This term, our One Year Diploma students at the Institute Of Contemporary & Emerging Worship Studies are engaging with the riches of spiritual formation literature throughout the ages of the Church. We are also engaging together in a Spiritual Formation Group, based on Richard Foster and Renovare’s model, and participating with resident SSU Spiritual Director Lorna Jones in Ignatian Prayer activities.
To become present to God, to His activity in history, to His word, to ourselves and to one another inside and outside of community – this is a primary goal for this course.
Anyone is welcome to join in these InReflection blog posts on spiritual formation, which will be for our course participants to reflect on ideas they have been reading about and applying from historic spiritual formation literature.
Our next readings were focused on Thomas Kelly and othersand the students will write something vital they learned from each, focusing on the most important ideas to them personally as leaders.
INRESPONSE QUESTION:
Reflect on the key ideas presented in these writings, and reflect on how they personally apply to your life as a follower of Jesus, as a spiritual influencer and as a creative leader. (300-500 words).
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Dallas Willard
Of this Group of writers, Willard is the only one that I have read before this course. I read The Divine Conspiracy after a Vineyard National Leaders event, and was so moved by it that I had to read the first two books of which it is the final installment of a trilogy. The Spirit of the Disciplines, where our reading was taken from, really moved me to examine how our church helped people grow. As I look back on my time of pasturing, I can truly say that this is where I had the most struggles. So many people come to you as a Pastor looking for help, and the challenge is to lead them to the one who can actually help them without getting to much in the way. Far too often, I found myself trying to fix peoples problems for them, when the real answer was to deepen their relationship with God through discipleship. If I knew then what I am slowly coming to know more now, I think I would try to steer any fellowship towards building their relationships with God through discipleship before trying to increase it’s numbers with converts. I can unfortunately agree with Willard about the cost of non-discipleship. It is a heavy price to pay.
Thomas Merton
What I want to know is how Thomas Merton knows so much about my prayer/meditation journey? It must be true that everyone intent on practicing this must have the same or similar experiences, as much of what he describes about the battles in and with prayer have been my experience as well. I think that his tell it like it is approach is refreshing, especially when you come out of an environment where it felt safer to let on that everything was going well in your prayer life then to admit that you were struggling just like everyone else. In relation to the Willard chapter, Merton understands the strength that a spiritual advisor, or disciple-er can bring to ones life. The best part is knowing that others are working through the same things that we are, and can help us.
Thomas Kelly
“This is what I am except thou aid me.” What a beautiful summing up of the Christian life. I find myself drawn to the way Kelly encourages us to the life of inner devotion. The process he is describing is almost unimaginable, yet he makes it sound attainable, and his language is so inviting. This movement toward the synergy of inward devotion and outward engagement in everyday life seems like the goal of life to me. He put in to words the longing of my heart, a longing that has for too long gone unnamed. Reading this chapter was like hearing something spoken that you never knew you needed to hear until you heard it. Like a great song that grabs your attention even when you weren’t looking for it, the ideas in this chapter will stick in my head for a long time.
I know, I should talk about all three of the assigned readings. But I was just so impressed with Dallas Willard – who I have never read before – that those other two guys couldn’t really keep up (although they were good, as well. Perhaps I shouldn’t have read them all at once and therefore compare directly their current impact on my thinking).
Dallas Willard
“… one is not required to be, or intend to be, a disciple in order to become a Christian, and one may remain a Christian without any signs of progress toward or in discipleship.”
Although Dallas Willard is talking about contemporary (published in 1991) American churches, I wonder how much truth there is to it for German churches today (2007), and it makes me shudder. It’s true; I do see fellow Christians in my German church that don’t seem to show any signs of progress in discipleship (and yes, of course, I should consider my own log before I start staring at the splinter in my brother’s eye). It is sad, though. Sometimes I’m not sure whether they just don’t try/want to follow Jesus or if they don’t realize because they’ve never been taught (I wonder, which would be more tragic?).
“… Discipleship clearly is optional… Churches are filled with ‘undiscipled disciples’… most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ…”
That’s hard to swallow. Have I decided to follow Christ? Does that become obvious (to people around me, as well as to myself) in my words and actions? Have I made any progress or am I still struggling with the same things/sins in my life as, say, five years ago?
Willard’s essay is really challenging, and I love it! It makes me want to grow. It makes me want to take decisions towards discipleship. It makes me scrutinize my life and reach out to God. I love it. It’s not beating yourself up (don’t you dare, you’re made in the image of God!) but humbly asking him to point out those things he dislikes and would love to see changed.
And it makes me want to share this with others. I guess, I have a pastoral heart. Reading Dallas Willard inspires me to think about how to create a small community of shared life together and how to be accountable to one another and help one another to grow. What does a life that takes Jesus seriously look like? Of course, there are these ‘obvious misconducts’ like promiscuity or hitting family members. But what about impatience, critical attitudes, judgmentalism, controlling behavior, belittling, selfishness, greed, envy, stubbornness or conceit? Those traits are usually hidden, and often I need my fellow Christians to become aware of those ‘undiscipled areas’ in my life. Do I allow them to correct me?
Willard’s view is new to me and really worth thinking about. He talks about the ‘cost of nondiscipleship’ as opposed to the price paid in order to walk with Jesus. “Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace” he says, listing some examples and finally summarizing “… in short, it cost exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring…” Wow! My stubbornness or critical attitude toward my fellow Christian/spouse/whoever is actually hurting myself. It’s keeping me from growing. It costs my peace. And it is disobedience towards Jesus. I don’t want to be like that. I want to grow and become more Christ-like. And I want to help others to do the same. Please, Jesus, never let me lose that desire, and help me actually put this into practice.
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