An Invitation to Group Spiritual Formation

by Pat O'DonelWriter Richard Foster once wrote,

“Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”

Another author, Henri Nouwen wrote,

“To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play.”

What might it mean for us to be people of depth in a world that begs us to be superficial? What could it mean to cultivate a rich inner life in a world that places such a high premium on external appearances and success?At St. Luke’s, we are a church that is deeply committed to loving and caring for the neighborhood in which we are situated, and extending the grace of God to all those around us. We are also a church that is strongly devoted to worshiping God corporately here on Sundays and having that worship extend into the rest of the week. However, in addition to these outward and upward facing dimensions of our faith, there is also an internal dimension which needs our attention. We were made to deeply know God as father, mother, creator, and sustainer; to know Christ as our Lord, brother, teacher, and friend; and to know the Spirit as comforter, counselor, helper, and wisdom. In order for us to maintain the outward mission of our church and to sustain the worshiping life of our church, we need to invest in our inner lives. However, investing in our inner lives is not just a means to some other external end, but is at the center of how God made us.Jesus said that the greatest command was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” In externally focused communities such as ours, it is easy to lose track of the last two words of this command where Jesus says “as yourself”. It is impossible to truly love God and hate ourselves, or to hate ourselves yet love our neighbors. This pre-suppositional “love of self” is not the “love” of self-help books and pop-psychology which surrounds us in our current cultural context, but is something much deeper. This “self-love” also does not preclude the necessity of sacrifice and suffering within the context of our spiritual journey at times. What it does have to do with is an understanding that we are made in God’s image, that we are his children, and that irrespective of our flaws, insufficiencies, and brokenness, that we are his beloved. What does it mean to grow into that identity of beloved? The scribes and pharisees wanted to know what the most important command was and what Jesus gives them is a cluster of commands and assumptions that are inseparable from one another. We need to love God with all that we are, and to love our neighbors, but we also need to be people of deep internal coherence, peace, humility, and self-knowledge if we are to live out these external commands in a sustainable and healthy manner.In the absence of such an inner life and appropriate love of self, it is too easy to experience Jesus’ yoke as hard and his burden as heavy. Think for a moment… Where are the spaces in your life that you are able to enter into Jesus’ words when he says,

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The answer to that question is probably different for every one of us, but the need for an answer is universal.Starting in the Easter season and running until the beginning of Pentecost, we will be starting a new small group which we are calling a Spiritual Formation Group as one potential answer to this question for this season. This is not a Bible study, though we will interact with scripture; nor is it a book club, though we will have a book as our guide; and it is not a class, though I hope that we will all learn a great deal from one another.The goals of this group are very simple and fundamental, even if they don’t sound particularly “practical” or “concrete”. We will walk with one another and encourage one another in a) gaining and walking into a deepened awareness of our relationship to God the Father as daughters and sons b) being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ and c) hearing and responding to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives. These might seem like ridiculously ambitious or obvious goals, and this would be true if we were trying to “accomplish” them in some sort of final manner, but our goal is not so much spiritual accomplishment but spiritual accompaniment. Consequently, primary posture of this group will be one of listening accompaniment. We will listen to one another and help one another to discern the voice of God in our respective lives. We will walk alongside one another as we cultivate our inner lives. We are not there to teach one another, to give advice to one another, to hold one another accountable, to counsel one another, to interpret the bible for one another, to be best friends with one another, to mentor one another, or to prove how “spiritual” we are to one another. We are simply there to be attentive to the presence of the Spirit in our day-to-day lives and to encourage one another as we seek to respond to invitations that we receive from God.So practically speaking, what does this look like?First, for seven weeks we will commit to a shared individual devotional life on a daily basis with brief scripture readings and prayers. This serves to give us a common point of reference for reflection and discussion when we gather together. This could take as little as 10 minutes a day or as much as an hour depending on how you interact with the resources.Second, we will gather once a week for a time of carefully structured prayer, worship, silence, reflection, and discussion. This will give us an opportunity to enter into each others journeys and to be present to one another as we step back from the hectic day-to-day realities of life to listen.Third, we will slowly grow in the knowledge and ancient practice of Spiritual Direction. However, whereas Spiritual Direction is usually a discipline practiced one on one with a professional Spiritual Director, in our case we will learn to utilize principles of Spiritual Direction, especially in the use of open-ended non-leading questions and times of purposeful silence. This practice greatly aids in the process of learning to truly hear ourselves and to hear the voice of God. To put it as simply as possible, group Spiritual Direction is about helping us pay attention together, to where God at work in each our lives.We will have an initial informational meeting after service on March 22nd where you can ask any questions that you have about the group. You can also feel free to email me at patodonel@gmail.com.Blessings,Pat