SYLVANUS GATORWU
October 24, 2019
THEO5223.01 Spiritual Formation
Professor Sanejo Leonard
Spiritual
Formation Plan
The role of Spiritual
Formation in the Church. The role of Spiritual Formation in the church cannot
be overemphasized. Diane Leclerc says one cannot have God as their father
unless they have the church for their mother, stressing the need for one to be
in a church.[1]
This implies that if Spiritual Formation is well inculcated in the Church, it
would make the process of discipleship more complete. Akerlund supports this
idea by saying, “Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a church
to raise a disciple”.[2] Spiritual formation thus becomes a
church-community practice where leadership takes center stage and the member
follows suite.
How discipleship intersects with Spiritual Formation
Writing on Spiritual Formation in the
church, Ruth Haley Barton et al postulates that the church is the place where
each member is to be held, supported and made to grow each member in “their
relationship to God for the fulfillment of their God-given mission”[3].
Therefore, if the church succeeds in building an effective Spiritual Formation
process as part of discipleship, it will inure to the benefit of its members as
they would grow to support each other. Willard Dallas says to get as many
people into heaven, there is the need to also get heaven into as many people as
we want to get into heave, calling it “full-throttle discipleship to Jesus
Christ.”[4]
This makes discipleship and spiritual formation process an interwoven process
which cannot be separated. The latter however making the former much more
effective. Willard puts discipleship at the first step in God’s plan for
spiritual formation.[5]
Writing on Spiritual formation at the Graduate School of Clinical Psychology at
the Gorge Fox University, Rodger K Bufford et al mention that Spiritual
formation was interwoven with curricular and other activities to develop
Christian character.[6]
A practical guide for Spiritual
Formation implementation.
Implementing a Spiritual Formation process or guide
will involve disciplines. The first step will include making members see that
they need to be like Christ. This is the beginning of discipleship. Beard sees
this as key to the success of missions and church[7]
Next, the members to go through
the process must come to a point in their discipleship where they understand
that there is the need for every disciple to “upgrade” their Christ-like nature
by going through disciplines. This will make all members grow a will to partake
in the disciplines that are about to be unfolded to them. This should involve
all members at all levels. Jin Ki Hwang says of Paul in “spiritual formation
and storytelling” that the spiritual formation of his members was something he
followed through for members at all levels.[8]
The third step for implementing a
spiritual formation in any group should involve the practicing of disciplines.
These practices should be so done that becoming like Christ is not the focus
but the outcome of the practices.[9]
The audience and context of the
student's church/ministry.
A spiritual formation plan for the
Prayer Force Department of my Church aims at helping the members of the department
to develop themselves. As Richard Foster said, “Spiritual formation is a
lifelong journey. The moment we received Jesus Christ is just the starting
point of this journey. We are not instantaneously released from the confinement
of the slavery of our sins. Sin is the natural motion and internal
structure of our lives. Launching an attack by means of willpower or
determination will just get us nowhere. All efforts will be in vain.”[10] This
process will help to sanitize the church of people who are ailing inside and
not having an opportunity to free their hearts of their burdens.
And I have noted with
concern the helpless state of some of these “Prayer warriors”. They pray a lot,
but also worry a lot. Many are dealing with terrible habits, others have
marital problems, some have health issues and too many times, they are given
hope of prophetic utterances that do not come to pass. The end result is that
they are very frustrated inside.
The aim of this plan first and foremost
is these members to appreciate the presence of God in difficult situations and
not live in a state of denial.
Secondly, as a praying
team, there is the tendency to be prayerful in the sense of just spending hours
in intercession, mostly praying in tongues. My aim with this plan is to bring
them to that point where they can develop themselves as individuals. And then
have time to speak to the Lord. As part of the plan, we shall be meeting every
Saturday for two hours i.e. from 9 – 11 GMT.
This plan will include
a number of aspects; spiritual, leadership, and physical
Spiritual:
We shall spend one hour together every Monday from 4:30 am to 5:30 am
Each member of the team is mandated to spend at least 30mins each dawn in
solitude and will share their experience with the rest of the team after church
every Sunday.
Leadership:
I shall make parts of a book on
spiritual formation available for members to read. We shall discuss this
portion for some minutes during our Saturday meetings.
Beginning the first Saturday in November
we shall be a two-hour meeting every Saturday. This meeting’s activities will
include some minute’s solitude, discussion on a portion of a book read. And
some minutes silence. A typical meeting will look like this.
|
9:00 – 9:30
|
9:30 – 10:00
|
10:00 – 10:45
|
19:45 – 11:00
|
|
Discussion of Book
|
Speaking to the Lord
|
45mins solitude practice
|
Corporate Prayer
|
Since some disciplines like fasting are
already familiar with members, they would be encouraged to practice other
disciplines such as solitudes in their own time, however, what shall be done on
Saturdays would be like a model that will guide them in their individual
practice.
The 15mins corporate prayer time will
include a little discourse before closing.
The Speaking to the Lord segment is to
give members the opportunity to also pour out their “frustrations, burdens and
need” before the Lord.
Physical
We shall take a quiet prayer walk
together on the last Wednesday of each month. This is something I have already
led the team to do twice.
During this walk, members shall meditate
and speak to the Lord.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Åkerlund, Truls. “‘To Live Lives Worthy of God’:
Leadership and Spiritual Formation in I Thessalonians 2:1–12.” Journal of Spiritual
Formation & Soul Care 9 (May 1, 2016): 18–34.
Beard, Chris.
“Missional Discipleship: Discerning Spiritual-Formation Practices and Goals
within the Missional Movement.” Missiology 43, no. 2 (April 2015):
175–194. Accessed October 10, 2019. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAn3800003&site=ehost-live.
Bufford, Rodger K,
Nancy Stiehler Thurston, Kathleen Gathercoal, Marie-Christine Goodworth, and
Lynn H Holt. “Spiritual Formation in the Graduate School of Clinical Psychology
at George Fox University.” Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care
11, no. 2 (2018): 296–313. Accessed October 24, 2019.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAiFZK181210001132&site=ehost-live.
Foster, R. Celebration
of Discipline. John Murray Press, 2012.
https://books.google.com.gh/books?id=QEYsw-PYukUC.
Hwang, Jin K.
“Storytelling and Spiritual Formation According to the Apostle Paul.” Journal
of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 9, no. 1 (2016): 35–53. Accessed
September 19, 2019.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAn3989311&site=ehost-live.
Willard, Dallas. Renovation
of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ. First Ed 1st Printing
edition. Colorado Springs, Colo: NavPress, 2002.
“Spiritual Formation :
A Wesleyan Paradigm.” Accessed October 24, 2019.
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzUyMDAzM19fQU41?nobk=y&sid=25817f4f-8c78-4dfc-bf1c-ac2336b4dfa8@sdc-v-sessmgr01&vid=6&format=EB&rid=1.
“Spiritual Formation in
the Church.” Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 7, no. 2
(2014): 292–311. Accessed October 24, 2019.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAn3836675&site=ehost-live.
[1] “Spiritual Formation : A Wesleyan
Paradigm,” 87, accessed October 24, 2019,
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzUyMDAzM19fQU41?nobk=y&sid=25817f4f-8c78-4dfc-bf1c-ac2336b4dfa8@sdc-v-sessmgr01&vid=6&format=EB&rid=1.
[2] Truls Åkerlund, “‘To Live Lives Worthy of
God’: Leadership and Spiritual Formation in I Thessalonians 2:1–12,” Journal
of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 9 (May 1, 2016): 20.
[3] “Spiritual Formation in the Church,” Journal
of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 7, no. 2 (2014): 292, accessed
October 24, 2019, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAn3836675&site=ehost-live.
[4] Dallas Willard, Renovation of the
Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ, First Ed 1st Printing edition.
(Colorado Springs, Colo: NavPress, 2002), 171.
[5] Ibid., 172.
[6] Rodger K Bufford et al., “Spiritual
Formation in the Graduate School of Clinical Psychology at George Fox
University,” Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 11, no. 2
(2018): 4, accessed October 24, 2019,
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAiFZK181210001132&site=ehost-live.
[7] Chris Beard, “Missional Discipleship:
Discerning Spiritual-Formation Practices and Goals within the Missional
Movement,” Missiology 43, no. 2 (April 2015): 2, accessed October 10,
2019,
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAn3800003&site=ehost-live.
[8] Jin K Hwang, “Storytelling and Spiritual
Formation According to the Apostle Paul,” Journal of Spiritual Formation
& Soul Care 9, no. 1 (2016): 47, accessed September 19, 2019,
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAn3989311&site=ehost-live.
[9] Willard, Renovation of the Heart,
172.
[10] R. Foster, Celebration of Discipline
(John Murray Press, 2012), 4,
https://books.google.com.gh/books?id=QEYsw-PYukUC.
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