The Kairos Circle

Our lives are made up of many moments – some big, some small, some good, some bad. These events can become opportunities for significant growth and development in our walk with Christ. The question is whether we will recognize these events as opportunities for growth or just let them pass by. When these events happen, we have an opportunity to listen for the leading of God, and then to respond in the way we believe the Spirit is leading.

The Circle is a tool to help remind and guide us in the process The key thing is to look for a “Kairos moment”: a significant event (positive or negative, never neutral, that leaves an impact on you, signalling an opportunity to grow spiritually and emotionally) and then (prayerfully) enter into the circle of learning.

In other words in a Kairos moment, we are being called up to take a step for the Kingdom: What is God saying to me? (repent, change mind, change thinking) -- What am I going to do about it? (faith, acting in faith, stepping out in faith).

Click on the picture to watch a short summary ...

Come and find out more, this next Sunday.
Haven — 4.30pm Sunday 24th November at the Mernda Uniting Church 

97 Schotters Rd, Mernda VIC.

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.”

___________________________

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 #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.

___________________________

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.