By Tyson Thorne

June 27, 2017
 
 

What is “spiritual formation”? Many Christian schools and mega churches will have a director of spiritual formation (SF) and I’ve often wondered, what exactly is this discipline? Deconstructing the term provides me a mental picture of the human spirit as a lump of clay on a potter’s wheel being formed into something useful, which is of very little help since the Bible is clear that God is the potter and not us. There are many different ideas and approaches to what SF is, but perhaps the most useful understanding comes from looking at the disciplines colleges and seminaries teach for this major.

From what I’ve seen these programs emphasize psychological health and emotional maturity, neither or which (in my opinion) has anything to do with a person’s “spirit”. This is not to say it is valueless, only that I fail to see the relevance to the topic unless they are using “formation” to be of an idea, or an ideal in the mind. If the intended meaning is to form a mental construct of spirituality in the mind so that we might increase our awareness of God and his role in our life, then I suppose this has relevance and value even if poorly named.

There is another approach to SF taken by Renovare, a Canadian group that teaches believers to use spiritual disciplines to enlarge our spiritual experiences in this life. This seems like a better fit with the term “spiritual formation”, however their teachings include poor theology and recommend the use of disciplines not recommended by Scripture. To their credit, however, they emphasize practice and training in disciplines rather than a less measurable set of psychological or emotion goals. I think this is the right track, but is still missing the heart of Christian spirituality.

A better approach to all these goals is one that Jesus used, that the early church understood and practiced, and that the modern church struggles to get right. I’m speaking, of course, of discipleship. The best way to build psychological health, emotional maturity, a larger awareness of God, and a mature faith is through real discipleship. Unfortunately, discipleship is so misunderstood that it requires as much explanation as the term “spiritual formation”.

The easiest place to start is to state what discipleship is not. It is not “Bible study”, it is not a one on one meeting a couple hours a week, and it is not a 90-day or 12-week program. Biblical discipleship looks a lot like friendship in that there is constant communication, regular activities and complete openness about one’s life. It is different from a standard friendship in that one person has greater spiritual maturity than the other and the goal of the relationship is to pass along a spiritual way of life and thought. Look at how Jesus worked with the disciples for an example. The 12 pretty much lived with Jesus; they saw him as he prayed, taught, confronted religious leaders, ate, and otherwise earned his living.

Inviting someone to live with you may not be practical in our culture, but we can keep doors open and allow the disciple to see our playlists, our Netflix watched movies list, our receipts from stores and more. No aspect of our life can be considered private, or kept from the disciple. The apostle Paul was a human just like us, and he tells the people of Corinth to “be imitators of me, just as I am of Christ.” Discipleship is teaching people to follow Jesus by following your example.

There is more to it than this, of course, and perhaps we’ll pick up the discussion of discipleship another time. For now, rethink your understanding of what discipleship is and could be. If you are a new believer look for someone whose example you can follow and if you are a mature believer, order your life in such a way that you can disciple someone else.

 
 
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