Comments on Lawrence W. Wilson: How People Grow

My thought is embarrassingly simple. I think the f...

2009-06-17T20:06:12.312-04:00

My thought is embarrassingly simple. I think the first thing is to experience an encounter with Jesus Christ. Once you have had one of these, you WANT to get into His Message, the Bible, and learn more about Him and possibly have another encounter with Him.
Then, you WANT to be in relationships with people who also have had encounters with Him. You also want to have relationships with those who haven't yet, so they can experience what you are going through.
You CRAVE accountability. You don't want to go back to where you were- where it seems God is not there.
Maybe that's something we need to do... pray for those life changing encounters with the Lord of the universe- the same One who died for us. I know I could use one of those encounters today.

I agree that expectation of change is critical. I ...

2009-06-13T07:19:03.802-04:00

I agree that expectation of change is critical. I think in many ways our expectation for churches has become that they are support groups for helping people cope with sin rather than places to seek and celebrate victory over it.

I recommend Dallas Willard's closing session a...

2009-06-12T08:31:22.856-04:00

I recommend Dallas Willard's closing session at the 2002 IVF conference. It really addresses some of these issues. You can listen here: http://media.intervarsity.org/grad/fc2002/fc2002_dallas_willard.mp3

Definitely agree with your comments, but I think that our expectation about change is the foundation for the other pieces, that a prerequisite for healthy spiritual formation is openness to change, a mindset that expects it. I believe that disciples, by definition, are called to a life of constant change. There is no growth without change. (Notice that this means that we should also expect pain.) Yet most of us are highly resistant to spiritual change, in part, I think, because of what we have been traditionally taught about Christianity and what it means to be a Christian. I also think that spiritual formation is hindered by the American attitude toward and understanding of pain, which has permeated the church as well.