Forward to the Basics: Spiritual Development
The path to spiritual development isn’t all that complicated. It’s the motivation to walk that path which tends to stymie people.
The path has three parts:
1. Teach the classical spiritual disciplines
2. Give people opportunities to employ those practices
3. See and celebrate transformation of life
One classical spiritual discipline is prayer, both corporate and personal, both rote and one-off. Prayer takes several forms, such as confession, petition, intercession, thanksgiving and praise. A balanced prayer life expresses all of these forms. They can be taught: by modeling, by instruction and by experience, especially in small groups and in spiritual direction.
Another spiritual discipline is giving. We will address stewardship in a separate piece. But this is where stewardship fits in overall church wellness: as a spiritual discipline, not as a ritual of belonging or as a financial obligation.
Another is worship, including not only the Sunday service that we know, but smaller occasions when we sit with others, or alone, and offer our lives up to God. Worship is more than 70 scripted minutes of singing, reading, listening and sharing communion. Worship is meant to be submission to God.
In all, we could identify perhaps a dozen spiritual disciplines that need to be learned and put into practice. The point is that spiritual development isn’t about getting good at Sunday worship and expert in prayer. Spiritual development is a life-long process of giving oneself to God in humility, gratitude, yearning and boldness. It is about giving one’s life to God. The spiritual disciplines are tools for doing that giving.
And that is where the rub lies. Not only do we resist giving our lives to God, but we resist any practice that doesn’t pay immediate and tangible benefits. We want to feel better after prayer. We want meditation to take us deep every time. We monitor our satisfaction with worship. We demand a say in how our stewardship commitment is spent. We want to bed thanked for self-sacrifice. We want God to be at our beck and call and the congregation to meet our needs. We want to gain something, not just give and give and give some more.
One obstacle in spiritual development, then, is self-centeredness.
A second obstacle is fear. We resist transformation of life both because any change frightens us and because transformation at God’s hand would lead us into paths of righteousness that take us far beyond our comfort.
A third obstacle is greed. We want control, we want to grow in financial security. Spiritual development would lead us in a different direction: letting go of control, engaging in radical generosity, being grateful and not triumphant.
The wise faith leader knows these obstacles and develops strategies for helping people move beyond them. One classic way beyond obstacles is mission. We shouldn’t do mission out of noblesse oblige and the ego-stroking that follows. We should do mission in order to get out of our own way and to make God our all in all – not safety, not wealth, not acclaim, not control, but God.
A second way beyond the obstacles is to be intentional about monitoring, measuring and celebrating transformation of life. What does the congregant do differently? Can they identify decisions they made differently, changes in spending, changes in activities, new relationships, a fresh awareness of life, improved attitudes, a sense of peace?
Each of those can be measured. Not that we should be giving each other grades. But if nothing changes in our lives as a result of our participation in church, what is the point? A balanced church budget is a poor substitute for a congregation filled with people whose lives are being transformed by God.
About the Author
Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the publisher of Fresh Day online magazine, author of On a Journey and two national newspaper columns. His website is Church Wellness – Morning Walk Media