Spiritual Formation and the Local Congregation

I just finished Dallas Willard's book Renovation of the Heart this morning.  In one of the closing chapters entitled, "Spiritual Formation in the Local Congregation," Willard makes the case that spiritual formation into the likeness of Christ should be the primary goal of what local congregations do.  Consider the following quote:

"...all of the other details of church activities will matter little, one way or the other, so long as all is organized around God's plan for spiritual formation in the local congregation, as given in Matthew 28:18-20." 

That's quite a statement to make.  I know that if you haven't read the book it's hard to totally understand what he means by spiritual formation, but let's assume Willard is right and think through the implications a little bit as I give you a little more understanding of what he means.

"I have been given say over everything in heaven and earth.  As you go throughout the world, make apprentices to me from all kinds of people, immerse them in Trinitarian reality, and teach them to do everything I have commanded you.  Look, I'm with you every moment, until the work is done"  (Matthew 28:18-20, PAR).

Willard breaks down Jesus' Great Commission here into three stages:

1) Making disciples - local congregations are to consist of those who are looking to Jesus as savior and teacher, so even though Willard does not put a big emphasis on outreach, there has to be some of it in one form or another to continue inviting people to become disciples. Willard points out that the New Testament does not recognize a category of Christians that are not apprentices.  Very interesting considering the fact that many who would categorize themselves as Christians today are clearly not apprenticing themselves to Jesus.  

2) Immersing the apprentices at all levels of growth in the Trinitarian presence - This is where we encounter the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the transforming and teaching God whose presence is imperative in spiritual formation of the church, otherwise the goal is impossible. 

In discussing this second stage, Willard makes a great point in regards to that silly question we often ask, "How did the service go?"  He reminds us that God is the primary agent in the gathering and that only he really knows how the service went.  It is not based on a perfect order of worship, great worship band performance or a well-delivered, impeccable sermon.  We cannot only hope for it to go "well" if those leading the gathering are depending on the One who said he would be with us every moment, trusting that He will do His work in our midst as we gather in His name.

3)  Transforming disciples inwardly, in such a way that doing the words and deeds of Christ is not the focus but is the natural outcome or side effect - This is where we intend and arrange for the inner transformation of every element of the disciples' being (will, thoughts, feelings, body, social dimension, soul).  This is where intentional human action interacts with the work of God in our lives to grow into Christlikeness to the point that we naturally do what Jesus commanded.  Engaging in spiritual disciplines like fasting, lectio divina, silence and solitude, etc. is part of the means to this end. 

I think that Willard's perspective on what local congregations should be about (spiritual formation according to Matthew 28:19-20) is valid.  Obviously we need more than just our weekly worship services to accomplish this vision, but if that's a starting point to getting the congregation more serious about apprenticeship, how could we emphasize this Matthew 28 perspective in our worship gatherings?    

Worship and Study

I am nearing the end of The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, and have continued to enjoy it and be challenged by it.  I would consider myself to be a pretty heavy thinker, but I don't think I am always a great articulator of my thoughts, observations and analyses, so I love it when someone is really good at that, and especially when they work through things that I have been thinking about, but really carry the ideas to completion (which includes steps for application of these ideas).  Willard has really done that with the issue of true discipleship and the need for it in the church today which is plagued by a consumer approach to Christianity.

I came across a statement while reading today that had special significance in regards to worship, our primary topic on this blog.  Willard is talking about spiritual disciplines and how they are a huge piece of the puzzle in growing as a student of Jesus and actually putting the flesh to death (the sinful patterns that live in our bodies) and truly living in The Kingdom of God.  He emphasizes two different types of disciplines, disciplines of abstinence (where we have to give something up in some way for a certain period of time) and disciplines of positive engagement (thing we actively seek to do, to add to our regular way of life).  Study is one of the fundamental disciplines of positive engagement.  Study helps us to "place our minds fully upon the kingdom and its peace and strength." 

The statement that brought worship into the picture said that "... study is brought to its natural completion in the worship of God."  I found this particularly affirming for me because I just filled in for my pastor here at Christ's Church to preach a sermon, and my message had a lot to do with our worship gatherings being an intentional time for us to set our minds on things above and model the kind of behaviors that Paul describes in Colossians 3.  In the consumer Christian culture, worship like that usually requires discipline.  Willard speaks to that as well (I wish I would have read this chapter before my sermon).  He says we must not worship without study, quoting Romans 10:2 which talks about people that have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.  That might look like people emotionally getting into worship music like a rock concert, but who could care less about the theology they are singing (and half the time those songs are even about God anyways, they're all about singing about what I'm doing to worship God).  

On the flip side, Willard says that "Study without worship is also dangerous," because then it becomes nothing but academic, and Jesus didn't train his disciples to be nothing but a bunch of brains (that would lead us down a gnostic path I think).  The knowledge we gain from study finds its expression in worship back to God, where the reality of what we've studied gets imprinted on our whole being, disrupting the powers of evil that are all around us in this world. Worship as the completion of our study flows into a life that will "hear and do" what Jesus taught.

I haven't really heard a lot of statements connecting worship and study in this way before.  Even the studying we do of God's word during a worship service is in my opinion, not viewed as a part of worship by many people, its like it is a separate entity.  I almost wonder if people did make this connection, and didn't just have zeal without knowledge that maybe more people would recognize the issues in worship and the lack there is in so much worship music in particular.  The ancient church definitely viewed hearing God's Word as worship in the same way that singing songs or praying was, if not more.  Do you?  Is your study finding its completion in worship?  What does that look like?

   

Quotes from "The Divine Conspiracy"

I've been thoroughly enjoying Dallas Willard's book "The Divine Conspiracy" during my study time over the last couple weeks.  I'm about halfway through it now, and there's just so much I could share from it, but I'll try to stick to some of the ideas in the first few chapters so you get an idea of what he's trying to address where our spiritual life is concerned.  

Willard makes an analogy that compares human existence to a pilot doing high speed maneuvers who ends up flying upside down.  Eventually they do a high speed ascent only to go crashing into the ground, because they thought everything was fine and had no idea that they were flying upside down.  I feel like I observe that every day in our society and watch as we continue to crash in different ways, and sometimes even get stuck flying upside down myself.  The things we value, the paths we follow, the life we strive for are usually so upside down, so opposite from what God designed and desires for us.  

"Jesus offers Himself as the God's doorway into the life that is truly life," not just to give us a fire escape from hell.  He can teach us and enable us to fly right side up.  The problem is, much of Christianity today really doesn't look like people who are apprentices of Jesus in eternal living.  One reason is because the heart of the "christian" message has too often been about sin management.  This is my own take on the sin management message and what it results in, not Willard's words.  We have to accept that we're all sinners, then we realize that we deserve to go to hell, and then we find out that we can escape hell if we "invite Jesus into our heart" (instead of accepting Jesus invitation into the true life which will naturally result in eternal life after death).  From that point there's often a cycle of committing more sin, confess, feel sorry about it (not necessarily repent), re-commit our lives to Christ from time to time, and usually start to learn how to hide our sins from people too, or just feel good that ours isn't as bad as that other person's.  The overarching message is that Jesus took care of the payment for sin, and as long as we keep saying we believe then we'll be in the clear after we die.  A partial message like that is what leads people, including many Christians, to come to believe that "Jesus has no substantial impact on our "real lives.""  I think Willard put it even better in this statement.

"The sensed irrelevance of what God is doing to what makes up our lives is the foundational flaw in the existence of multitudes of professing Christians today. They have been led to believe that God for some unfathomable reason, just think it appropriate to transfer credit from Christ's merit account to ours, and to wipe out our sin debt, upon inspecting our mind and finding that we believe a particular theory of atonement to be true - even if we trust everything but God in all other matters that concern us."

We can see Willard's point when he says, "Life, our actual existence, is not included in what is now presented as the heart of the Christian message, or it is included only marginally."  This thought really helped me to get an even deeper understanding of why the Western Church still lives in and looks like the "the world" (instead of the Kingdom of God).

Another interesting issue which Willard brings up is that so many professing Christians buy into the perspective of the "intellectual community" if you will, and does not perceive Jesus as the smartest man that ever lived.  We don't view Him as our life teacher, nor do we care to learn from him.  Willard is even bold enough to say that some professing believers don't truly "respect" Jesus, and don't think His teachings are relevant for today.  "Strangely, we seem prepared to learn how to live from almost anyone but him."  Oprah, Dr. Phil, Joel Osteen, Barack Obama, hollywood celebrities, famous musicians, and the list goes on as I think about who I see our culture (including many in the church) modeling their lives after or who they look to for guidance and help.  "Where we spontaneously look for "information" on how to live shows how we truly feel and who we really have confidence in."  Sadly, it could be said that much of the church is not "spontaneously" looking to Jesus for how to live, which apparently means we have a lack of confidence in Him.  But He's worthy of all our confidence, so we need to help people see that.

Dallas Willard constantly refers to the Word, which I think is imperative to a book that is trying to help us learn from Jesus.  As the book continues he does a lot of work trying to undo wrong interpretations of some of Jesus' fundamental teachings which has certainly given me a new perspective.  The beatitudes teaching in particular is one that I didn't quite connect the dots in until I started reading this book.  I will probably post some more as I continue reading, but you might consider reading "The Divine Conspiracy" if you agree that we need to intentionally rework the "the heart of the message" where Jesus is concerned and help people to see Him as more than just a get out of hell free card, but as the only author, giver and teacher of life in this world and the world to come.