Argument against growing

I hear many people talk about Church and doing "spiritual things" in terms of what they get out of it.

"I go to worship to get fed." 

"I meditate to become calm."

"I give my time to feel like I make a difference."  

There is nothing wrong with these motivations, however they are rather superficial and very self-centered.  We do things in order to "get something" out of them and when we no longer get something out of them (say worship) we stop and seek something else that we can get our "need" met.

It makes sense and is logical.  We do spiritual practices in order to become better people.  

That is fine, but I am not sure it is what Jesus taught.

Jesus did not teach the disciples to pray in order to become better people.  Jesus did not attend worship to feel connected to God.  Jesus did not fast in order to feel humbled and realize how frail we are when we are alone.  

Perhaps contrary to popular understanding, Jesus did not do or teach the disciples to become better people.  Jesus did not teach a moral code that would help people improve their lives, get to heaven or have better self-confidence.  

The message of Jesus has little to do with becoming a better version of you.

Spiritual practices/Jesus/Christianity have everything to do with learning to die to yourself. 

If we are seeking out prayer or worship or meditation or fasting in order to get something out of it, then we are really not learning what is intended.  We are still seeking to become better versions of ourselves.  We are seeking a version 2.0 of ourselves rather than a whole new operating system.

When we discover the "goal" of Christianity has more to do with something larger than ourselves then we are beginning to understand why spiritual practices matter.

If you are seeking to become a better person, I know that Christianity can help in some ways.  However, if we are content at "arriving" at being better people then we will always miss the larger point of Christianity and we will always be on the look out for the next spiritual thing that will "fulfill" our need.

Another reason I prefer dialog sermons

Tony Jones spoke at a convention hosted by Brite Divinity School in the fall of 2010.  He spoke about how Christians in the west have done a wonderful job at abdicating hermeneutical authority to pastors and minsters for generations.  This has resulted in a Christianity that is heavily dependent upon a "good" minister or pastor in order to help people "understand" the scripture and teachings of Christ.  Effectively leaving full grown adults stunted in spiritual maturity because we have not taught people how to interpret scripture or the message of Jesus for themselves.

I mean why take the time when the minster is going to do that during the sermon anyway?

I know there are many people who do take time with scripture each day and wrestle with it.  I do know there are people for whom the Christian label is vital to their existence.  But I also know many people for whom that is not the case.  And sometimes I find myself in the latter group rather than the former group.

So for those of us who find ourselves lapsing in our spiritual disciplines, I offer up this metaphor to consider. It has helped me. 

No one pays a gym membership to work with a personal trainer only to watch the personal trainer lift weights and run on the treadmill.  No one expects to get into shape by only watching the "expert", the one who went to a special school, break a sweat as free weights are lifted over their head.

And yet many of us when we go to church and engage in worship do just that.  

We watch the "experts" work through the scriptures with little input.

Dialogical sermons are an opportunity for the minister to invite the members of the congregation to do some working out.  And even if there is not a physical dialog taking place in the sermon, there are a number of ways to engage people in the sermon moment.

May clergy in our beloved UMC across the world embrace once again spiritual formation that requires people to "work out" rather than just allowing people to watch us work out.  

Spiritual growth begins with a language change

Christians, myself included, love the word 'growth'.  We talk about growing churches.  The conference seeks ways to grow new churches.  We ask ministers about growing edges.  We provoke lay members to grow spiritually.  We talk about growing missionally and spiritually.  Growth is good.

The problem is growth tends to invoke other words like flourishing and larger or bigger or stronger or mature or just all together better.  Growth generally does not invoke words like cutting back or prune or stunt or even die.  So when we talk about spiritual growth we tend to look for things and ways that essentially allow us to keep our lives the way they are without having to give up much of anything we might consider 'growth'.

Spiritual growth becomes something for which something we pursue.  We seek out opportunities for spiritual growth in order to be wiser or stronger or more kind or loving.

And the fact of the matter is all that sounds really great and even sounds like something Christians should/would do.

I am not convinced that Christians should be seeking out spiritual growth.

It might serve the Christian better to identify that the growth that comes from individual discernment is indeed growth but it is growth that is ego oriented.  When we are seeking to grow ourselves then we are seeking to meet our own needs and desires.

Rather than talking about spiritual growth Christians might be better served to talk about spiritual formation.

Growth is a direct action verb.  We believe there are things that I do in order to grown my spirit.  On the other hand, Formation is a indirect action verb.  When we are in a formation process we identify there are variables that are outside our control and there are aspects of the process for which we might not ever choose to do on our own.

The Christian life is one of surrender to the Spirit of God.  We are called into being formed into disciples of Jesus Christ.  We are called to be involved indirectly with our maturation in that the Spirit of God the main shaper of our lives.

If we want to grow spiritually, then perhaps we should begin by asking ourselves, "Do I want to grow spiritually or do I want to be formed by God?"