Friday, January 05, 2007
True "Spiritual Formation"
"Spiritual Formation" is the latest buzz word in churches - no longer do we have "Christian Education" that sounds too much like school. The term "spiritual formation" does rightly acknowledge that growth in Christ is about more than just book learning. However, I cannot help but think that modifying the vocabulary some still misses the point.
This came home to me most fervently when Unveiled Face linked to this post reflecting on the loss of a 3-year old child. Two things became readily apparent to me as I read the post and shook off it's enormous emotional impact.
The first was an old lesson to this blog. God's desires for us are far more extensive than we can imagine, and such remodelling of a life can, at times, be unpleasant. It will require the demolition of much that we hold so very dear. It is extremely hard to understand at that time that what God has to construct in its place will be so much better than what we hold so tightly, often impossible. The reason? Because the real lesson is to cling to God himself.
I am currently working through the book, "Renovation Of The Heart In Daily Practice" by Dallas Willard and Jan Johnson with a small group. Chapter 6 contains these words
We design our churches to provide comfort and security for the people that come to them, and yet God seems to have something very different in mind. It is in our discomfort and insecurity that we most readily find Him and what He would have for us.
The second point from this very powerful post concerns the very idea of ministry.
How often do we build what we want instead of let God use us to build what He wants? How many cathedrals have we built when would should have been sitting in huts? How often do we do our work when we should be doing God's.
We recently celebrated the birth of God - as a small child in the most humble of circumstances. The same God that later destroys the cathedral of the day and brings salvation to the world through His own death. How often do we forget this example?
Related Tags: minsitry, humility, spiritual formation, maturity, pain
This came home to me most fervently when Unveiled Face linked to this post reflecting on the loss of a 3-year old child. Two things became readily apparent to me as I read the post and shook off it's enormous emotional impact.
The first was an old lesson to this blog. God's desires for us are far more extensive than we can imagine, and such remodelling of a life can, at times, be unpleasant. It will require the demolition of much that we hold so very dear. It is extremely hard to understand at that time that what God has to construct in its place will be so much better than what we hold so tightly, often impossible. The reason? Because the real lesson is to cling to God himself.
I am currently working through the book, "Renovation Of The Heart In Daily Practice" by Dallas Willard and Jan Johnson with a small group. Chapter 6 contains these words
I felt great relief at hearing the twelve-step goal of "becoming the same person all the time."In some ways that is such a great description of spiritual maturity, and increasing integration of the various parts of ourselves. I bet we all can put our finger on some time in our life when progress in this direction was measurably made. And if you think about it, it was likely a traumatic, painful time.
We design our churches to provide comfort and security for the people that come to them, and yet God seems to have something very different in mind. It is in our discomfort and insecurity that we most readily find Him and what He would have for us.
The second point from this very powerful post concerns the very idea of ministry.
Daniel was God's silent little preacher. He has preached and we have listened.God's instrument of ministry in this case wsa a small boy, dying from the moment of his birth. God simply does not work in us, or through us, in the ways we expect. He is not in the earthquake, but in the still, small voice. The cathedral is testament, but it is the humble hut where hearts are touched and lives changed.
How often do we build what we want instead of let God use us to build what He wants? How many cathedrals have we built when would should have been sitting in huts? How often do we do our work when we should be doing God's.
We recently celebrated the birth of God - as a small child in the most humble of circumstances. The same God that later destroys the cathedral of the day and brings salvation to the world through His own death. How often do we forget this example?
Related Tags: minsitry, humility, spiritual formation, maturity, pain
