an agenda for "spiritual formation"

After blogging on its importance, here's Richard Foster in CT with some vision and strategies. These are excerpts from a "condensed and edited version" of a talk he gave given at a conference on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of his classic book, Celebration of Discipline...

First, the problem-- and some of its underlying causes:

Our world today cries out for a theology of spiritual growth that has been proven to work in the midst of the harsh realities of daily life. Sadly, many have simply given up on the possibility of growth in character formation.

Vast numbers of well-intended folk have exhausted themselves in church work and discovered that this did not substantively change their lives....

Still others have a practical theology that will not allow for spiritual growth. Indeed, they just might see it as a bad thing. Having been saved by grace, these people have become paralyzed by it. To attempt any progress in the spiritual life smacks of "works righteousness" to them....

Finally, a general cultural malaise touches us all to one extent or another....how completely we have become accustomed to the normality of dysfunction....

Then, to the calling and vision:

Yet echoing through the centuries is a great company of witnesses telling us of a life vastly richer and deeper and fuller. In all walks of life and in all human situations, they have found a life of "righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17). They have discovered that real, solid, substantive transformation into the likeness of Christ is possible....

Thirty years ago, when Celebration of Discipline was first penned, we were faced with two huge tasks: First, we needed to revive the great conversation about the formation of the soul; and second, we needed to incarnate this reality into the daily experience of individual, congregational, and cultural life. Frankly, we have had much greater success with the first task....It's the second task that needs to consume the bulk of our energies for the next 30 years....

Then, a caveat:

One critical reminder...Spiritual formation is not a toolkit for "fixing" our culture or our churches or even our individual lives. Fixing things is simply not our business. So we stoutly refuse to engage in formation work to "save America from its moral decline" or to restore churches to their days of past glory or even to rescue folk from their destructive behaviors. No! We do spiritual formation work because it is kingdom work. Spiritual formation work is smack in the center of the map of the kingdom of God....

How to accomplish this "heart work"?

It is imperative for us to help each other in every way we can. And in our day, the desperate need is for the emergence of a massive spiritual army of trained spiritual directors who can lovingly come alongside precious people and help them discern how to walk by faith in the circumstances of their own lives.

Please note that I said "trained" spiritual directors and not "certified" spiritual directors.

There is a genuinely bad idea circulating these days that if we take a certain number of courses and read a certain number of books and receive a certain kind of certification, we will be ready to be spiritual directors. I'm sorry; I really do wish it were that simple. But no, we are here talking about life training. And it is only by life training that we will see the development of a certain kind of life, a life of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit....

Some other contextual concerns:

First, we have in our churches a "hurry sickness."...But spiritual formation work simply does not occur in a hurry. It is never a quick-fix deal. Patient, time-consuming care is always the hallmark of spiritual formation work.

Another contextual situation we face is the fact that we now have a Christian entertainment industry that is masquerading as worship....

A third issue: We are dealing with an overall consumer mentality that simply dominates the American religious scene....