See also Generative Fugue.
Merge how communion both completes and subverts structure with the Radical Centrist manifesto to build a generative spiral using the acronym CIGAR.
ChatGPT Prompt
Tell it as a personal story by John Mark Comer.
Compare it to other spirals in an Appendix.
“We don’t need better strategies.
We need deeper roots.”
Let me tell you a story. Not a success story—but a cycle. Something closer to how life with God actually works. Especially when you’re trying to hold down a marriage, raise kids, plant a church, and not lose your soul in the process.
I call it CIGAR—not the kind you light up to celebrate, but a kind of spiritual rhythm. A sacred spiral. It stands for:
Construction. Intimacy. Generativity. Agency. Renewal.
Each one sounds great. But here’s the thing:
Each phase feels like you’ve finally arrived—until it breaks you.
And that’s when the next phase begins.
C – Construction: “I built the life I thought God wanted.”
For me, it started with vision. Passion. Conviction.
We were building a church in the heart of the city. I had a plan, a team, a strategy deck that probably made Peter Drucker smile in heaven. I constructed my rule of life, my leadership rhythms, my family schedule. It was working—on paper.
But what I didn’t realize is that structure can become a shell.
And when you build something strong but forget to live inside it with love… it eventually cracks.
I – Intimacy: “God undid me with silence.”
The burnout didn’t start with an explosion.
It started with a thousand small disconnections—from my body, from my wife, from the voice of God. I didn’t know how to say it then, but I’d lost intimacy.
So I slowed down. I stopped. I got quiet.
And in that silence, I remembered:
God doesn’t want my resume. He wants me.
Intimacy is risky—it dismantles your professionalism.
It says, “Come undone in My presence, and I will make you whole.”
G – Generativity: “We bore fruit—but it cost something.”
From that place of reconnection, real creativity came.
We didn’t just build programs. We bore fruit—deep, slow, sustainable fruit.
People healed. Marriages resurrected.
The kind of generativity that smells like the Kingdom.
But here’s what no one tells you:
Fruitfulness will stretch your roots or snap your branches.
It requires deeper formation than you thought. And more letting go.
A – Agency: “I had to choose differently.”
Eventually, you can’t stay in inspiration mode forever.
You have to act. You have to decide.
But not from hustle—from discernment.
Not because the system demands it—but because love compels you.
Agency is not about doing more.
It’s about learning what not to do anymore.
For me, that meant saying no to good things.
Yes to obscure things. Yes to obscurity itself.
Because real agency isn’t about autonomy.
It’s about obedience to the voice that calls you by name.
R – Renewal: “Start over, but better.”
And just when I thought, “Okay, we’ve got this”—
something shifted. A crisis. A conversation. A new season.
Suddenly, all that scaffolding?
It needed to be torn down—or rebuilt differently.
And that’s when I realized: Renewal isn’t failure.
It’s the grace to start again—with more wisdom, more humility, and more dependence.
So I returned to construction—but this time as someone different.
Not an architect of control. But a keeper of the sacred.
The Spiral of CIGAR
Every time you go through this cycle,
you come out the other side more… real.
- Construction builds the vessel.
- Intimacy fills it with love.
- Generativity releases it to the world.
- Agency empowers the next step.
- Renewal invites you to begin again.
Over and over.
Like Sabbath. Like breath. Like resurrection.
You don’t become who you are by climbing a ladder.
You become who you are by spiraling deeper into God.
That’s CIGAR.
It’s not flashy. It’s not fast.
But it smells like heaven, and it burns with love.
Let the spiral begin.
Appendix: Harmonizing CIGAR with Other Spiral Dynamics
The CIGAR spiral—Construction, Intimacy, Generativity, Agency, Renewal—is not an isolated invention. It echoes, reframes, and resonates with many other spiral dynamics found in psychology, spirituality, systems thinking, and leadership theory.
Below is a curated mapping that situates CIGAR within a broader ecosystem of transformative spirals, showing both consonance and unique contribution.
1. CIGAR & Spiral Dynamics (Beck & Cowan, Graves Theory)
Spiral Dynamics outlines stages of value systems evolving through complexity and consciousness.
- Construction parallels Blue (Order) – structure, discipline, tradition
- Intimacy draws on Green (Community) – empathy, belonging, pluralism
- Generativity edges into Yellow (Integration) – systemic thinking, emergence
- Agency affirms Red/Orange healthily – initiative, courage, responsibility
- Renewal aligns with Turquoise – spiritual wholeness, ecological unity
🔗 https://spiraldynamicsintegral.nl/en/
2. CIGAR & The Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell)
Campbell’s monomyth maps a cyclical pattern of transformation through story.
- Construction = The Known World / Ordinary Self
- Intimacy = Call to Adventure / Meeting the Mentor
- Generativity = Ordeal & Boon / Sharing the Gift
- Agency = The Return with Responsibility
- Renewal = Re-entry into life, changed
🔗 https://mythosophia.net/the-heros-journey/
3. CIGAR & Regenerative Leadership (Storm & Hutchins)
The Regenerative Leadership DNA model uses a fourfold spiral:
Soil → Seed → Fruit → Compost
- Construction = Soil (inner condition, foundation)
- Intimacy = Seed (relational field, potential)
- Generativity = Fruit (visible impact)
- Renewal = Compost (death, transformation, re-entry)
- Agency = The spiral that activates them all
🔗 https://www.regenerativeleadership.co/
4. CIGAR & Order–Disorder–Reorder (Richard Rohr)
Rohr’s spiritual maturity model flows through three nested stages:
- Construction = Order (identity, boundary, stability)
- Intimacy & Agency = Disorder (loss, paradox, surrender)
- Generativity & Renewal = Reorder (new wholeness, creative integration)
🔗 https://cac.org/rohr-institute/
5. CIGAR & Ignatian Spirituality (The Examen)
The Daily Examen, a Jesuit prayer of reflection, moves in a spiral of awareness.
- Construction = Preparation / Consciousness of God’s presence
- Intimacy = Review of emotions and relational touchpoints
- Generativity = Gratitude and naming fruit
- Agency = Choices made from love, not fear
- Renewal = Repentance and recommitment
🔗 https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/
6. CIGAR & Lean Startup / Agile Sprints
Even in secular design and business innovation, iterative spirals prevail.
- Construction = Build (scaffold MVPs, frameworks)
- Intimacy = Empathy with users and stakeholders
- Generativity = Deliver value
- Agency = Pivot or persevere based on vision
- Renewal = Learn / begin next sprint with insight
7. CIGAR & Psychological Development (Piaget / Kegan)
Transformative learning and developmental psychology often follow recursive paths.
- Construction = Identity / Cognitive structure
- Intimacy = Interpersonal stage / Social awareness
- Generativity = Self-authoring mind
- Agency = Self-transforming mind
- Renewal = New equilibrium via disintegration + reintegration
🔗 https://www.cultivatingleadership.com/about/robert-kegan
Final Insight
CIGAR doesn’t compete with these spirals—it harmonizes and personalizes them.
Its power lies in naming the tensions between stages—and the grace of starting over.
Where many models stop at mastery, CIGAR begins again with humility.
Because the point isn’t to level up.
The point is to burn slowly, spiral deeper, and smell like Jesus.
Radically Happy 
Leave a comment