I'm still on Dallas Willard's The Spirit of the Disciplines. He makes the case that "the churches of the Western world have not made discipleship a condition of being a Christian." You can join a church with no requirement for growing in Christ. I hadn't thought about it that way, but that's probably what has created our "social club" Christians. It makes me wonder how it's different in the Eastern world, or if it is any different, and if so, how?

I think of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas and their senior pastor's insistence that when you become a member, you agree to support the church by your presence in worship, by giving in proportion to your income with the tithe as the goal, by being involved in some kind of Bible study, Sunday school class or prayer group, and by helping at least once a year in a mission/service project organized by the church. I've often heard the protest that if we "made" our members do those things, we would scare people away. But Church of the Resurrection is the largest United Methodist Church in our Conference, and while I don't have facts in figures in front of me, I think they are raising up more new pastors than any other church in our Conference.

Hmm... Dallas and Adam may be on to something here.

Peace, love and grace.

Practicing the With-God Life

Renovare talks about developing the "with God" life. The assignment this week was to pick a way to practice the comtemplative discipline. The exercise I chose asks you to read something on the spiritual life, but to read it to understand it. Rather it is to be read "with God," with the knowledge that God is in the room with me as I read. I am to find God in the reading. Hmmm...

Today I'm reading an excerpt from The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard. One of the things I've struggled with in my spiritual life is the feeling that my spirituality is too simplistic. I tend to take things literally and at face value. One of the things Willard says about Christian discipleship is that,

"The disciple of Jesus is not the deluxe or heavy-duty model of the Christian person--especially padded, textured, streamlined, and empowered for the fast lane on the straight and narrow way. He stands on the pages of the New Testament as the first level of basic transportation in the Kingdom of God."

This gave me a good laugh. As I read it, I had the thought that it's OK for me to be a jalopy for God! I'm not sure what I would pick today as basic transportation, but I like the image of an old Model A- or Model T-type car bumping down the road of life.

I may never be a spiritual giant, but I'm in the company of the early disciples who rarely understood, rarely "got it," and yet it is on them, and on me, that Christ has deigned to build the Church. And if you're reading this, then you're probably one, too.

Hang on! We're in for one heck of a good ride! Thanks be to God!

Peace, love and grace.