This Might Be the Answer You Are Looking For
Our first discussion about our mission statement - intentionally connecting people to Jesus - began on June 16. Nearly two months of walking through a single word ‘intentional.’ Here is how we have said it repeatedly: We intentionally connect people to Jesus by having spiritual conversations with them, helping them connect to a community of Jesus followers, and walking with them as they form and live out their spiritual habits. Just three simple ideas:
Spiritual Conversations
Community Connection
Spiritual Habits
We have been hovering over that last one, spiritual habits. We talked briefly last week about 'what' spiritual habits are. Today we will finish our discussion on the ‘how’.
In his book, Transforming Discipleship, Greg Ogen wrote, "We have reduced the gospel to the eternal benefits we get from Jesus, rather than living as His students." Spiritual habits are the daily practices and rhythms of living as the students of Jesus.
While we could quickly come up with a list of practices that serve to formulate the framework of the disciplines, a good starting point is to think of the 12 core (not exhaustive) disciplines in three main categories; the inward, outward, and communal disciplines. For example, the inward discipline of prayer contrasts with the outward discipline of simplicity. Both prayer and simplicity would differ from the communal discipline of corporate worship. You get my point.
Some of these habits and rhythms will come more naturally and others will be more strenuous. I am a natural introvert with learned extroversion, so silence, solitude, and study are easier for me to focus on. Living in close community with others has been a discipline that I have had to practice with more intentionality.
An easy metaphor would be from the world of fitness. Imagine that you loved to run and when you thought about getting some exercise you naturally thought of running. You have the shoes, the shorts, and the many miles under your belt. You have invested time, energy, and resources to be a runner. Now imagine I ask you to attend a CrossFit boot camp (I have never done CrossFit, so go with me here). Quite different from running, though inclusive of it, the muscles we would train would not be the ones we are accustomed to using.
So it is with spiritual disciplines.
Certain habits or spiritual practices might have found a kind of natural place in your life and, over time, have matured (like how runners become capable of longer times and distances). At the same time, other muscles might have become atrophied or ignored altogether (think of the Crossfit example).
Now, this is just a brief skimming of the surface over the vast depth and endless exploration and practice of spiritual habits. Still, it brings us to an essential fork in the road as we conclude our last discussion on 'intentional.'
Below I will list twelve core spiritual habits, again not exhaustive, but four practices in each of our three main categories. I want to challenge you to consider and bluntly ask God which of the practices, while maybe not natural, are all the more necessary to focus on. He might surprise you in how He answers and that single prayer might be the start of a new beginning. It might be the answer you didn't know you were waiting for. It might be the answer to the problem you are dealing with. It might be God's answer to someone else's problem. It might be the answer to the world's problems.
Inward: prayer, meditation, fasting, study
Outward: simplicity, solitude, submission, service
Communal: confession, worship, guidance, celebration
I will close with a short and densely packed statement from Dallas Willard, "We have one realistic hope for dealing with the world's problems. And that is the person and gospel of Jesus Christ, living here and now, in people who are His by total identification found through the spiritual disciplines."
I hope you will join us this Sunday!
-Bradley