Monday, July 24, 2006
Memories and Spirtual Formation
My recently completed vacation brought up a lot of old memories. We travelled down the heart of Colorado's Arkansas River valley, through beautiful Buena Vista, what was the heart of the Young Life camping empire in my days as a Young Life kid, volunteer, and staff. Some of those memories are wonderful and some are painful.
One of the more painful memories was my service on "Work Crew" at Frontier Ranch. Work Crew is for kids that know the Lord and are there for a month to do many of the menial jobs in the camp. My particular area had a great Young Life program, so there were a lot of kids that wanted to be on Work Crew, and only a few spots. So we went through a rigorous year-long training and qualification program. Bible Study, prayer journals, all sorts of accountability and spiritual development. Most years the rigors of the program weeded out through attrition all but enough to fill the spots. It was rare that an actual decision about who was "better" had to be made.
At the time, I did not realize that not all YL areas had the success that mine did and many had to scramble to fill their Work Crew slots. Thus when I got to Frontier and started on Work Crew, I was aghast at the apparent "spirtual immaturity" of many of those I was working with. I held my tongue for several weeks until in one small group meeting, another member of crew started talking about the sex they had had with their girl or boyfriend just before they left to come to camp. Then I went to the crew boss incredulous that such people could be "allowed" to be on Work Crew.
The crew boss responding by telling me that I really wasn't any better than anybody else. WHAM! There was a lesson in humility upside the head like a baseball bat.
Now, at the time, I was in dire need of lessons in humility and I think that was the right thing at the right time for me. But the memory remains fresh some 32 years later because I also think it missed a mark. I really did not approach the crew boss on the issue because I thought I was better than the others. I was concerned about the fact that, at least in my experience, there were standards, and the standards had been violated, and such a violation harmed the institution.
It is not automatically Pharisetical to impose some standards on the faithful. Where the crew boss went wrong with me was reading motivations into my actions. Now, no doubt, he had figured out my humility problem through the weeks, and just took the opportunity to pounce, but it was the '70's and everybody seemed to want to look into "your heart and emotions." The idea was, you change a persons feelings and motivations, and their behavior will fall in line.
As old-age-and-skill begin to supercede youth-and-energy in my life I am thinking the other way around about things. That's why I found this Out of Ur post fascinating. The author argues for monasticism as a means of spiritual formation. I am not sure I agree entirely with his comments on engaging culture, I don't think we build alternative cultures, I think we do culture differently in the midst of popular culture, but that is an aside. There is a need for spiritual formation and maturity which will be marked by differentiation from the common culture.
So, the question is, how is that maturity obtained? I do think withdrawal from the common culture for a period of time may be part of that. But the other is to uphold and cherish and encourage the behaviors that mark the differentiation from the common culture. Thus, in my confrontation with the crew boss, in addition to the lesson in humility, two other things shoud have happened. For one, he should have acknowledged that I had a point, even if I was ham-fisted in dealing with it, and secondly, he should have assured me the appropriate people in approprite circumstances were dealing with it. Frankly, I walked away wondering if it was OK not to be chaste if I was humble about it - wrong message.
We talk a lot about the fact that the Holy Spirit is the convictor, converter, and motivator. I agree with that in a sense. Christ came to enable utter transformation, motivationally, emotionally, and behaviorially. We never will be able to get into people's hearts and minds and understand their feelings and emotions completely, and when we try we run the risk of screwing things up, like the mixed messages I got. The inner transformation really is the Holy Spirit's business.
But as the Church, we do have some ability to shape behavior, maybe even an obligation to do so. All are indeed welcome through the front door, regardless, but not all can access all the areas. There are standards and mandates - proferred not as barriers, but as indicators - signs that the Holy Spirit has done His work to a point and that this person has reached some level we vaguely refer to as "mature."
This, more than any other single factor, is where I think the Church is failing today. We no longer read the signs and acknowledge the direction.
Related Tags: maturity, standards, behavior, spirtual development, Holy Spirit
One of the more painful memories was my service on "Work Crew" at Frontier Ranch. Work Crew is for kids that know the Lord and are there for a month to do many of the menial jobs in the camp. My particular area had a great Young Life program, so there were a lot of kids that wanted to be on Work Crew, and only a few spots. So we went through a rigorous year-long training and qualification program. Bible Study, prayer journals, all sorts of accountability and spiritual development. Most years the rigors of the program weeded out through attrition all but enough to fill the spots. It was rare that an actual decision about who was "better" had to be made.
At the time, I did not realize that not all YL areas had the success that mine did and many had to scramble to fill their Work Crew slots. Thus when I got to Frontier and started on Work Crew, I was aghast at the apparent "spirtual immaturity" of many of those I was working with. I held my tongue for several weeks until in one small group meeting, another member of crew started talking about the sex they had had with their girl or boyfriend just before they left to come to camp. Then I went to the crew boss incredulous that such people could be "allowed" to be on Work Crew.
The crew boss responding by telling me that I really wasn't any better than anybody else. WHAM! There was a lesson in humility upside the head like a baseball bat.
Now, at the time, I was in dire need of lessons in humility and I think that was the right thing at the right time for me. But the memory remains fresh some 32 years later because I also think it missed a mark. I really did not approach the crew boss on the issue because I thought I was better than the others. I was concerned about the fact that, at least in my experience, there were standards, and the standards had been violated, and such a violation harmed the institution.
It is not automatically Pharisetical to impose some standards on the faithful. Where the crew boss went wrong with me was reading motivations into my actions. Now, no doubt, he had figured out my humility problem through the weeks, and just took the opportunity to pounce, but it was the '70's and everybody seemed to want to look into "your heart and emotions." The idea was, you change a persons feelings and motivations, and their behavior will fall in line.
As old-age-and-skill begin to supercede youth-and-energy in my life I am thinking the other way around about things. That's why I found this Out of Ur post fascinating. The author argues for monasticism as a means of spiritual formation. I am not sure I agree entirely with his comments on engaging culture, I don't think we build alternative cultures, I think we do culture differently in the midst of popular culture, but that is an aside. There is a need for spiritual formation and maturity which will be marked by differentiation from the common culture.
So, the question is, how is that maturity obtained? I do think withdrawal from the common culture for a period of time may be part of that. But the other is to uphold and cherish and encourage the behaviors that mark the differentiation from the common culture. Thus, in my confrontation with the crew boss, in addition to the lesson in humility, two other things shoud have happened. For one, he should have acknowledged that I had a point, even if I was ham-fisted in dealing with it, and secondly, he should have assured me the appropriate people in approprite circumstances were dealing with it. Frankly, I walked away wondering if it was OK not to be chaste if I was humble about it - wrong message.
We talk a lot about the fact that the Holy Spirit is the convictor, converter, and motivator. I agree with that in a sense. Christ came to enable utter transformation, motivationally, emotionally, and behaviorially. We never will be able to get into people's hearts and minds and understand their feelings and emotions completely, and when we try we run the risk of screwing things up, like the mixed messages I got. The inner transformation really is the Holy Spirit's business.
But as the Church, we do have some ability to shape behavior, maybe even an obligation to do so. All are indeed welcome through the front door, regardless, but not all can access all the areas. There are standards and mandates - proferred not as barriers, but as indicators - signs that the Holy Spirit has done His work to a point and that this person has reached some level we vaguely refer to as "mature."
This, more than any other single factor, is where I think the Church is failing today. We no longer read the signs and acknowledge the direction.
Related Tags: maturity, standards, behavior, spirtual development, Holy Spirit
