Monday, February 8, 2010

Groupthink

I put a lot of mental energy into spiritual growth, and not nearly as much actual time and effort. In any day when I don't spent time studying Scripture, I at least feel guilty about it.

This is the sort of admission that would make the spiritual greats of history wince. I don't think I am unusual in this.

What do you do for spiritual growth? If a younger Christian asked you for thirty seconds of advice on spiritual growth, what would you say?

Get into a church, and get involved. Read your Bible and pray every day.

After that, it may start to sound a like a Lenten vow or a retreat at a local monastery: Meditate. Journal. Maybe do Compline every night, or practice the Jesus Prayer? Or get into a prayer partnership, or join a small group?

John Stott answered this question in an article where he was talking about "sowing to the Spirit" (in reference to Gal 6:8):
"...daily prayer, and meditation on the Scriptures, ... reading Christian books, making Christian friends, and getting engaged in Christian service."
Richard Foster, in Celebration of Discipline, lists meditation, prayer, fasting and study ("inward disciplines"), simplicity, solitude, submission and service ("outward disciplines"), and confession, worship, guidance and celebration ("corporate disciplines"). Dallas Willard, in his Spirit of the Disciplines has an even longer list: solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, sacrifice ("disciplines of abstinence") and study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, submission ("disciplines of engagement").

Do you also find these lists a little daunting? Like it would take all your free time just to maintain a spreadsheet of which disciplines you haven't gotten around to recently?

A very different approach can be found in Ephesians 4. Ephesians is all about God's bringing all things into unity under his Son, the primary example of this in Ephesians is the nascent unity between Jew and Gentile. Knowing the history of conflict and enmity between the two groups, Paul finds this oneness of purpose and faith nothing short of miraculous, a harbinger of the downfall of Satan himself (3:10). Think of a church where Israeli and Palestinians converts worship side by side in love and affection, and you get the idea.

In this treatise on the supernatural unity of the Holy Spirit, we read:
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace... 7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift... 11The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. [4:1-3,7,11-16]
Right in the center of a passage urging unity of spirit and purpose we find an unlikely reference to sanctification. Paul promises nothing less than "the full stature of Christ", and such discernment as to give stability in the midst of subtly deceptive teaching. And the road to maturity--in a sense, Paul's list like those of Stott, Willard and Foster above--is to work together in ministry. How do you grow spiritually? Find a way to use your gifts in community, and preferably in a community which represents the diversity we expect to see in the next life, and work towards in this one. Paul warns this will take love and patience and truth, and genuine effort, enough so that he begs the Ephesians to put everything into this pursuit.

Two observations:
  1. This is ultimately a process done in community.[1] This is not to say that Foster or Willard are wrong to recommend solitary practices; but if we are serious about spiritual growth, we must do it with other Christians. In our culture, where it is much more acceptable to be "spiritual" rather than "religious," attaching yourself to a church is about as popular as being a single adult living with your parents. Paul doesn't give you the luxury of waiting until you find a church you can really show off to your friends. If you want to grow spiritually, you do it by striving with other believers, with all their faults and foibles.
  2. Paul tells the recipients of this letter to use their gifts "for the work of ministry." Spiritual growth is a byproduct here of pursuing God's kingdom. Spiritual "muscles" aren't like those a bodybuilder gets in the gym; they are like the muscles you get working in the fields with the other laborers.
These are difficult truths. It can be hard for us to imagine ourselves being more Christ-like in a year or ten. How much harder, then, to envision to the sanctification of the whole community? When I think of the people in my church, I get the feeling sanctification isn't necessarily high on their list for some. What do I do with them? Do I just engage in ministry and grow alongside those others who do the same, forgetting about those who stayed home? It's not so tough to imagine and pray for the sanctification of the type-A members of the church, but Paul doesn't make such a distinction.

Maybe this is what the forty years in the desert were like. If Moses or Joshua could have mustered their crack team of the highly motivated, they could have stormed Canaan, cutting the trip by half. But God's people had to travel together, both the Calebs and the less motivated stragglers. They were dependent on God for their survival and salvation, but also were forced to work together. In a sense, they even had it easier than we do: The signs of God's presence were very physical, including the pillars of smoke and fire and manna from heaven. Also, it wasn't an option for them to stay put and go to sleep in the desert, or shuffle at a snail's pace, pretending it counted as travel. Happily, there were no Sunday-morning soccer matches in the desert to compete for their attention.

This is where we point out the many benefits of new-covenant life. They had a pillar of fire; we have the indwelling Spirit of the Living God, the Ancient of Days, who desires to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ. The wandering people of God would have glad to hear Paul say,
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. (2 Thess 2:13)
For all that, though, we also have bills to pay, kids to raise, and a roiling sea of distractions. The sad truth is that there will always be those among us who
are indifferent to God's will for us and even some who choose, out of plain stubbornness, to quench the Spirit. Jesus' parable of the sower is fair warning of this. It's as if some in the desert had just wanted to sit down and give up, or pitch tents in the hot sun and forsake Canaan. The hard job of the family of believers is to love and cajole and encourage them. It's an exhausting thought, but as Jesus is patient with us, we must be the same.

On the bright side, this time around the earth generally doesn't open its mouth and swallow any of us up. That's some comfort, at least.

* * *

[1] This isn't of course the only passage on sanctification or spiritual growth. If by contrast you read only Jn 8:23-32, for instance, you will come away believing spiritual growth is all about immersion in Jesus' teachings. Given the themes of the letter, it's no surprise that Ephesians presents the communal aspect of sanctification. But that fact shouldn't lead us to de-emphasize this passage, as if the author were over-stating his case. Western believers are so inclined towards individualism that this is precisely the emphasis we need to hear.

Addendum:


Q:
Do adult Christians need to put energy into pursuit of spiritual growth, or is that just for the overachievers of the church? I went through a dozen years of Sunday school growing up, I attend church, and a few years ago I was in that Bible study--you remember. Isn't that enough?

A: Several passages in the NT indicate that spiritual growth is meant to be central for believers. 2 Peter 2:18 commands the reader to "grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord"; in Col 1:10 the author prays for the readers to "grow in the knowledge of God," leading to patience and joy and "bearing fruit in every good work." In Hebrews we read that "anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil"--and the author goes on "leave behind the elementary teachings about Christ..." (5:13-6:2). Almost every one of Paul's letters includes a healthy dose of paraenesis, or teaching about holy living. Is this just for the young Christians of the early church? Two reasons not to think so: (1) The second-generation church addressed by the pastorals is cut from the same cloth; and (2) Paul's famous autobiographical passage in Romans 7-8 describing his struggle with sanctification assumes as a backdrop that an apostle whom all would consider a "mature" believer nevertheless grapples with spiritual growth.