How does Spiritual Formation work?

I know I have asked the question “what is spiritual formation?” before, but I find myself asking that question just a little different. During my church’s local board of administration's meeting I was challenged to start thinking about the overall discipleship process of our local church. After the challenge a great conversation happened about what the LBA values in discipleship, I gained some great insights.

The following day I was able to sit down and reflect on some ideas and thoughts. As usual I came away from a time of reflection with more questions to process. Some of the questions I wrote down where: What does a person look like who is being discipled? Does the process of spiritual formation or discipleship ever end? What is the goal of any discipleship plan? What should a Christian look like?

So how does spiritual formation work in the local church? If you have any thoughts and ideas please let me know.

What is Thankfulness?

This past weekend I got the opportunity to take some young men on a road trip to Indiana Wesleyan University. It was a great time, full of adventure, excitement and all around fun. While on the trip I got to visit with family and friends, ones that I have not seen in four years and others that I have not seen since I left Wilmore, KY. Getting to reconnect and talk about life made me become really thankful or appreciate the things I do have. Like friendship hear in North Carolina and friendships that will not change no matter how far away we may live from each other.

Wikipedia says, thankfulness “is a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.” While this statement is true, I think that real thankfulness is much deeper than this. True “thankfulness” comes from the heart, soul, mind and strength, it comes from the whole being of the person. It is more than an emotion or attitude, it is part of a person’s character.

I am not trying to say that I or anyone who is truly thankful is better than anyone else. I am simply saying that those who know thankfulness experience life at a deeper level. When I started to see the faces of friends, I knew I was truly thankful and that my life was much deeper than I realized.

Saying “thank you” for someone who opened the door for you is great. Giving “thanks” before you eat your dinner tonight is wonderful, but are these just words? Or does your whole being express thankfulness? When you get ready to cut into that turkey on Thursday how will you express your thankfulness towards God, family and friends?

I believe it can be as simple as letting grandma get the last slice of pecan pie or letting your father set in the best sit to watch the big game. What ever the action or the words, do they comes from a passing emotional experience or do they come from something much deeper and lasting?

Special thanks to Jeremy B. for going on the trip to Indiana Wesleyan with me and the guys.

What are Spiritual Disciplines?

Many of you know that my connection group on Wednesday nights is studying spiritual disciplines using Coach Drury's book. Each week we study a different discipline, but we always come back to asking what the purpose of spiritual disciplines are? Susanne Johnson says, "Spiritual Discipline is not a program of self-improvement, not an ideal to be striven for, not a set of tasks to be accomplished. It is, rather, a way of posturing ourselves to receive God's work 'for us' through Israel and in Jesus Christ."

Many times as Christians we see spiritual disciplines as something we do in order to grow spiritually, but since it is 'spiritual' it follows out of who God is. Spiritual Disciplines become ways that we partner with God in His work in our lives. Spiritual disciplines are less about what we do and more about who we are and becoming.

Secrecy . . .

This past week our group studied the spiritual discipline of secrecy. Author Coach D says, “the discipline of secrecy is abstaining from taking credit for the good deeds we do. When we practice secrecy, we arrange to do good things in such a way that others can’t even find out who did them.” He goes on to say that like other disciplines secrecy really calls us to explore and focus on our relationship with God through the light of total dependency.

I found myself even today as I write these comments asking some hard questions about “Whom I seek affirmation or recognition from?” There are times over the years I have stayed late after church or event to talk with people and I think I wanted the pastor or leader to take notices. One of the hardest parts of practicing the discipline of secrecy is to examine our motivations. Coach reminds his readers, “It is our motivation that makes the deed either praiseworthy or hypocritical.” Paul takes about this in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing our of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interests of others.”

After reading the chapter and Philippians I am left thinking about my own personal motivates and propose this question to us all, have you checked your motivations this week? And what will you do to being practicing secrecy this week?

Thoughts on Resting

After reading this week’s chapter I was left pondering the “Protestant Work Ethic.” Especially growing up in America where the mindset of laziness and being a couch potato is bad. We are told that we must be doing something, anything. Busyness is lifted up as the best life; today parents’ status is linked with that amount of activities their kids are in. We have become a culture of workaholics.

The church has not escape this vain of workaholic-ism, the “Protestant Work Ethic” calls some churches to provide activities every night of the week, all day Saturday and Sunday. The Church can add to the busyness of life, but it can also offer rest. Coach D says in the discipline of rest “God restores the body, mind, and soul – all three of which are interrelated.”

Rest is holistic and as we enter into times of rest we are able to affect our whole being. Getting a good night’s sleep not only helps us physically, but emotionally. We wake up in a better mode with restored energy, and spiritual life is also impacted.

Do you need a rest?

Solitude . . .

Being an introvert you would think solitude would be the easiest spiritual discipline for myself. But your wrong, being an introvert or extrovert really has nothing to do with solitude. True an introvert may find it easier to sit alone quietly process through the days events at dinner or read a book and ponder the deeper meaning of the text. Solitude has those elements, but it has much more and requires much more. According to Coach D “solitude is abstaining from people contact in order to be alone with God and get closer to Him. It is fasting from social contact in order to remove others form the God/me equation.”

Solitude is not just about getting alone; it is about moving closer to God and refocusing all our relationship with God being number one. Drury says, “Solitude reminds us of the order we should maintain in our relationships – God first, others second. A Christian who does not practice solitude is likely to be over reliant on friends and under reliant on God. Solitude corrects this imbalance.” Solitude may call us to leave all other relationships and focus on God, but it is for the encouragement of the community. When solitude is build in regularly in to one’s life, they return to community with new passion and focus that allows them to invest into the community.

Have to being getting alone to process your own thoughts or have you really entered solitude?

What has your experience of solitude thought you about yourself, God and the community?

When is your next time of solitude?

Silence . . .

Each week the connection group I am apart of studies a different spiritual discipline, this past week we focused our hearts and minds around understanding silence. Here is a post I wrote for our connection group's blog page.

According to Coach D, “Silence is abstaining from sound in order to open our spiritual ears and listen more closely to the voice of God. God seldom speaks loudly. He usually speaks in a ‘still small voice,’ often little more than an impression in our minds (see 1 Kings 19:12 KJV).”

The start of this week was exciting and different than most, I attended our annual spring Community Life Retreat. It was a time of focused growth in the areas of character and leadership. One of the best part of the retreat was not having a television, radio, and computer. As I reflected outside in nature on the retreat grounds, I thought about all the times I walk in to my apartment and turn on the television just for the noise or the amount of time I spend on my computer checking emails and blogs. I am not saying all this modern things evil or bad, but if they become the driving focus of our lives can we truly hear the voice of God?

Coach calls us to, "learn to displace those noisy thoughts by concentrating on one thing, perhaps a Scripture passage or a scene from the Bible." I read these words and my heart is moved to listen and sit in silence in order to open our lives up to God's heart to replace all the noise of one's life. The next time you sit down on the couch and start to turn on the television ask yourself the following questions:

How many hours each day is the television on?

When you are out to dinner or coffee, how time do you spend listening to your companions?

How has the past week led to a deeper dependence on God through your experience of Silence?

What Community is Not?

My mind wonders a lot and I often find myself thinking what community is not and asking why are people not in community? John 4:4-30 tells us about a woman seeking community, love, and a shared life but all she found was pain and brokenness. Until Jesus comes! (Please READ JOHN 4:4-30)

Wikipedia says: “community usually refers to a group of people who interact and share certain things as a group, this article focuses on human communities, in which intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of adhesion.” I believe Wikipedia is on the right path, “Community affects the identity of the participants.”

However, it is lacking something, something deeper; take Debbie “a single woman in her late twenties. She has great leadership gifts and a promising career. Her commitment to her job has made her a rising star in her company. Senior management is beginning to notice her. However, working six days a week has also kept her from having a life outside of work. For the most part, Debbie does not get out much. There is just too much to do. When she is not working, she renovating her loft. Her parents are worried about her. The girl who once had several inseparable friends has drifted away from those relationships. “That’s the price of working for a Fortune 500 company,” she tells them. Besides, she is with people all the time. At work, at her gym, and at her church, people are everywhere. People surround Debbie. True, she does not really know any of them and they do not know her. This was fine, until recently. Doing life alone is taking its toll. Debbie is beginning to feel alone, even in crowds.” What is Debbie seeking? I believe it is authentic community, really focused on and around Jesus Christ.

Do you find yourself seeking authentic community?

What do you think authentic community is?

What is Spiritual Formation/Direction?

Wesley D. Tracy says; “The goal of spirituality in the Wesleyan mode is to bring converted believers into the experience of sanctifying grace whereby inner sin is cleansed, the image of God restored, and the heart so filled with divine love that the believer can love God with all the heart, mind, soul and strength and the neighbor as one’s self.”

Using Tracy’s understand of spirituality, Spiritual Formation becomes the experience of sanctifying grace of each and every believer. Spiritual Formation is the growth of the whole person, which is influenced by their relationship with God and others, along with spiritual practices or disciplines and ordinary life.

What are your thoughts about Spiritual Formation?

Working Definitions of “Spirituality”

Christian spirituality concerns the quest for a fulfilled and authentic Christian existence, involving the brining together of the fundamental ideas of Christianity and the whole experience of living on the basis of the within the scope of the Christian faith. -Alister E. McGrath

Spirituality is a lived experience, the effort to apply relevant elements in the deposit of Christian faith to the guidance of men and women towards their spiritual growth, the progressive development of their persons which flowers into a proportionately increased insight and joy. -George Ganss

What is your definition of "Christian Spirituality?"