A Vision for Church Life
As you read this, a group of us from Christ Church are on retreat in Prescott, walking through the Seven Mansions of St. Teresa of Avila’s The Interior Castle with Dr. Tom Ashbrook, author of Mansions of the Heart.
Near the end of his book, Tom has a chapter called “Spiritual Formation and the Church,” in which he observes that, for many who desire deeper intimacy with God, the church is often less than helpful. He notes, “As the Western church became more clergy-centered, and intellectually and doctrinally focused, intentional spiritual training was often limited simply to communication of information.” This has produced churches in which the “goal of discipleship . . . is to produce an enlightened, well-behaved, and organizationally effective church member.”
He then asks this question: “Can we picture a church where loving God and taking that love to our neighbors is simply what church is about?” That vision is so compelling to me, yet I often find myself falling into the trap of church as, to use a phrase I heard the popular author Philip Yancey use, “a nice person telling a group of nice people how to be nicer.” How might we avoid this trap, and instead embrace the truth that, as Tom writes, “It is only as Jesus lives in us, in practical and experiential ways, that the church will be the evangelizing and loving presence of Jesus in the world.”
He suggests a couple of things. First, “we need to instill a ‘climate’ of openness, vulnerability, and journey.” In other words, we are all (including your leaders!) on a journey, and, along the way, we inevitably stumble, fall, or get off course. We need a congregational climate in which it is not only acceptable, but actually expected, to be open and vulnerable about your spiritual journey.
Second, he writes, “we need to be intentional about helping people establish meaningful relationships.” These relationships can be in the context of a traditional small group, in which the emphasis is on helping one another grow in our intimacy with God and our capacity to serve him in the world, but they can also be one on one friendships in which the friends bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), confess their sins one to another (James 5:16), and spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). It is most likely that our formation will occur in worship and in these kinds of relationships rather than in a traditional “classroom” setting.
Please pray that all who are on the retreat, and all who gather for worship at Christ Church on Sunday – we have a “normal” schedule this Sunday, with services at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. and coffee time in between – might catch a glimpse of Christian life as developing increasing intimacy with God, and an increasing love for both the world that he has made and the people for whom Christ died. That vision of church is so compelling to me; I hope it is compelling to you all as well.
Peace,
Chris