What's Missing

In every congregation that is experiencing decline, in every denomination that is experiencing decline, one key element is missing. This missing element is a major factor in the decline. It is a barrier to growth and, at the same time, prevents us from doing the work that is necessary to address the decline.

This missing element is spiritual formation.

The transformation of our hearts and minds into the likeness of Christ — spiritual formation — is the heart of the spiritual journey. It is the essence of what it means to be a follower of Jesus — discipleship. It is Paul’s definition of salvation as presented in his letter to the Romans.

It seems to me most churches have a different definition of salvation. Salvation, in these churches, is accepting Jesus as my savior so I can go to heaven when I die. (I addressed the bankruptcy of this theology in last week’s blog “A Fatal Flaw.”) In the churches built upon this theology, spiritual formation a secondary focus. It is an elective rather than the core curriculum required of all. It is not even offered in some of these congregations. Evangelism — getting people “saved” — is the central focus of these churches. In these churches, Bible study is generally substituted for spiritual formation. Rather than leading to “the renewing of the mind” (Romans 12:2) and the mind of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:16), the study is used to reinforce how we already think and what we already believe. It does not lead to spiritual growth. This heaven-oriented theology produces church members, many of whom can quote scripture to validate what they believe. It does not produce any significant change of heart and mind. It often produces a religious version of the person they were before they “accepted Jesus as my savior.”

Spiritual formation deals with the heart. It shifts the focus from externals — right belief, right behavior (morals, church involvement), right worship — to the interior dimension of our lives. It addresses the attitudes that shape how we treat others and the underlying, self-serving spirit that fuels those attitudes. Spiritual formation leads us to deal with those things in ourselves that we don’t see and don’t want to see — what is called the shadow. It addresses our deep-seated emotional wounds. It shines the healing light of Christ on our “issues” that are the faces of those wounds. It calls out the old messages that keep those issues alive in our hearts. It calls us beyond the unhealthy relational patterns we use to reduce the anxiety created by those issues.

Spiritual formation results in a transformation of our hearts and minds. How we think along with what we think is transformed. Our hearts are cleansed along with the attitudes that reside in our hearts. A servant spirit displaces our inherent self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit. The transformation that grows out of this inner work produces the character of Christ in us. We love as Jesus loved. We love those whom Jesus loved.

Without this kind of inner, transformative work, we continue to live out of our ego-centric, constructed self and its self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit. We avoid any honest look at ourselves or our lives. Blind to our shadow, we project what is in our shadow onto others. We judge, criticize, and blame. We remain stuck in us-them, black-and-white, right-and-wrong thinking.

Spiritual formation is what is missing in every church that is experiencing decline. Apart from it, the thinking and attitudes of our ego-centric, constructed selves permeate our churches. We live out of an unrecognized what’s-in-it-for-me spirit that resists change, clinging to what is comfortable and familiar. We live out of us-them thinking that judges and excludes those not like us. And to complicate matters, we cannot do the kind of self-evaluation that helps us see the things we do that contribute to the decline.

P.S. – Spiritual formation questions: How am I more like Christ today than I was a year ago? How have I grown in Christ this past year? What is the Spirit addressing in my life right now? What am I doing — what spiritual practices do I regularly engage in — that nurtures my growth in Christ?