Spiritual Formation

Journey to the Centre of the Soul: A handbook for explorers by Andrew Mayes helps us to reflect on the challenges of relating our spirituality to the world in which we lives. Mayes notes the challenges of a society often in turmoil and placing many demands on our time.  He comments: “we live in a fragmenting world. Even within ourselves, we find ourselves pulled apart, caught up in a multiplicity of tasks, with so little time… caught between the commitment to help build Christian community and the call to solitude; pulled between the ‘desert’ and the ‘city’; falling between ideals of holiness and the reality of our fragility.”

Mayes recognises our desire to make a difference and all that God makes possible.

“The idea of spiritual formation emphasises that in prayer God wants to heal our dividedness, restore our unity, renew our wholeness in Christ. We need to be on the lookout both for signs of fragmentation, inner conflict and tension, and for signs of integration, evidences of things coming together, like the interweaving of strands in a Celtic design.”

“Spiritual formation invites us to be attentive to the impact of our prayer on our lifestyle and our lifestyle’s impact on prayer. It encourages us to explore the links between the way we pray and the way we live—to make connections between our experience in prayer and what happens to us in the world.”

All this is not easy, but it can make a valuable difference.

“Our potential and vocation is to be ignited by the Spirit, engulfed with his fire, radiant and ablaze with the Spirit himself, the divine flame. We need to allow ourselves to be scorched, singed, caressed by such a flame. In what ways have you experienced the fire of the divine Spirit in your life? Has this been a comforting or disturbing experience?”

Changing Churches

I recently read “Better Change in Church: when wholehearted commitment counts” by Rod Street and Nick Cuthbert. Street and Cuthbert offer some interesting and challenging insights on the question of managing change within the church community. Change is one of those things that we all tend to say we want, but many are less certain of the direction when it starts happening. However, change does – inevitably – take place and we need to embrace that, at least when we get it right.

As Street and Cuthbert remind us: “Change is a positive experience when led by God, but not a painless one. Resistance is normal. It is feedback on what people feel they are losing as they change. Leaders need to expect and recognise this. High emotions are normal. Without them people would not be changing. They should not be taken personally if you are the leader. People respond emotionally regardless of whether they are experiencing ‘good’ or ‘bad’ changes.”

One of the important things for church leaders is to help people with change. “Leaders must be able to listen, have open-minded discussions, and remind everyone of the value of what is happening. We have to be able to empathise with people and acknowledge their issues without losing our temper or being worn down.”

Street and Cuthbert identify the question of motives as critical.  I agree. Easily and frequently we focus on what we are doing. That is, of course, important. However, we need to dig deeper and think about what it is that is driving us. “The ‘what’ attracts interest. Yet it is the ‘why’ that attracts passion. ‘What’ attracts consumers. ‘Why’ attracts disciples. ‘What’ creates attraction which is easily lost. ‘Why’ creates loyalty which is hard to lose.”

Change for change’s sake is rarely good and, even more rarely, goes well. Good change does require careful negotiation. It can mean that we need to challenge people, but we certainly also should listen to them. Getting the right changes is always going to be challenging, but we need to remember that it can have immense results. Street and Cuthbert again: “If we give people what they want, we will usually end up being ineffective but if we ask why, then we may end up being very creative. As Henry Ford said, ‘If I had given people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.’”

21st Century Lessons

I recently read Yuval Noah Harari’s “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” – a fascinating read. He explores various of the challenges of our time, but I was particularly struck by a couple of comments near the end of the book, one about humility and the other concerning suffering.

“Humans of all creeds would do well to take humility more seriously. And among all forms of humility, perhaps the most important is to have humility before God. Whenever they talk of God, humans all too often profess abject self-effacement, but then use the name of God to lord it over their brethren.”

“The most real thing in the world is suffering. When you are confronted by some great story, and you wish to know whether it is real or imaginary, one of the key questions to ask is whether the central hero of the story can suffer.”

Basically the book is a series of 21 essays on contemporary issues, and it certainly offers some interesting thinking around what gives meaning to life. I certainly go for the thought that we could do with more humility and also the importance of facing the questions posed by suffering.

Sleepwalking

I enjoyed reading Judy Hirst's A Kind of Sleepwalking, a gentle, yet provocative challenge against sleepwalking through life. She reminds us that bad stuff happens - "Suffering arrives, shattering and unravelling our world: jolting us awake. This is an awful, painful place, yet somehow we need to be able to recognise that it is at these moments when we can in fact move forward, but it is difficult because in pain we struggle to find the capacity to deal with what is happening."

With a mix of reflecting on life and Scripture, we are helped to think about what really matters - "We have limited control over the circumstances of our lives and that is the hard truth. What we do have, though, is the choice in every circumstance of suffering to shape our attitude to it; to hand it over to God or to withhold it from him. To trust him with it or to give up hope."