The Myth of Fact - a MUST read
Quite possibly one of the more insightful commentaries I have read in a while. Not only is this timely, but it cuts to our cores. If you have not read this little one page bit then you are missing out.
Little help...
I am one who needs to have conversation with people in regards to Scripture almost everyday. This is especially true for the times in which I am preaching. The conversations help me understand where people are and gives me some place to begin working so that I am somewhat close to where people are with the text. It is my way of being incarnational with preaching preparation.
The past several weeks conversations with people have been fruitful and ones for which I greatly appreciate and hope they have augmented the messages. However, this week as been busier than normal as we are a minister down and school has begun meaning the church is moving into full swing with it's ministries.
So by way of seeking conversation consider this an invitation not unlike ones from the past.
Here is the Scripture (Luke 14: 25-33).
What do you get from this?
What is God saying to you through this?
What shimmers at you in this text?
Where do you agree/disagree?
A little help would be much appreciated.
The past several weeks conversations with people have been fruitful and ones for which I greatly appreciate and hope they have augmented the messages. However, this week as been busier than normal as we are a minister down and school has begun meaning the church is moving into full swing with it's ministries.
So by way of seeking conversation consider this an invitation not unlike ones from the past.
Here is the Scripture (Luke 14: 25-33).
What do you get from this?
What is God saying to you through this?
What shimmers at you in this text?
Where do you agree/disagree?
A little help would be much appreciated.
Spiritual growth begins with a language change
Christians, myself included, love the word 'growth'. We talk about growing churches. The conference seeks ways to grow new churches. We ask ministers about growing edges. We provoke lay members to grow spiritually. We talk about growing missionally and spiritually. Growth is good.
The problem is growth tends to invoke other words like flourishing and larger or bigger or stronger or mature or just all together better. Growth generally does not invoke words like cutting back or prune or stunt or even die. So when we talk about spiritual growth we tend to look for things and ways that essentially allow us to keep our lives the way they are without having to give up much of anything we might consider 'growth'.
Spiritual growth becomes something for which something we pursue. We seek out opportunities for spiritual growth in order to be wiser or stronger or more kind or loving.
And the fact of the matter is all that sounds really great and even sounds like something Christians should/would do.
I am not convinced that Christians should be seeking out spiritual growth.
It might serve the Christian better to identify that the growth that comes from individual discernment is indeed growth but it is growth that is ego oriented. When we are seeking to grow ourselves then we are seeking to meet our own needs and desires.
Rather than talking about spiritual growth Christians might be better served to talk about spiritual formation.
Growth is a direct action verb. We believe there are things that I do in order to grown my spirit. On the other hand, Formation is a indirect action verb. When we are in a formation process we identify there are variables that are outside our control and there are aspects of the process for which we might not ever choose to do on our own.
The Christian life is one of surrender to the Spirit of God. We are called into being formed into disciples of Jesus Christ. We are called to be involved indirectly with our maturation in that the Spirit of God the main shaper of our lives.
If we want to grow spiritually, then perhaps we should begin by asking ourselves, "Do I want to grow spiritually or do I want to be formed by God?"
The problem is growth tends to invoke other words like flourishing and larger or bigger or stronger or mature or just all together better. Growth generally does not invoke words like cutting back or prune or stunt or even die. So when we talk about spiritual growth we tend to look for things and ways that essentially allow us to keep our lives the way they are without having to give up much of anything we might consider 'growth'.
Spiritual growth becomes something for which something we pursue. We seek out opportunities for spiritual growth in order to be wiser or stronger or more kind or loving.
And the fact of the matter is all that sounds really great and even sounds like something Christians should/would do.
I am not convinced that Christians should be seeking out spiritual growth.
It might serve the Christian better to identify that the growth that comes from individual discernment is indeed growth but it is growth that is ego oriented. When we are seeking to grow ourselves then we are seeking to meet our own needs and desires.
Rather than talking about spiritual growth Christians might be better served to talk about spiritual formation.
Growth is a direct action verb. We believe there are things that I do in order to grown my spirit. On the other hand, Formation is a indirect action verb. When we are in a formation process we identify there are variables that are outside our control and there are aspects of the process for which we might not ever choose to do on our own.
The Christian life is one of surrender to the Spirit of God. We are called into being formed into disciples of Jesus Christ. We are called to be involved indirectly with our maturation in that the Spirit of God the main shaper of our lives.
If we want to grow spiritually, then perhaps we should begin by asking ourselves, "Do I want to grow spiritually or do I want to be formed by God?"
Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.