Seeker
Seeker is the first identity of the spiritual journey as described as the [3] Seeker-Servant-Heir framework. It represents the person who is exploring faith in God or Jesus, what life with him would look like, and is generally previous to an immersive commitment into identifying as a Christian or Jesus-follower. Understanding this identity is useful for one’s own spiritual journey, but is also helpful in the Disciple-Making process where it proceeds the Servant identity.
When we meet God for the first time — or even the first several times — through experiences or through our relationships to others, we respond as the Seeker. Our response could be described as curiosity. We’ve seen God for the first time and we would like to know more. The call at this point is heard as “come and see me.”
One day John the Baptist noticed Jesus walking by. He said to two of his disciples standing nearby, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” Immediately, these two men took off after Jesus. Glancing over his shoulder, Jesus asked them, “What do you want?” They replied, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” “Come and see,” he said [John 1:35-39 NLT]. We was inviting them to more than a quick look around his bedroom. Instead, he was calling them to observe up close what Jesus was all about.
The response of the Seeker is absolutely essential to the spiritual life. In fact it is the universal starting point, since it is “his purpose in all of this that the nations should seek after God” [Acts 17:27 NLT]. As Seekers, our learning is mostly gathering knowledge about God through various encounters with his word and experiences. But this research is usually somewhat tentative. As our knowledge grows the first bits of trust begin to sprout. But for the Seeker, no firm commitment to God has been made. We may profess faith, but it has yet to yield the type of conviction that leads to constant trust in concrete matters, life transformation, and faith-driven action.
Meta
Much of the text related to these different identities was taken from Revolutionary, Book 1, a discipleship series that follows the life of Christ in twelve steps.