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.

Change . . .

King Whitney Jr once said, "Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better."

Over the past few weeks I have been feeling the stresses of change, not only in my own life as I move into a new place in life. Aka North Carolina, but also at church. Whitney Jr.'s words ring through in my life as I have learned to seek value, find encouragement and even see the joy in change.

I am not saying it is easy, but as he stated "it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better." I hope and pray anyone reading this blog does not hear me say that the past is bad or wrong, but just a starting point. God is all about change, creating and recreating flows out of His deep love for humanity. Out of that I find my encouragement to move forward and find the ways of making things better.

Six weeks down!

I can’t believe it has already been six weeks since I started working as the assistant pastor at Ramseur Wesleyan Church (RWC). It has been a full and eventful six weeks; I have been to camp meeting for the district, district conference, preached twice, taught some leadership courses for the youth ministry, attended LBA meetings, chaired a Christian Education Board meeting, worked with different areas on what fall ministries will look like around RWC and started setting up shop in my new office.

I know see RWC as home and the congregation as family, it is a church about 200 to 215 on a normal weekend. She has two services a contemporary and a traditional, with sunday school sandwiched between them. The sunday school ministry is bursting, there was about 150 some people last weekend. The church has a great heart and a deep passion for fellowship, where a normal church in america would greet for about two minutes each sunday morning this church greets for about six or eight. They love to fellowship and greet each other, but it does not end there. They want to reach out with love to the community, through their children’s and youth ministries, and along with a partnership with others churches in the area to run the Ramseur food pantry.

I am not sure what God has planned for this church or myself, but I know God has blessed these people and I am thankful that He has allowed me to join the staff here at RWC.

General Superintendent Jo Anne Lyon

On June 9th,The Wesleyan Church come into a new chapter of life. Since our planting in the 1800's we have supported women in ministry and women having equal rights in life and society, but never a woman in the highest leadership position of the church. That has changed, Jo Anne Lyon CEO and Founder of World Hope International has become our first woman General Superintendent.

After "accepting her new assignment, Dr. Lyon challenged the church to go places it never has gone before. 'I believe the Lord is positioning The Wesleyan Church to have a voice in the 21st century like never before, ' she said." (take from http://www.wesleyan.org/doc/news#bk95)

After attending the whole General Conference, I was challenged by Dr. Lyon's words and her passion for a social holiness that flows out of a deep personal holiness. This will be a great new chapter in The Wesleyan Church. I am ready to go into the local church and live out holiness of heart, powered by the Holy Spirit.

General Conference ‘08

It is time again for another General Conference of The Wesleyan Church. It is my first time attending and it is in a great location sunny Orlando, FL. Over the next few days we will hear about the past 40 years of ministry and a vision for the next. There are some very interesting items coming to the conference floor; that will be voted and discussed. It should be a great time in Orlando for The Wesleyan Church.

The Search . . .

Over the past six months I have been seeking God’s will and guidance on which church I will be going to. During that time doors have opened and closed, I have been discouraged but I have also learned a lot about who God has created me to be. The last church I visited was a nice church with a deep passion for the Bible and loving people. I interviewed for a youth and college position, through the weekend God really laid a deep passion for discipleship and spiritual formation on my heart. This is not new, but it did help me see a little more of the direction God is leading me down.

While the Saturday afternoon of my graduation has come and gone. And I now hold a master’s degree of divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary, and it is great to be done with all the class work and assignments. I find myself seeking God more and more, asking those questions of where and when. What does the future hold and what direction do I walk. I know it is connected with spiritual formation and discipleship, but is it as a small group pastor or a small church pastor? I am not sure, but I know God is still God, and He has not brought me to this open for nothing.

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.

Confession . . .

James 5:16, “therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” through a proverbial wrench into our Protestant Christian. Confession is often seen as a personal issue between God and the Christian. Coach D and the Apostle Paul take a totally different approach to confession, confession is not just letting God know, it is about becoming an authentic people within a community.

During this chapter Coach D recounts John Wesley’s thoughts on confession and how it was apart of the weekly small groups or class meetings. I wonder what the American Church would look like if every small group and Sunday school class would ask the following four questions: “What known sins have you committed since our last meeting?” “What temptations have you met with?” “How were you delivered?” “What have you thought, said, or done of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?” Confession of sins and temptations leads a Christian to deeper accountability and humility, it would appear that in the place God is able to form and shape the Christian more into the likeness of Christ.

This week I don’t want to just ask how you are practicing the spiritual discipline of confession, but how are you being formed through your practice of confession?

Trip to HQ

Last Sunday afternoon and evening approximately twenty Asbury Seminary students from the Wesleyan Church headed north to Fisher, Indiana. The reason for this trip was to visit The World Headquarters of the Wesleyan Church. Every two years the Department of Education and the Ministry hosts the seniors to Seminary Day. This is a day that is designed to help graduating students to connect with different church leaders and exposes them to the ministries that HQ has to offer students graduating from seminary.

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?

February 5

While reading today for my small group, I looked at the spiritual discipline of simplicity. I find myself thinking about a wood carving my boss has in her kitchen, it is just the word simplicity carved out of cherry wood. In a cultural that has some many choices and options has simplicity been replaced never to be heard from again? According to Wikipedia simplicity, “is the property, condition or quality of being simple or un-combined. It often denotes beauty, purity or clarity. Simple things are usually easier to explain and understand than complicated ones. Simplicity can mean freedom from hardship, effort or confusion.” Sounds like a lifestyle I wish and want to live, but wikipedia’s definition appears to be lacking something. Keith Drury says simplicity is “intentionally paring down our lifestyle toward the essentials to free ourselves from the tyranny of things and focus more on spiritual life.” Simplicity is still alive and is calling all Christians to a lifestyle that allows one to focus on God and less on the material.

That’s a life I want to have and one I seek.

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?

Set Apart: International Wesleyan Youth Convention

From December 28th through the 31st about 500+ students and youth leaders/pastors spent time in prayer at Set Apart Youth Convention. I had the opportunity to lend a hand to my good friends Jeremy, Andrea and Justin in the Prayer Room. The Prayer Room was setup with nine different stations, each one designed to help individuals or groups connect with God through experiential prayers. Each station provided people different ways of engaging in the presence of God, like the above definition of prayer there are more than just one style or method of prayer. Prayer is much larger and grander than simply kneeing at an altar with my hands folded and eyes closed. This prayer room came from a deeper understanding of prayer: to intercede with or make petition to God, conversation with God – in praise, thanksgiving, or intercession. Prayer is about the whole body, mind, soul, and strengthen of a person coming into the presence of God.

I want to focus on one of those nine stations, station two or “Reflecting.” It was designed to help people reflect on themselves from two different angles. First, how they see themselves and second on how God sees them. People are given a guide to assist them through the different prayer stations. The following is taken from the guide:

“Study yourself in the mirror for a moment. Ask God to help you see past the everyday things you notice about yourself, whether good or bad. Ask God to help you look deeper, until you catch a glimpse of the child of God that you already are, His purposeful creation. What do you look like when you can see yourself the way God sees you?”

Each day I wakeup and walk into my bathroom look into the mirror and think about how God sees me and how I see myself. I think about what God sees in me, things that I don’t see or don’t even know. Through prayer I gain new hope of what will be and what is unseen in the here and now.

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?