Wednesday, June 13, 2007

SFF07 - Day 3 - Juanita Rasmus


Juanita Rasmus presented a challenge from her and her husband Rudy’s new book titled TOUCH. TOUCH is an acronym. T is for Truth. She called us to a life and ministry of grace and truth as seen in Jesus’ life and ministry. O is for Other Centered. Service of others is the natural outflow of spiritual transformation. U is for Unconditional Love and acceptance. Juanita challenged us that it is easy to love those like us, but the real workout for our transformation is when we are put in places to love unconditionally those who are hard to love. C is for Community. Community is the expression of formation into the likeness of Jesus. And H is for Hope. Juanita said that we need to hear stories of hope that instill in us faith in God who can address our situation and change what needs to be changed for us.

SFF07 - Day 3 - Bruce Demarest


Bruce Demarest compared the Christian life to a two part journey of following Jesus – the journey inward and the journey outward. He said that all to often we separate the two, thinking that a focus on the inward journey will result in a lack of focus on the outward journey. And similarly, Bruce observed that what tends to happen is that we focus on the outward journey of mission and neglect the inward journey. This would be the typical path of an evangelistic church who spends all their energy on “winning the lost.” The inward life is either ignored or left to those who are really spiritual or naturally introspective. Bruce stated that “the path of spiritual maturity is a journey to inward transformation.” But this is often neglected because it requires hard work and can be emotionally painful. So in place of the inward journey of transformation we opt for an outward life of Christian acts that attempt to compensate for the inward journey.

Bruce gave us three specific recommendations to help us on the inward journey. First, SLOW DOWN. “God is trying to get through to us, but sadly all he gets is a busy signal.” Second, SURRENDER. The inward journey is a process of yielding control of our lives to Jesus. “The degree to which we surrender is the degree to which we can be transformed." Third, use the SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES. Bruce recommended Dallas Willard’s acronym VIM (Vision, Intention, Means). Willard’s explanation of VIM can be found in his book Renovation of the Heart. With the right approach “the ruts of routine can become the grooves of grace.” It is God’s purpose, Bruce stated, to transform his people.

He concluded with this quote from Augustine. “Be always unhappy about where you are if you want to reach where you are not. If you are pleased with what you are, you have stopped already. If you say, ‘It is enough,’ you are lost.”

Monday, June 11, 2007

SFF07 - Update to Scot McKnight Post

Scot McKnight has posted his outline from the 2nd plenary session at the SFF07. You can find it here.

Friday, June 08, 2007

SFF07 - Day 2 - Mel Lawrenz


Mel Lawrenz, the senior pastor of Elmbrook Church, spoke in our evening plenary session on “Building a Whole Church.” Mel talked about Paul’s emphasis of following the pattern laid out for us in becoming like Jesus. He described spiritual formation as a “progressive patterning of our inner and outer life through intentional means of spiritual growth.” In the context of a local church, Mel discusses the fragmentation that he sees in his church and the Church at large. These are moments of self-oriented living and acting in order to secure what ‘I’ want. He encouraged us as leaders to look for those moments of cohesion that can be celebrated and used as momentum in Kingdom work. He had four main questions for us and the church are we (1) engaging with God, (2) engaging with God’s people in true koinonia, (3) engaging with the Community, and (4) engaging with the World. Mel defined engagement as “a bringing together of God’s supply with our human need.”

SFF07 - Day 2 - Scot McKnight


This morning Scot McKnight gave an address entitled “Robust Gospel, Robust Spiritual Formation.” Scot argued that the American Evangelical church has over emphasized one piece of the gospel (personal reconciliation with God) and has missed the entire gospel. Consequently, we present an individualistic gospel with individualistic results that make the church irrelevant. Scot said that the real message of the gospel is that “God takes cracked Eikons and makes them whole again.” Scot used basketball as an analogy contrasting individualistic versus communal spiritual disciplines. He said that it is the difference between practicing shooting free throws versus practicing passing the ball. Rightly understood, McKnight argued, the gospel will draw us into the perichoretic dance of the Trinity.

One-on-One with Scot McKnight

I had the opportunity to visit with Scot one-on-one for about an hour after the plenary session. I wanted to know from him what his thoughts were regarding the transformation of an established church from a traditional, organizationally minded orientation towards a formation/missionally minded orientation. He encouraged me to find those people in the church who desire something different, and to begin to do life with them in a way that doesn’t destroy the rest of the church. Big challenge! He also encourage me not to allow myself to become bitter or angry about feeling stuck. Scot commented that he had seen this happen with emerging/missionally minded people who felt stuck in their situation. He encouraged me that I am in the time of life to take risks in order to move towards something new. We also had an interesting discussion about the “New Perspective” on Paul which has been more recently adapted by N.T. Wright.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

SFF07 - Day 1 - David Johnson


This week I am at the Midwest Regional Conference for the Spiritual Formation Forum. We are meeting at Elmbrook Church in the Milwaukee area. I am planning on posting a summation of the content of the plenary sessions from each day, and perhaps my own reflections and wonderings based upon my time this week.

On Wednesday evening, we heard from David Johnson, senior pastor of Church of the Open Door in Minneapolis, MN. Dave called us to the development of the interior life as the goal and focus of our life and ministry. "This isn't about spiritual formation as the next big thing, it is about life and death." Dave used the story of Samson as an illustration of a person who had a powerful anointing of the Spirit for the purpose of setting Israel free from ####### to the Philistines, but he didn't have the character to carry the anointing well. Dave said, "If you don't have the internal strength to carry the weight of the anointing, it will crush you eventually."

'Formation of the interior life in community' sounds scarry to most of us who have entered or are currently in an evangelical church. The messy work of the formation of our character brings us to a place of discomfort simply by the introduction of the idea. I don't want to have to really look at the way that I do life because I know that I am going to find areas that look less like love, joy, peace, patience, etc. and more like pride, jealousy, anger and bitterness. So while I profess to love Jesus, his love is not having a shaping impact on my internal world in a way that fleshes itself out in my everyday life.

So, what if we stopped 'doing' church as a way to provide goods and services for consumers and began to 'be' the church as a formed community called into the world on mission with God? How would that change the way that we do the organzational life of the church? How would that change the way that we do our life at home, work, with family and neighbors?

Dave concluded his talk with this question: "What do you want?" What do I want? Do I want more program driven, church activity that draws a crowd? Or, do I want the life that Jesus offers those who become his apprentices and are drawn into community together. Jesus said that it is possible to have his life in us, can you imagine? Really...the Father in Jesus, Jesus in the Father, the Father and Jesus in us through the presence of the Spirit who is in them...really?
That sounds like life to me, and want that! I want that for my family! I want that for the church!