Paul writes – Dallas Willard and Dieter Zander discuss “The New language of making Disciples (What is Spiritual Formation? And how does the Church do it?) in the summer 2005 issue of Leadership.
Willard
“Pastors need to redefine success. The popular model of success involves the ABC’s - attendance, buildings, and cash. Instead of counting Christians, we need to weigh them. We weigh them by focusing on the most important kind of growth – love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, kindness, and so on – fruit in keeping with the gospel and the kingdom.”
Zander
“…Spiritual formation – allowing the gospel to transform us internally so that we live differently externally.”
It’s a good conversation. Also in this issue is a very good introduction to spiritual formation entitled New Journeys on Well-Worn Paths by Eric Reed.
“Over and over I hear from younger Christians, Don’t give us cheap grace [i.e. Christianity-lite’]. Give us religion that costs us something.’…This desire to know “the tough tuff” of Christianity epitomizes what [Phyllis] Tickle (and others) see as a crevasse between the generations, not the typical generation gap, but a shift in worldview that requires a radically different approach to ministry.”
Reed explains well what I often struggle to weave into my conversations with many (but not all) in the post-50 age group, who don’t get that a radical shift in worldview has occurred and that than shift is calling forth a radically different approach to ministry, a radically different approach to being church.
I guess this inability to connect, to communicate meaningfully means there’s a lot of frustration on both sides; but what often happens is that the older age group keeps control (leadership, finances, holds back permission-giving, encouragement and encouragement etc), keeps doing church the way they’ve always done it. The pre-30’s never even go to church (many reasons, but one reason is, it doesn’t connect in any meaningful way with their worlds), and the post 40’s (but often still under 50) leave church, become believers who don’t belong (in any traditional sense) to church, i.e. they choose to live out a churchless faith.
So what does that leave in many established mainline Western churches? The very young and the very old!
Change needs to happen…new journeys need to be taken, new ways of walking and talking and doing church together need to be learnt (remember the rata tree story). I recommend reading and discussing Reed’s article as a good starting point (Sadly, I couldn’t find it online, however you may know someone who subscribes, or have access to a Theological / Bible College library.
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