This piece was originally published as a Substack newsletter on October 3, 2023.

If you are reading what I’m sending out around here you will have read recently that I am in my first semester pursuing a M.A. in Christian Spiritual Formation and Leadership from Friends University. There has been some interest among readers in my decision to pursue this course of study, so it seems appropriate to discuss it further. Besides, all Christians should care about Christian spiritual formation (CSF).

I don’t remember where I first heard the term “Christian spiritual formation,” but I’ve been interested in the basic concept for years. I have a 20th anniversary edition of Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline that I purchased and read in the late nineties or early aughts. In the years since, I’ve read several other books on the spiritual disciplines and practices, especially prayer. More recently, I’ve been reading and listening to John Mark Comer, whose Practicing the Way ministry is all about following Jesus via spiritual practices.

However, spiritual formation is about more than just practices such as Bible reading, prayer, fasting, and corporate worship. Everyone everywhere is being formed one way or another. The things we expose ourselves to on a daily basis, our family, our culture, and more all make us who we are. Dallas Willard, prolific author on CSF and a father of the current CSF movement, writes “The human spirit is an inescapable, fundamental aspect of every human being; and it takes on whichever character it has from the experiences and the choices that we have lived through or made in our past. That is what it means for it to be ‘formed’” (Renovation of the Heart, 13). 

With CSF the ultimate goal is to become more like Jesus. In Comer’s ministry the goal is to “be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and to do what he did.” That’s a great summary of the end game of CSF.

And for the true follower of Jesus, it is not optional. Willard says, “Spiritual formation is not something that may, or may not, be added to the gift of eternal life as an option. Rather, it is the path that the eternal kind of life from above naturally takes. It is the path one must be on if his or hers is to be an eternal kind of life” (Renovation of the Heart, 59). This brings to mind Jesus’s words in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” There is a single-minded focus on knowing and becoming like Jesus in Christian spiritual formation.

My increased interest in CSF–beyond reading a book here and there and my own spiritual practices–has come out of my life experience in recent years. As I’ve dealt with some hard things and observed our “Christian culture” here in the U.S. I’ve been asking questions such as:

• Why do Christians who are highly moral and have attended church their entire lives not demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit more consistently?
• Why do Christians often prioritize doctrine and theology over love of God and neighbor?
• Why do many Christians tend to equate political ideology with faith? Why do they care more about politics and the “kingdom of man” than the Kingdom of God? Why do they so often conflate the two?
• Why do young people raised in church leave the faith?

These and more questions related to CSF have plagued me for the past seven years, and it is my hope that my studies provide understanding and the means to be a force for positive change within my own context.

I learned about the Friend’s program because a couple of writers I’ve followed and read for years have completed it. One in particular, Lore Wilbert, regularly wrote about and shared on social media how much she loved the program, and that was the impetus for my applying. Fewer than forty students are accepted per cohort, so my being admitted was not a given. I applied and prayed that God’s will be done, and here I am almost finished with my first class. It hasn’t been easy. I am rusty! The reading and writing take a lot of time and determined attention—not easy for someone recently diagnosed with ADHD! But it has been good, and I’m beginning to get some answers to my questions.

For example, in today’s lecture, our program director said that if we don’t have the right narrative in place, the practices will shape us in the wrong direction. That resonated with me and can conceivably speak to all four of my questions. Narratives will be discussed in the class that begins on October 16.

If you are interested in learning more about CSF, Practicing the Way or Willard’s Renovation of the Heart (both linked above) are good places to begin. I’ve been listening to the Practicing the Way podcasts chronologically from the beginning, and they are excellent. The audiobook for Renovation (read by the author) is available for free with an Audible plan.