2 Cautions for the Spiritual Formation Conversation

At the Center for Faith and Culture, we are excited to enter into a season with an increased focus on spiritual formation as the foundation for anything we do to engage with culture. As we interact in any sphere of culture, we need to be formed by the Spirit into the likeness of Christ. So throughout the year, as we discuss economics and technology and so many other important topics, we don’t want to lose sight of the fact that before we can do this work, we must grow in Christlikeness.

Trevin Wax is right; there’s a big wave coming if it isn’t already here. Everyone is talking about spiritual formation. As Brad East points out, young adults read John Mark Comer like my college ministry friends and I devoted ourselves to John Piper. There’s a thirst and a drive for spiritual formation, ritual, and liturgy. I’m excited about what this means for the church. It could be a phenomenal push for holiness, knowing God, and experiencing him deeply.

Mysticism

But we should also be wary of the temptation to feel like we need to escape our embodiment and run away from living our actual lives. If we say that silence and solitude are essential to the Christian life, what does that say to the stay-at-home mom of several toddlers? I’ve lived this life. There’s no silence. There’s no solitude. This message to me felt like condemnation, like I couldn’t really live a spiritual, Christian life.

Instead, I want to point us toward the work of the Spirit in our natural human lives. We don’t have to run away from the responsibilities God has put before us to be formed by the Spirit. When we don’t see the Spirit’s work in and through our very human responsibilities, it leads to a disconnect between what we do in our worship services on Sunday mornings and what we do the rest of the week. It leads us to think that my “quiet time” is when the Holy Spirit forms me; the rest of my time isn’t connected to him.

What we don’t want is a formation of the Spirit that discounts our embodied humanity and what it means to be truly human. I’ve already mentioned that one example of this, silence and solitude, is often not possible (and not just for the mom of toddlers). An emphasis on spiritual formation and mysticism seems to go hand in hand. We don’t need to seek mystical experiences to experience God; he’s right here. We don’t ascend to him; he came down to us.

Do More, Be Better

The spiritual formation movement has also promoted a series of practices that lead to being spiritually formed. If you have the right rule of life, or if you plan for productivity in your Christian life, or if your church would only realize that they need a formal liturgy, you would be formed spiritually. (Though the definition and goal are often nebulous.)

And maybe you would.

But there’s also a temptation to overstructure and overplan our spiritual lives, to put life in my control so I don’t need God. Some versions of this plan don’t rely on the Spirit at all, but on our fleshly self-control for behavior change.

Some say that if I input the rule of life + digital minimalism, then my output will be a better spiritual life. While spiritual formation practices and church participation are essential to the Christian life, we can’t reduce being formed by the Spirit to a formula. My life in Christ is a work of the Spirit, not a work that I can control and plan.

I like to call this the “do more, be better” version of the gospel. You’d grow in Christ if you’d just get the right combination of practices settled, or if you scheduled your day and week in the right way. It’s just not what God promises to us. While the Christian life isn’t mystical, it is of the Spirit, and we can’t control the Spirit any more than we control the wind.

The Christian Life

Our life in Christ is neither overly mystical nor overly in my flesh. The Christian life involves growing in the life of Christ, the Son of God, who became human for us. It is life by the Spirit, who gives us new life and nourishes us to mature life.

The Spirit empowers us. We participate.

I’m excited about our focus on spiritual formation. We know that the inner life of the Christian is the foundation for the public life of the Christian. We’re excited to explore this inner life in greater depth so that as we become more like Christ, we can share his gospel with greater clarity. But we approach these conversations knowing that the Spirit doesn’t just work in the mystical moments; he works in the normal, mundane parts of our lives.