Another difference in self-help and spiritual formation

The self help industry is a huge monster of a thing that is a weird mix of accurate and pseudo versions of different disciplines. One of those disciplines that is in the mixture of self help is the discipline of spirituality. 

I would like to point out Christian spiritual formation is different from many expressions of self help. This is not to say that the self help world is wrong or inaccurate in the many claims made. Rather, it is more of a philosophical difference that I would like to bring to the surface. For instance, the difference Christianity and self help has with cracks and imperfections. Still others have written on how each Christianity and self help understand happiness differently.

Another difference that in Christianity and self help is how each of these philosophies understand vision.

The self help world understands vision like much of the academic world I encountered, which says something like this: Everyone sees the world through a set of lenses. You were born with a set of lenses that you see the world through and as we grew our lenses changed some but we still had these lenses on our eyes that colored the world as we experienced it. Thus the goal of education and self help is to teach us to examine these lenses so that we might see how it is our vision is different from others who see the exact same world.

Now this is not an inaccurate metaphor for how we see the world. However, what makes Christian spirituality different is that we do not think that we have lenses, but in fact that we are blind and cannot see. This is why the spiritual life is one that embraces humility, because we cannot see. Paul said that we see through dark glass, but he only said this after he was literally blinded. It is only when we come to the reality that we cannot see that we then can take the steps to admit that all the lenses we wear are dark at best. 

Yes we have lenses we see the world through and it is important to examine those lenses. However, the first step in Christian formation is to have our eyes opened, then we can clean the lenses.

A Disciple of Christ is?

source: theunitive.com/choose-generosity/

The UMC is a church that is dedicated to making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. This is a wonderful mission that I too have dedicated my life toward fulfilling. The problem is we don't really know what that means. 

One group may see a disciple of Christ as one who is pro-gun while another thinks disciples of Christ are pacifists. One group might see a disciple of Christ as one that warns people of hell and damnation if they don't accept Jesus while other groups think Christ brought universal salvation regardless of creed.

While it is true that disciples of Christ are advocates of love, even love is difficult to get Christian groups on the same page. Is it loving to kill a someone if you believe they are going to hurt your family? Is it loving to use fear to get people to accept Jesus because you really love them and want to do everything you can to ensure they will avoid the torment of hell? Is it loving to allow someone to just continue to live in sin without calling them to repent and change their ways?

So might I offer an alternative to think about what a disciple looks like? 

What would it look like to build a community of faith that defines a disciple of Christ as one who is growing in generosity? 

Giving more time, prayer, attention, resources. Giving more thanks, extending greater hospitality, being less attached to stuff. Having open palms and not clenched fists. 

I believe that God is generous. I do not believe God withholds things from creation or is stingy. I do not see Jesus as building barriers to God but rather his death tore open the curtain in the temple so all may access God. 

A disciple of Christ is at the very least one that is generous. If we are not growing in generosity then are we growing in Christ? 

While not a perfect metric, might faith communities focused on generosity be the same faith communities that are making disciples of Christ?

Is Focus Leading Us Astray?

Odeo was a tech company that created a platform for people to create podcasts quickly and easily. At the time, right in the middle of the "dot com" boom, tech companies were getting a lot of funding but not all tech companies were surviving. Odeo was floundering. 

The company's leadership decided to refund all the investors and shared that they were ditching their podcasting platform. Additionally, the leadership shared that the company was going to take a little side project one of their employees was working on and try to make that product work. Odeo changed it's name to Twitter and, well you know what might have happened next. 

In the part of the Church that I work in, there is a emphasis on being focused. My conference has a focus "empower and equip local congregations to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world". My denomination has four areas of focus. Local congregations are encouraged to have a mission and vision statement in order to bring focus to the missional goals of the local church. And while this emphasis on being focused may be a reaction to the multi-tasking and distracting world we live in, focus can lead us astray. 

Jesus said the Spirit blows like the wind. We neither know where it comes from or where it is going. The Spirit came down at Pentecost and opened mouths not so that one focused language could be heard but that every language was heard. The work of Paul was like that of Jesus; moving from community to community on a constant search for the next thing that the Spirit is doing. The Spirit moved in the hearts of reformers and the Church is now expressed in thousands of denominations around the world. The Spirit cannot be contained, it cannot be focused.

Might it be possible that with our efforts to try to be more focused we are missing what the Spirit is trying to do in our midst? 

If Odeo was focused on podcasting and their software, they would have missed out on the wild-eyed idea that one of their people had to create a micro-blogging website which others did not see the value of. Odeo chased down an unfocused idea in order to discover a new and wonderful tool of connection and sharing. 

It was not what they thought they were going to create, but it was where the spirit of inspiration took them. 

The question for the local church is are we so bound to being focused that we are unwilling (or unable) to go to a new place that the Spirit may be taking us?