Spiritual Formation

Dr. David McKenna, former President of Asbury Theological Seminary, spoke at missions executive meetings held in Cairo, Egypt when I served as the World Missions Director of an evangelical denomination. During our time in Cairo we had long conversations about where the Church was headed in taking Christ to the world. Dr. McKenna suggested that I consider shaping my ideas with the framework of the cross —”Passion for God” and “Compassion for Others.” The advice stayed with me. When I accepted teaching and administrative responsibilities at a university, I began developing the Sections of this book drawing observations taken from my ministry and teaching, and from the writings of Bernard Clairvaux.

St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.) once said, "God is always trying to give us good things, but our hands are too full of other things to receive them." Our affluent culture has convinced us that the only things of value are possessions and the tangible things that we touch, taste, see and hoard. Our relationship with others has suffered as we trample people to get our share of materialism. Materialism, though, never satisfies. When what we have no longer satisfies, we reach for more.

A great part of our lives cannot be filled by anything other than God himself. The desire for happiness and significance has seduced us to pursue and fill our empty souls with almost anything but God. The changes witnessed by the last three generations are almost too large to comprehend. There was a time when the home with a family unit was the place of prayer and spiritual training. As time has passed significant changes have happened to each generation and many have drifted from God’s spiritual values. The demands of our jobs, changes in our culture, pressure to pursue materialism, lure of TV and internet, and the incessant use of cell phones have disrupted the purpose of the home as a place where we pray, study the Bible, and teach our families the basics of godly faith.

In the following pages you will be called to think and pray about allowing God to be at the center of your life. We will see that even good things, can lead us away from God and keep us from grasping his hand.

The present spiritual culture has grown lukewarm as we have gradually become more like our culture than God. This spiritual dullness has left us devoid of the power of God. If we are to know God, we must look somewhere other than our culture. We need only to look into God's Word and Christianity's past to see the strength and power that held the Church together.

Throughout the Bible when God's people were asked to do something they responded. They obeyed and followed God’s direction. Abraham obeyed and nearly sacrificed his only son Isaac, but God provided a ram to be sacrificed instead. When Moses, in obedience to God’s direction, raised his staff over the Red Sea the waters parted. God could have done this miracle alone, but depended on Moses’ participation. Later, Moses had to strike a rock in the desert before God provided water for the Israelites. As you skim through the Old and New Testaments you will see this pattern again and again—the believer takes a step of obedience, then God provides a miracle.

For us to deepen our spiritual life and allow God to be the center of our lives we must take steps toward him in our spiritual walk. Without God as the center we will never develop spiritually. These pages are about developing a deeper walk with God by prayer and reading the Bible. We must also allow the Bible to read us, or reveal what the Bible says about us.

We don't pray our wishes, but pray God's will. We don't fast to convince or manipulate God; we fast to know and obey God. Keeping the Sabbath and worship are not options but God's expectation. Servanthood is not something we do when it's convenient, but our response when we look through spiritual eyes filled with God's love. God's intention is not to give us a religion, but a relationship.

I invite you to take the journey of Spiritual Formation as in Sections 1 and 2 you discover how to find forgiveness of sin, life in Christ and the joy of worship with a body of believers.

With a strong foundation of a new birth and fellowship with the Church you will be able to move on to Section 3. In Section 3 you will journey into the personal and private disciplines of accountability, solitude, silence, journaling, fasting and retreats and experience more fully being in Christ.

Strength, developed through the inner disciplines of previous Sections, will enable you to move boldly into Section 4 where you combine being with doing. In Section 4 you will find the joy and satisfaction of touching others with God’s love through Hospitality, Simplicity, Strength, Stewardship and Servanthood.

The journey to Spiritual Formation, however, does not end in Section 4. The joy we find in this journey drives us back to Section 1. Equipped with all that we have learned in the four Sections of the Journey, we embrace those who have not yet started or who have turned back from the journey.