Spiritual Formation #05

DISCIPLESHIP

The idea of discipleship is at the very core of the commission Jesus gave to that first little group of followers: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20).

What is discipleship? A disciple was someone who learnt from a teacher, but unlike our modern understanding, the image is not so much a student taking notes and passing exams, but an apprentice who watches and imitates the teacher so as to adopt their behavior and practice. Disciples became like their teachers.

The apostle Paul described this learning obedience like this: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  (Romans 12:2).

Disciples do not simply accumulate information in regard to the teachings of Jesus Christ but transformation (metanoia) toward Jesus Christ in every way - complete devotion to God. 

The idea of the Christian as a disciple, that is, a follower of the master, Jesus Christ, is helpful in that it picks up on the injunction to obey Jesus commandments and initiate his example (Matt 28:20; John 13: 15, 34-35; John 14:23).

The life of discipleship is not merely an external adherence to rules or rituals but stems from a deep-seated conversion and devotion to Christ. The motivation for change is not fear of condemnation but the love and presence of Christ. It is the initiative and grace of God that brings transformation, and a desire to pursue Christ ahead of all else. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his classic book “The Cost of Discipleship” writes: “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth which has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. … There is trust in God, but no following of Christ." 

For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christian formation is determined by an asymmetrical agency, in which formation in Christ is a by-product of the believer’s devotion to Christ. Far from being the aim of discipleship, formation is a hidden consequence exclusively wrought by God as the disciple follows Jesus Christ in simple obedience. Bonhoeffer offers an incarnational theory of the cross in the sense that God enters into the midst of our lives and also in the sense that God reveals God’s character, to us in the particular actions and ministry of the "incarnate and crucified Christ.” (p.16) 

Formation is utterly God’s action upon the believer. Bonhoeffer’s position prevents any possibility of formation being related to "something" the church does as technique or method. 

Bonhoeffer’s reticence to assign human agency to formation, extends beyond his avoidance of spiritual technique in the Christian life. It most basically stemmed from his understanding of the form of Christ. Bonhoeffer regarded conformation into the form of Christ to be a complete transformation of the form of human existence and, therefore, something impossible for humanity to achieve.

“Formation occurs only by being drawn into the form of Jesus Christ, by being conformed to the unique form of the one who became human, was crucified, and is risen. This does not happen as we strive; to become like Jesus,’ as we customarily say, but as the form of Jesus Christ himself so works on us that it moulds us, conforming our form to Christ's own.” (Gal. 4:9) 

 

“... The aim and objective is not to renew human thoughts about God so that they are correct, or that we would subject our individual deeds to the word of God again, but that we, with our whole existence and as living creatures, would become the image of God. Body, soul, and spirit, that is, the form of being human in its totality, is to bear the image of God on earth.”  

Tim Catchim and Alan Hirsch note that discipleship is not a solitary activity, but occurs in the context of the faith community:

“Apostolic movement involves a radical community of disciples,
centred on the Lordship of Jesus, empowered by the Spirit, built squarely on a fivefold ministry, organized around mission where everyone (not just professionals) is considered an empowered agent, and tends to be decentralised in organizational structure.”

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (1st Touchstone ed. New York: Touchstone, 1995), 64.

Glen Harold Stassen, A Thicker Jesus: Incarnational Discipleship in a Secular Age (Louisville Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012), 151-152.

Joseph McGarry, "Formed While Following: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Asymmetrical View of Agency in Christian Formation." Theology Today 71, no. 1 (2014): 106-120.

Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim.
The Permanent Revolution: Apostolic Imagination and Practice for the 21st Century Church. (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2012).

Spiritual Formation #04

Renewal of the Mind:

I remember some years ago, turning up at church, early to prepare for a Sunday morning service. It was very exciting! Two people had signed up to get baptised, and the night before THREE more had called me to ask if they could also get baptised that next morning. 

So I turned up early to set things up and told the good news to the band leader who was setting up for a practice with the band! 

“So, three more baptisms, eh? I suppose they’ll all want to share their testimony too?” he somewhat sourly replied.

“That’s right,” I said, “It’s going to be awesome to hear their stories!”

He sighed heavily. “I suppose we still need to do communion?”

“Well yes,” I said, “Of course we’ll gather around the table.”

He frowned. “Well that’s going to cut into worship, isn’t it? I’ll have to drop a couple of songs out to fit all that stuff in! Why can’t you do communion some other time for the oldies who really want that sort of thing? And why bother with all those testimonies? No point in the band being here if we not doing much worship!”

We talked about it. For him worship seemed to be mainly about the singing and the inspirational vibe that music provided to get people through the week. It was all about the Holy Spirit lifting our emotions to create a create an uplifting experience. For him all that sharing testimonies and preaching and contemplative communion stuff just cut into everyone experiencing God working in our midst. 

And yet — it’s interesting how much the scriptures have to say about the mind. The scriptures talk far more about a renewed mind than about elevated feelings.

We can sometimes think the Christian faith is about learning how to ‘feel’ good or joyful. A good worship service for many, is one where the lights, music and drama creates a sense of spiritual euphoria. 

I recall one dark, wet winter's day sitting in a cold church in an overseas city I was visiting. The congregation looked half-asleep and a fair number were coughing and spluttering with winter lurgies of various sorts. The very enthusiastic young song-leader stood us all up and with the backing of his loud band launched us into fast-paced lively song about joyfully praising God. We in the cold and raspy congregation responded mournfully like a herd of cows mooing in the rain. 

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" he cried. "You're all going to stand up and try that again properly! People, if you truly want to worship God, you need to know there are only two things that want to stop you. One is the Devil, .... and the other is your mind. If you really want to worship God, you need to turn your mind off! So everyone stand up and let's go."

Well, me and my friend, rather rebelliously sat down. "Turn off your mind to worship God?"  I mean, seriously?

Lutheran writer Larry Christenson (former director of the International Lutheran Renewal Center in Minneapolis), suggests that the locus of formation has to do with the renewal of the “mind” more than the “heart.” The process of sanctification (becoming more like Jesus) is seen as deliberately putting off the old nature and it’s scripting and putting on the mind of Christ and the behaviours and habits that follow from a new Christ-centred way of thinking. (Ephesians 4:14-32). 

It is as the mind is transformed so that the believer will know the will of God (Romans 12: 1-2). It is in choosing each day to live in the Spirit rather than by the old nature that holiness of Christ is displayed. This tension is often described in the language of spiritual warfare, where the mind of the believer is the battleground, either to be held captive by the enemy or set free in Christ. (E.g. Colossians 2:8, 2 Corinthians10:5).

Harry Blamires (who died recently died aged 101) was an English Anglican theologian, and novelist. He started writing in the late 1940s at the encouragement of his friend and mentor C. S. Lewis, who had been his tutor at Oxford University. One of his best known books is “The Christian Mind.” He argues that Christians need to cultivate the mind of Christ if they are to speak meaningfully into our contemporary world.

“…The reason we have nothing to say to the contemporary situation is that we have not been thinking about the contemporary situation. We stopped thinking about these things long ago. We stopped thinking Christianly outside the scope of personal morals and personal spirituality. We got into the habit of stepping out of our Christian garments whenever we stepped mentally into the field of social and political life. Because the subject was social or political, we left all of our well-tried and well-grounded Christian concepts behind us, and adopted the vocabulary of secularism. We put aside all talk of vocation, or God's providence, or man's spiritual destiny, and instead chattered with the rest about productivity, assembly line psychology, and deployment of personnel.” 

We need to develop practices of reading and thinking deeply about our whole world, rather than compartmentalise our life so that ‘faith’ is only relevant on Sundays or privately. We need to develop habits that encourage us to reflect deeply about what we believe and therefore habituate. Critical thinking, theological reflection and an understanding of the thinkers that have shaped our times and culture is important. 

Martin Luther King, Jr.  once said: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.”

Paul puts it like this:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

Spiritual formation has to do with the renewing of our mind. How we think, the attitudes we hold and the ‘lenses’ through which we view the world shape our actions and our behaviour. Are we learning to think deeply, critically and Christianly?

^{Larry Christenson, "The Renewed Mind: Becoming the Person God Wants You to Be." (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2001).}

^{Harry Blamires, "The Christian Mind." (1963) London: S.P.C.K.; New York: Seabury Press.} 

Spiritual Formation #03

The Way of the Heart

Henri Nouwen describes the ‘way of the heart’ – the descending from the mind into the heart in order to there encounter God’s Spirit within. “Spiritual formation presents opportunities to enter into the centre of our heart and become familiar with the complexities of our own inner life.”

Nouwen, steeped in the rich tradition of Catholic mystical theology yet also as a psychologist, integrated and developed an understanding of the inner polarities of the human psyche (soul), which he located in the heart, that is, a person’s spiritual centre, where the physical, mental, and emotional lives come together in relation to God. As these inner polarities are better understood and oriented toward God, transformative movement is possible. Nouwen affirmed that when the heart is open and responsive to the movements of the Spirit, vital spiritual formation takes place.

By reflecting on his own spiritual experience and the experiences of others, Nouwen articulated personal and universal qualities of the inner life in relation to spiritual formation. His initial focus was on the inner dynamics of fear, shame, vulnerability, identity, self-respect, anxiety, love, and hope. These psychological and spiritual polarities, he believed, prompt transformative movements within the spiritual journey.

By identifying a particular quality of inner life, he was able to articulate a corresponding discipline and movement in spiritual development - from this quality to that, from something enslaving and destructive to something liberating and life giving.

To learn more, go to the Henry Nouwen Society Webpage
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Henri J.M. Nouwen, Michael J. Christensen and Rebecca Laird. Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit, (New York: Harper Collins, 2010),  

Henri J.M. Nouwen, Intimacy: Pastoral psychological essays. Chicago: Fides/Claretian Publishers, 1970.

Spiritual Formation #02

 The Character of Christ

One of the most piercing criticisms Christians can face is summed up by what one woman I met chatting outside the supermarket on a cold Autumn day was summed by her observation: “I don’t mind Jesus. He seems like a really good man, but my experience of church is that they’re all just hypocrites! they’re nothing like him.” She then went on to give me some tragic examples of her experiences. 

To be an authentic follower of Jesus means a commitment to the ways and character of Jesus. Richard Foster, from a Quaker perspective urges the church to rediscover the formation of Christ-like character. For Foster the responsibility to grow in grace (2 Pet 3:18) is a God-given imperative. All believers are to take up their cross and follow in the steps of Christ. The great challenge, for Foster, is that this primary task has been all but lost in the frenetic activity of modern church life.

“Thirty years ago, when Celebration of Discipline was first penned, we were faced with two huge tasks: First, we needed to revive the great conversation about the formation of the soul; and second, we needed to incarnate this reality into the daily experience of individual, congregational, and cultural life. Frankly, we have had much greater success with the first task. Christians of all sorts now know about the need for spiritual formation, and look to saints Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant for guidance. It's the second task that needs to consume the bulk of our energies for the next 30 years. If we do not make real progress on these fronts, all our efforts will dry up and blow away.”

For Foster, the authentic work of formation is accomplished in the quiet of the human heart. “This work is solitary and interior. It cannot be seen by anyone, not even ourselves. It is a work known only to God. It is the work of heart purity, of soul conversion, of inward transformation, of life formation. It begins first by our turning to the light of Jesus.”

The motive for spiritual formation must not be allowed to become a remedial therapy for the malaise of the modern church or society. Writes Forster: “So we stoutly refuse to engage in formation work to ‘save America [or the Western church in general] ] from its moral decline’ or to restore churches to their days of past glory or even to rescue folk from their destructive behaviours. No! We do spiritual formation work because it is kingdom work. Spiritual formation work is smack in the centre of the map of the kingdom of God. Therefore, all other matters we gladly leave in the good hands of God.^”

Foster advocates internal, external, and corporate disciplines. These include the following internal disciplines: 

• Meditation 
• Prayer 
• Fasting
• Study.

The external disciplines include: 

• Simplicity
• Solitude
• Submission
• Service

Finally, there are corporate disciplines, for the community of faith. These include: 

• Confession
• Worship
• Guidance
• Celebration

You can watch Richard Foster teach on these disciplines here.

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Richard Foster, “Spiritual Formation Agenda: Three Priorities for the next 30 years.” Christianity Today, Feb 2009. 

Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline: A Path to Spiritual Growth. (San Francisco: Harper, 1998), 8

To learn more, have a look at the RENOVAE WEBSITE  

Spiritual Formation #01

From Pips to Lemon Trees

I love watching seedlings grow. About twelve years ago, I was given a small weedy lemon-tree seedling. We didn’t really need it so I stuck it way down the back of our property, in a corner, behind some large plants and forgot about it. Just recently I was hacking my way through those overgrown shrubs and weeds and found it! And it was no longer the tiny little seedling I remembered. It had grown into a tall strong fruit tree with some plump ripening lemons. It hadn’t remained as it was, it had taken in nutrition and it had matured.

In the same way, the life of faith is described in the scriptures as dynamic rather than static. It is a life-long movement towards Christ that requires deliberate attention and discipline. For example, there’s the image of a boxer in training (1 Cor. 9:26-27); an athlete running the race (1 Cor. 9:24-25); the putting off old behaviours and putting on the new pattern (Eph. 4:20-32); taking in nourishment as a baby that grows to adulthood (1 Pet. 2:2); warring against spiritual realities (Eph. 6:10-17); resisting temptation from the evil one (1 Pet. 5:8-9); submitting to pruning and bearing fruit (John 15: 1-16); and, being tested like precious metal in a foundry (1 Pet. 1:7). 

Each of these graphically captures something of the journey towards wholeness: “so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4: 11-13).

Formation is a commonly used term for educational, relational, and contemplative practices, mentorship and direction of both a religious and even of non-religious nature. There is a sense, too, in which all individuals are being formed in one way or another. It is the unique factors and intent being brought to bear which eventually shape and form each person.

Dallas Willard notes that formation “is a process that happens to everyone…. Terrorists as well as saints are the outcome of spiritual formation. Their spirits or hearts have been formed.” Willard’s summary is that “spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ himself.”

Michael Burer adds: “it is transformation in that it involves definitive, measurable growth in a certain direction; it involves the inner person in that it concerns itself with character, thoughts, intentions, and attitudes more than actions, habits, or behaviors; it has the character of Christ as its goal and standard of measure.” 

There are many different metaphors or starting points that frame different writers understanding. Friedrich Schleiermacher, way back in 1799 described the pilgrim longing for home and cleaving longingly to it’s ways evokes an image of fond, forward looking obedience: “… the pious longing of the stranger for home, the endeavour to carry one’s fatherland with one and everywhere to intuit its laws and customs, its higher more beautiful life.”

The journey and process that facilitates spiritual formation is complex. There are a broad variety of different approaches and models, that each shed fresh insight onto the factors that contribute to formation. What are the practices and approaches you find helpful on your journey from ‘pip’ to ‘lemon tree?’

In the next few blog entries, I’m going to muse on some of the helpful insights and approaches to growing in Christ.

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Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2002), 19, 22

Michael H. Burer, “Towards a Biblical Definition of Spiritual Formation: Romans 12:1-2,” Feb 9 2007, https://bible.org/seriespage/towards-biblical-definition-spiritual-formation-romans-121-2, Accessed 9 March 2015, 1

Friedrich D. E. Schleiermacher, On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 78.