Book Review: Spiritual Formation As If the Church Mattered,
James Wilhoit, Baker Academic 2008
Review:
Wilhoit’s community emphasis provides an important perspective in the spiritual formation movement. It’s a significant corrective for the individualistic, consumer-oriented understanding of Christian growth in the West. He emphasizes the need for Christians to have ‘optimistic brokenness’ – i.e., seeing the full extent of our brokenness while also receiving from God the grace for restorative transformation essential to our formation into Christ-like character and service of others. Wilhoit argues that this process takes place best in community. He says: “Our understanding of the cross is too small because we don’t see the extent of our bankruptcy” (109); “God invites us to grow, not merely shape up” by our own efforts (68). That growth means we “become pipes to carry God’s grace to others and not buckets content to hoard it” (147). His critiques of western spirituality are underlined in this review. Dr. M.L. Codman-Wilson, 11/1/2011
Summary:
Wilhoit’s communal, outward focus is clear in his definition: Christian spiritual formation is “the intentional, communal process of growing in our relationship with God and becoming conformed to Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit…Spiritual formation takes place in, through and for community. It must extend beyond the individual to the church, the family and society. It is for the glory of God and the service of others” (23).
“Salvation describes the complete process of redemption (from turning to Christ through our sanctification and eventual glorification). The gospel contains the power to become a Christian and is the source of grace needed to live the Christian life (i.e., turning away from lusts, diminishing racially biased judgment and focusing assessment on Christ-like character and competence.) It should result in Jesus’ promised lifestyle of peace, service and spiritual authority. Instead, churches focus on merely being nice and seeking a sensible consumer-oriented faith that meets our needs and avoids offending anyone else” (33). Formation is a “ceaseless, on-going process because entrophy, sin, the flesh and our idols, never rest in their battle against the human soul and God’s kingdom claims on it” (34).
“The heart of spiritual formation is akin to serving an apprenticeship with Jesus rather than merely mimicking selected actions of His (39)… “We must teach the commands of Christ as a package deal. A command given without the means of fulfilling it is just a law, but Jesus has given us commands and the means (grace given through a patterns of living) that will change us. His invitations are to love God and neighbor as ourselves” (40). Wilhoit then categorizes these two basic invitations in 4 areas experienced in community. Each of these areas include more specific commands Jesus gave His followers as a way to live out the Great Commandment:
Receiving – includes repentance, worship, sacraments, prayer
Remembering – teaching, preaching, evangelism, guidance, small groups
Responding – ministries of compassions, discernment, no prejudice
Relating – hospitality, handling conflicts, forgiveness, Sabbath, honoring relationships (50).
Wilhoit spends the most time describing the receiving component of spiritual formation. “We are to imbibe the healing, vitalizing, sustaining and strengthening grace of God that we need for sustaining and growing our spiritual lives and healing our souls…Understanding our pervasive brokenness is at the heart of true community formation. A culture of pretending and just trying to look good works against true formation” (57-58). We are insecure in our belief that God is for me and turn to an idol (money, success, reputation) to quench our thirst. “We need a deep sense of our sin (corporate and personal) and what the cross says about our sin. At the same time we need to yearn for God and embrace his grace. We are sick, but God doesn’t merely judge and forgive but heals our generic disease. He invites us to grow, not merely to shape up…If we only view salvation in legal terms (justification), we miss the deep healing and restorative dimensions of God’s grace. God isn’t into sin management…He sees our sin internally as a bent-heart condition – bent away from God. He knows we cannot cure the sickness of our souls by our own willpower alone. [Thus] God seeks us to be optimistically broken, turning to Him for help. Unfortunately, the longer we spend around churches, the more we tend to see ourselves less as sinners and more as people who are getting it together” (63, 68, 71).
“Christian spiritual formation requires that we actively and continually receive from God. We need to be extraordinary consumers of his grace; we need to receive his words of love and correction, his forgiveness, his affirmation, his life and the list goes on” (76-77).
“Grace is often limited in our present religious milieu to justification. But it is also God’s regenerating and strengthening power. There are over 100 references to grace in the English new Testament. Fewer than 10% of these refer to justification. Grace has much to do with how we live. For too many people grace is about how we are saved and work is about how we grow…but the way of grace is a pathway of change – in character, integrity, joy, true friendship with God” (79).
“Worship filled with prayer and praise opportunities for confession, repentance, receiving the sacraments, hearing and giving testimonies of God’s activities and learning/challenge is the most important context of community formation. In worship God’s love needs to be continually and creatively taught because Satan’s full time occupation is accusing Christians, causing them to doubt God’s love and goodness...We need to emphasize the struggles in life (the lived reality of sin) but then provide in community the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship, meditation, confession, submission to one another thorough accountable spiritual leadership, vulnerability, honesty and acceptance that admits our brokenness and then the hope of God’s grace and redemption and restoration and transformation” (86, 97).
Remembering: “Our remembering is all tied into how big the cross is to us. If we don’t see the extent of our bankruptcy and brokenness, the cross will be small. We will seek affirmation from others, work on our strengths, be outwardly generous , moral and churchgoing but not totally dependent on God’s grace. When, however, we see ourselves as God sees us and in the community practice the disciplines of learning, worship and confession, we are able to work together on our healing and reflect on the abundance of God’s redeeming grace” (109).
“We remember enfleshed truth – thus the importance of community testimonies and confession. We are able “to link my story to our story of the church universal and understand that we are part of something far larger than ourselves…People are spiritually blind and build defenses for our doubt, worry, fear, anger, self-centeredness. As a community we need to creatively get past these defenses through story, drama, testimonies, immersion” (117). “Community is also critical to minister pastoral care in times of personal loss, tragedies, disruption.. We need to give guidance to help people see God’s hand in their situation, to learn how to construe the loss they have experienced” (123). As Martyn Lloyd Jones says: “We need to not only encourage one another to seek God but to go beyond seeking Him to expect Him” (124).
Wilhoit affirms Larry Crabb’s characteristics of spiritual community:
1. “Celebrating people as created and forgiven by God
2. Visioning what another is becoming and trust God to accomplish such
3. Discerning happenings as climates for growth
4. Empowering others to fully become what God is desiring them to be” (Gorman. Community. P. 82)
“Learning takes place when we experience a dissonance within ourselves and see the need for change. We resolve our dissonances as we strive together to grow in community. That is transformational learning. “A curriculum for Christlikeness is only effective when it is saturated by a grace received through prayer, humble study and awareness that we cannot achieve what we ask in our own power. It must be the Holy Spirit’s work” (131). “Spiritual formation learning is not about head knowledge thrust upon us. It is about experiential knowledge – what a person absorbs, accepts, relates to or identifies with out of one’s own experience. It involves a reflection of who God is and what God has done and is doing and then a living out of that reality” (138, 144).
Responding: “As God changes us, the outflow is to reach out in love and service. We marvel at God’s grace and realize that we are pipes to carry His grace to others and not buckets content to hoard it. Grace comes to us to go through us to others” (147). “Many contemporary self-help methods and other spiritualities focus on giving personal confidence and power. But it is self-centered. In contrast Christian spiritual formation ultimately is about enabling people to love others more and to help create a just and well-ordered community…Following Christ requires us to cultivate a lifestyle of response” (148). “Even prayer becomes ‘talking to God about what we are doing together’ (D. Willard. Divine Conspiracy, p. 243).
“Communities cultivate in Christians attentiveness to the affirming voice of God calling his beloved to creative service which fits who they uniquely are. They discover relief in ignoring the accusations of Satan which breed self-doubt and fear. Wise communities don’t push new believers to duty in service (i.e., ‘this task needs doing’ etc.) but foster Christian self-acceptance, recognizing that God has a unique place for us to serve and will empower us to do it” (150). “Self-acceptance must be taught and nurtured because we confront plenty of negative data about ourselves. Negative accusation is one of Satan’s most effective tools” (151). “Maturity requires that we understand how we distort our spiritual lives and then cultivate spiritual practices (affirmed in community) that help us resist this distortion” (164).
“The gospel of Christ should bring us great joy. To the extent that we live our lives in the grace of Christ, with his cross growing ever larger, then we will be excited by his life, message and gospel so that we will present his teaching to others…We will teach people how to discern the voice of God who sings a song of affirmation and love over us. Coming to church should not load one with guilt but leave one marveling at God’s grace and standing in awe at the wisdom of His love” (168). It fosters discernment to obey God’s commands in response to this great love, not legalistically for legalism emphasizes our importance” (169).
Relating: “Spiritual formation moves us to grow in our relationships and moves us to compassionate service,” to weep with others, to take the time for fellowship, mentoring, counsel, evangelism, to extend hospitality, to forgive, to care for the poor. “We need to seek out spiritually enriching relationships of love and service. We should put ourselves in places such as small groups and service units where the formation and growth of these relationships is encouraged. We need to invest in community” (177). “Healthy communities arise out of people who are committed to a certain way of being; they possess certain settled dispositions and habits of the heart that consistently prompt community-supportive disciplines” (178). “In the Scripture an emphasis on affections and intentions appears but in the final analysis God requires properly motivated action, not just good intentions or a warm heart. For this reason true spiritual formation must cultivate not just knowledge or skills but service to God through responsible action…Loyalty to Christ demands it…To acknowledge Jesus as Lord leads to a lifestyle based on love and obedience, not on self-satisfaction. To acknowledge Jesus as Lord means to acknowledge oneself as a servant of Jesus and of others and to witness to the kingdom of God” (179).
“A church in which God reigns, in which the kingdom of God is manifest, will demonstrate four attributes: meaningful worship, compassionate service, public witness and disciple making. These attribute do not appear in isolation; they function in harmony reinforcing each other” (180). “Such environments supply both support and challenge and participants accept community responsibility as a way of life [through] healthy interdependence” (184).
Interpersonal connecting is encouraged but there must also be an emphasis on learning to follow Jesus’ wisdom in relationships…Love calls us to seek the best for another. To live a life of love is not simply a call to benign acceptance and tolerance…People who care for us and hold us accountable are one of God’s greatest means of grace” (192). “Grace-bathed communities practice disciplines of abstinence (those practices like refraining from gossip, where we give up or abstain from a destructive pattern), empowerment and discernment (where we receive words of encouragement and perspective from other people and counsel that contains a gospel perspective on a situation that we face)” (193-195). It also models detachment (from possessions, people in terms of compulsive approval needs, various fears), and thoughts (lust, depreciative thoughts, jealousy, anger) (196). “Community forms at its deepest… when enlightened task groups aim at showing compassion for the surrounding community” (199). “Appropriately motivated service affirms our contribution to the body of Christ” (151).
Questions for Reflection or Discussion:
1. What are the implications in your context of Wilhoit’s premise that “spiritual formation takes place in and through community”?
2. How do you respond to his critiques of western spirituality (phrases underlines in the review)?
3. What makes the cross bigger in a person’s life?
In a community’s life?
4. How does your church manifest the 4 attributes of “a church where God reigns”:
Meaningful worship?
Compassionate service (to the surrounding community)?
Public witness (re: relational evangelism and good works in the surrounding community)?
Disciplemaking?
5. What does your church community need to do to grow in any or all of these areas?
No comments:
Post a Comment