spiritual Lives of ACSi Students

Plenty of studies have been done on what

happens to students during their four years of

high school: how their minds grow, how their

identities form, and how their relationships change.

But before now, very little research has been done

on what kind of growth is happening in their spiritual

lives. That’s where a partnership between two Todds

comes in—Dr. Todd Marrah, superintendent at Tree

of Life Christian Schools in Columbus, Ohio, and Dr.

Todd Hall, associate professor of psychology at Biola’s

Rosemead School of Psychology.

In 2003, Hall and a team of researchers launched a

groundbreaking study designed to track the spiritual

development of 500 Christian college students from

freshman to senior year. A year later, Hall began a

second project that allowed colleges to measure 22

indicators of students’ spiritual lives using the Spiri-

tual Transformation Inventory (STI) that he developed.

Then, in 2006, Marrah and Hall struck up a

partnership to study the spiritual development of

ACSI students in grades 6–12. This study provides a

fascinating snapshot of how students at ACSI schools

are doing spiritually—and some of the results may

surprise you.

Two of the most important goals of Christian

schools are to help students grow spiritually and to

develop their character. Likewise, one of the biggest

challenges we face is evaluating how well we are

fulfi lling these goals. The Spiritual Transformation

project, using the STI, is an ongoing project designed

to study the spiritual lives of Christian secondary

school students.

Spirituality can never be evaluated perfectly, but

a well-designed effort can offer useful indicators of

where students are in their spiritual development

process. Before we can begin measuring anything,

however, we need a theologically grounded and psy-

chologically informed approach to spiritual formation.

Spiritual formation, at its core, is a relational

process that results from a partnership between us

and God. Scripture says that God began the work and

will be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6). God

includes the one being formed in the work—“Continue

to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

for it is God who works in you” (Philippians 2:12–13,

NIV)—and God’s Word calls us to “make every effort

to add to your faith goodness” (2 Peter 1:5).

This emerging approach to spiritual formation is being

called relational spirituality. The Reader’s Digest version is

that theology, psychology, and brain science are converg-

ing in suggesting that spiritual development is about loving

relationships with God and others, and that relationships

change our brain, our soul, and our ability to love.

Our journey with relational spirituality—in our own

lives and work—has led us to pursue research on the

spirituality of ACSI students in hopes of helping ACSI

schools assess and ultimately foster spiritual growth

among their students. This research is ongoing; how-

ever, the following refl ections are based on data from

more than 3,000 students in nearly 40 ACSI schools:

Spirituality in Formation:The Spiritual Lives of ACSI Students

By Todd R. Marrah and Todd W. Hall

Spirituality in Formation: The Spiritual Lives of ACSi Students . CSE Volume 14 Number 3 . 2010/2011 31

1. Students are connected to God through meaning and gratitude.

We assess 22 indicators of students’ spiritual lives. Of

these, students reported most strongly that their relation-

ship with Jesus gave them a sense of spiritual meaning.

This result is encouraging, especially because we live in a

culture that encourages our students to search for mean-

ing through the medium of technology and in individual-

ism and materialism. However, Scripture, psychology,

and neuroscience all indicate that meaning is found in

relationship with our fellow image bearers and with God.

We need to continue to build on this encouraging finding.

In addition to reporting a strong sense of meaning,

students reported feeling connected to God in grati-

tude. This is also encouraging, as gratitude should be

a central motive of the Christian life. In 1 Thessalonians

5:18, Paul says, “Give thanks in all circumstances.”

The more we have reflected on this, the more clear it

has become that gratitude is at the very heart of the

Christian life and is indeed intricately connected to

our sense of meaning in life. We need to build on this

strength by fostering and modeling an environment of

gratitude that will create the context for our students

to experience a deep sense of meaning in their lives.

2. Students are connected in spiritual community.

Students also reported a strong sense of connection

to God in spiritual community. Our students are part

of a “No Child Left Behind” generation that deeply

values living openly in community.

Several years ago, Tree of Life (TOL) admitted an

eighth grader who was extremely socially awkward.

One month into the school year, he had spoken to no

one. His parents forced him to go on the eighth-grade

wilderness retreat. It was a wet weekend, and because

of his lack of coordination, he could not climb up a

muddy ravine wall. I [Marrah] watched as the entire

class (even the “coolest” boys), most of whom did not

know his

name, formed

a human chain

to get him up

the hill. When

he arrived, he

was filthy from his many falls. Not wanting him to be

the only dirty one, about six of the “cool” boys ran and

dove in the mud. In my generation, I would have run

ahead to the activities, but this generation thrives in

community. We need to continue to find ways to foster

true Christian community among our students.

3. Relationships and theology play important roles in spiritual growth.

We asked students across the United States to

rate, from very negative to very positive, how various

aspects of the school environment and programs

affected their spiritual development. The top five

growth facilitators were times of praise and worship,

retreats, chapels, Bible classes, and faculty mentoring.

Each of these areas supports a relational view of

spirituality and the importance of students living in

community. Feedback from the open-ended questions

confirmed that each of these activities had a positive

impact that was due in large part to strong relation-

ships. Students reported the greatest contributors to

their spiritual development were relationships with

parents, teachers, Bible teachers, friends, and pastors.

To be most effective, chapel speakers, Bible teachers,

faculty mentors, and retreat leaders need to have a strong

ability to connect to students. These findings have actu-

ally changed our hiring priorities and practices. We have

begun placing as much emphasis on relational abilities

as on academic, content, and classroom capabilities.

4. Students are spiritually unpracticed.

The lowest results on the spiritual indicators

are perhaps more revealing than the highest means.

Despite the good news that students feel connected

to God, they are generally not practicing their faith in

a substantial way. Relative to all the scales, students

reported the lowest scores in practicing spiritual

disciplines (such as prayer and Bible reading) and in

feeling connected to God when they do (occasionally)

engage in these practices. Students indicate that they

are not spending time in the spiritual disciplines and

are not living with a daily awareness of God. Further

informal research at TOL confirms these results.

Obvious questions arise: What can Christian schools

do to increase a daily awareness of God? How can we

encourage students in their own prayer and Bible read-

ing? What responsibilities do Christian schools have in

training students in the spiritual disciplines? Among other

This generation thrives in community.

32 2010/2011 . CSE Volume 14 Number 3 . Spirituality in Formation: The Spiritual Lives of ACSi Students

attempts, we began asking a weekly question: “In what

ways have you seen the Lord at work in your life lately?”

We hope that these findings will stimulate an

ongoing conversation among our school leaders,

because improvement in this area will require sus-

tained reflection.

5. School-sponsored mentoring and extracurricular activities have less impact on spiritual growth.

One of the more surprising findings was also

revealed in the lower means. Students reported school

counseling programs, school-required mentoring,

athletics, and extracurricular activities as having just

neutral to slightly positive impacts. Christian schools

invest a great deal of capital (time, effort, and money)

into these activities for what appear to be minimal

results in the area of spiritual formation.

Strategic questions such as the following may

help: “What is the spiritually formation strategy in

the spring musical?” and “If athletics are really about

small-group discipleship, how do we become more

focused on opportunities for spiritual formation?”

6. Crises play a critical role in spiritual growth.

Among the other highest means, students reported

a strong sense of being transformed in relationship with

God through suffering. This is particularly important,

given one of the most startling results of the study—that

a full 70 percent of Christian school students in grades

6–12 reported a recent major life crisis, such as the

death of a loved one, sickness, boy-girl issues, loss of a

parent’s job, moving, parental divorce or separation,

friend problems, and more.

There is sadness in the pain that many of our students

experience in these times—but there is a tremendous

opportunity for crisis-related spiritual growth if our

schools can continue to find ways to help students deepen

their relationship with God through their suffering.

The high incidence of crises, along with the

finding that school-based counseling was among the

lowest means, should give Christian school leaders a

strong impetus to find strategic and formative ways in

which schools can be used by the Holy Spirit to foster

transformation in suffering.

Suffering is one of the most transformative oppor-

tunities in the Christian life because it often gives us

access to deep places in our soul that we would not other-

wise know existed. Trials shake up our negative gut-level

expectations of God and other important people in

our lives. Working through trials, however, always

occurs in the context of relationships and community.

A group of scholars recently developed the idea of

authoritative communities as the kind of community

that is necessary for human development. These are

communities that provide structure (e.g., morality is

embedded in the

community) as

well as love and

warmth. These

communities

have an idea,

even if implicit,

of what it

means to be a good person, and the leaders give love

to the younger members to help them become good

people.

Our students, like all of us, are loved into loving. At

their best, ACSI schools are authoritative communities,

and it is always what we should strive for them to be. We

hope these findings and the ongoing Spiritual Transfor-

mation project will spark a Spirit-guided conversation

and a renewal in relational spirituality for ACSI schools.

Note: For more information on using the STI individual reports and

curriculum and obtaining an assessment report for your students, visit

drtoddhall.com. You can also contact Dr. Hall at todd@drtoddhall.com

or on Facebook at facebook.com/drtoddwhall. Contact Dr. Marrah at

tmarrah@tolcs.org.

Todd R. Marrah, EdD, is the superintendent at Tree of Life Christian Schools

in Columbus, Ohio, where he has served for 21 years, and the minister

of preaching and teaching at Amazing Grace Christian Church. He and

his wife of 20 years have six wonderful children, ages 8–17. His greatest

blessing comes from being a child of the King of kings.

Todd W. Hall, PhD, is associate professor of psychology, director of

the Institute for Research on Psychology and Spirituality, and editor of

the Journal of Psychology and Theology at Biola University. He holds a

doctorate in clinical psychology from Biola and a doctoral specialization in

measurement and psychometrics from UCLA.

Relationships change our brain, our soul,

and our ability to love.