SPIRITUAL FORMATION
My
Method
a. A phenomenology of
spiritual formation.
b. A description.
i. I am going to describe the process of spiritual
formation and transformation as I have seen it, as a result of teaching and
coaching overt 3000 pastors and Christian leaders over the past 36 years.
c.
‘Phenomenology’ - “The
discipline of phenomenology may be defined initially as the study of structures
of experience, or consciousness. Literally, phenomenology is the study of
“phenomena”: appearances of things, or things as they appear in our experience,
or the ways we experience things, thus the meanings things have in our
experience. Phenomenology studies conscious experience as experienced from the
subjective or first person point of view. This field of philosophy is then to
be distinguished from, and related to, the other main fields of philosophy:
ontology (the study of being or what is), epistemology (the study of knowledge),
logic (the study of valid reasoning), ethics (the study of right and wrong
action), etc.” (“Phenomenology,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
What is spiritual formation?
Dallas Willard - “Spiritual formation can be understood as the process by which true Christlikeness is established in the very depths of our being.” (Willard)
Dallas Willard - “Spiritual formation can be understood as the process by which true Christlikeness is established in the very depths of our being.” (Willard)
§ “Spiritual formation” is “a term for those
processes through which people are inwardly transformed in such a way that the
personality and deeds of Jesus Christ naturally flow out from them when and
wherever they are.” (Willard)
§ "When we talk about spiritual formation we
are talking about framing a progression of life in which people come to
actually do all things that Jesus taught. So we are obviously going for the
heart. We are aiming for change of the inner person, where what we do
originates." (Willard)
·
Jeffrey Greenman - "Spiritual formation is our continuing response to the reality of God's grace shaping us into the likeness of Jesus Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, in the community of faith, for the sake of the world."
- Jeffrey Greenman, Life in the Spirit: Spiritual Formation in Theological Perspective, 24
Jeffrey Greenman - "Spiritual formation is our continuing response to the reality of God's grace shaping us into the likeness of Jesus Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, in the community of faith, for the sake of the world."
- Jeffrey Greenman, Life in the Spirit: Spiritual Formation in Theological Perspective, 24
·
Henri Nouwen -
"Spiritual formation, I have come to believe, is not about steps or stages
on the way to perfection. It’s about the movements from the mind to the
heart through prayer in its many forms that reunite us with God, each other,
and our truest selves." (Nouwen, Spiritual
Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit, Kindle Locations
152-154)
o
"Spiritual
formation requires taking not only the inward journey to the heart, but also
the outward journey from the heart to community and ministry. Christian spirituality
is essentially communal. Spiritual formation is formation in community. One’s
personal prayer life can never be understood if it is separated from community
life. Prayer in the spiritual life leads to community, and community to prayer.
In community we learn what it means to confess our weakness and to forgive each
other. In community we discover our own woundedness, but also a place of
healing. In community we learn true humility. Without community, we become
individualistic and egocentric. Therefore, spiritual formation always includes
formation to life in community." (Ib., Kindle Locations 309-315)
5
stages – a phenomenology of spiritual formation.
1.
The Need – recognition of how needy we are of personal, inner change.
2. The Gap – realization as a revelation of the holiness of Christ, and of the great gap between ourselves and Christ.
3. Recognition of the magnitude of the needed transformation. God wants to metamorph the human heart into Christlikeness. (Gal. 4:19; Rom. 12:1-2)
4. Only God can do this – realization that we cannot self-transform by our own striving and will power into Christlikeness.
5 . Therefore, consistently get into the presence of God. Abide in Christ. You cannot consistently dwell in Christ and remain unchanged.
2. The Gap – realization as a revelation of the holiness of Christ, and of the great gap between ourselves and Christ.
3. Recognition of the magnitude of the needed transformation. God wants to metamorph the human heart into Christlikeness. (Gal. 4:19; Rom. 12:1-2)
4. Only God can do this – realization that we cannot self-transform by our own striving and will power into Christlikeness.
5 . Therefore, consistently get into the presence of God. Abide in Christ. You cannot consistently dwell in Christ and remain unchanged.
What
is “spirit?”
o
o “Spirit” Defined"
o
o
Biblically and
systematically, it is appropriate to identify the heart and
the spirit of the human being and the will as
roughly the same thing. (From Dallas Willard)
o
The spirit is that part
of the human being that has the capacity of moving without being moved. (=”free
will”]
o
It is the depth of the
human being where freedom really exists. It is that part of us that is
self-determined. That's the heart.
o
That's why evil and good
come out of the heart, it's because that's the part of us that is really us.
o
It's really ours.
And spirit is of that intensely personal nature.
o
God is spirit. Therefore God is wholly
self-determined.
o
We are self-determined
only in a very small way.
o
This part of the human
being--the spirit, the will, the heart--is the place where the work of
spiritual formation has to be done.
o
Remember the words of
Samuel: "Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the
heart."
o
Functionally the will
is the executive center of the self. [= choice-making;
decision-making]
o
When it comes to life in
God through the new birth, its task is then the re-formation of the whole self
in co-operation with God.
o
Will is not exactly
character, but is formed into character as it becomes habitual and automatic.
o
The human will exists in
three conditions or dimensions.
Three
aspects of the human will (From Dallas Willard)
o The vital or impulsive will
§ . “This is a willing that
is outwardly directed and moved by and toward things that are simply
attractive. You see this in a baby. A little baby very quickly begins to be
attracted to things, to reach for them, and move in relationship to them. And
that's all there really is to will in the baby.”
§ b. This is: “I want to,” and “It
pleases me.” E.g., “I want to eat ice cream, therefore I will eat ice cream.” (Especially Graeter's Ice Cream in Columbus!)
§ c. You simply choose what
you desire.
o The reflective will
§ The reflective will is oriented toward what is
good for the person as a whole, not merely to what is desired. And so we have
the conflict that we all know too well, as human beings, between the good and
the bad, and the good and the not so good, and the good and the better. This
conflict goes on constantly in our lives…”
§ b. Reflective will is the
will oriented toward what is good for the person as a whole, not toward the
merely desired.
§ c. Instead of just doing
what you want or desire, you choose for what is good. For Jesus-followers,
you choose what God wants.
§ d. This is the “WWJD”
stage.
o The embodied will
§ Embodied will – this is who you really are.
§ Now watch closely: ”Spiritual formation in Christ transforms your embodied will. It transforms your embodied will so that what
comes out of you automatically are the words and deeds of Christ.” (Willard)
§ This is the point where we can stop thinking
about our responses.
§ This is the point where we have the mind of
Christ.
o Willard says: “Christian spiritual formation is
the process through which the embodied/reflective will takes on the character
of Christ's will. It is the process through which (and you know Gal. 4:19) Christ
is formed in you and me. Think of Paul's magnificent statement: "The
life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me." Not faith in, but the faith of. I have taken
his faith into me. I am now being inwardly the person that Christ has called me
to be, and this inward faith has now spread throughout my socially embodied self.”
o Willard: “Spiritual formation in Christ would,
then, ideally result in a person whose reflective will for good, fully informed
and possessed by Christ, has settled into their body in its social context to
such an extent that their natural responses were always to think and feel and
do as Christ himself would. Their epidermal as well as their deliberate
responses are then those of Christ.” [Cmp. Nouwen – that the truths of the mind
would descend into one’s heart.]
§ This reverses Romans 7:19. There, Paul writes: "The
things that I would not that I do, and the things that I would, that I do
not."
