Grassroots Healthy Reproducing Churches Podcast - Episode 5

Issue for Discussion: The Return to Spiritual Formation

Download: Podcast Episode 5 - The Return to Spiritual Formation

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Quotes from Reggie McNeil's The Present Future:
4. How do Develop Followers of Jesus?
New Reality Number Four: The Return to Spiritual Formation

A friend of mine once asked me, "What is this kingdom business you keep talking about?"

The kingdom is people," I replied. People are built to last. The Scriptures say that every other created thing is eventually gone. When the kingdom fully comes, people will finally realize their full potential as beings created in the image of God. Jesus hinted at this when he spoke about abundant life. To live abundantly is to borrow the future into the present. This means that helping people develop emotionally, physically, and relationally is all spiritual. There is no sacred-secular dichotomy when it comes to spiritual formation. It includes personal spiritual disciplines, but is also includes the stewardship of our relationships, our work, and our life mission. – p 73

How do we develop followers of Jesus? This question changes everything. – p 70

Christians (evangelicals especially) emphasize that our connectivity to God is through a relationship with Jesus. We talk about giving him our hearts or inviting him into our hearts. We use love language to talk about committing our lives to him. Then, as soon as the deal is done, we switch the language and go to head stuff. We pull out the notebooks. We go over what we believe, information about the church, and so on." – p 70

I think the solution is an abandonment of the church culture idolatry and a radical reintroduction of spiritual formation. - p 73

What if denominational reporting inquiries asked, "What percentage of your congregants feel they grew to be more like Jesus this past year?" What if church leaders asked each other, "How is God at work in your people?" or "Where do you see Jesus bustin' out?" – p 74

I am recommending that churches provide life coaching for people. We need to view this as spiritual formation. We cannot take the approach that we just need to teach people the classic spiritual disciplines, assuming that a person already has a developed center. We must attend to their self-awareness and life relationships…. Life coaching should happen whenever the person signaled they were ready. – p 77

An agenda for spiritual formation – worship, Apply Biblical truth to life and relationships, minister to others in Jesus' name, share the faith with pre-Chrisitans, cooperate and partner with other believers in the Mission of God. – pp 80-83

Evangelism that will introduce Jesus to this culture will flow from people who are deeply in love with Jesus. – p 82

Jesus facilitated spiritual formation in his disciples by introducing them to life situations and then helping them debrief their experiences. – p 85

Links:

Guests:
Fran Leeman, pastor of the Lifespring Community Church in Plainfield, IL, a growing suburb of Chicago.

Lance Finley, Director of Youth and Family Ministries for the Churches of God General Conference, a denomination based in Findlay, OH

Bill Sloat, pastor of Faith Community Church, in Denver, PA, a small town in Lancaster country, PA, who also has a doctorate in church history, specifically revivalist history of the 1700’s and 1800's.

And I'm Brian Miller, pastor of The Crossover Church in Mattoon, IL, a town of about 20,000 in East Central Illinois.