Christian Educator's Handbook on Spiritual Formation

Description

Provides the help Christians need to understand and pursue spiritual growth.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 février 1998
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441215338
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

1994 by Kenneth O Gangel and James C. Wilhoit
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without prior written permission from the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-1533-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations arc from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Other quotations are from The New King James Version ( NKJV ). © 1979, 1980 1982. Thomas Nelson, Inc. Publishers; the New American Standard Bible ( NASB ), © the Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977; J.B. Phillips: The New Testament in Modern English ( PH ), Revised Edition. © J.B. Phillips, 1958, 1960, 1972, permission of Macmillan Publishing Co. and Collins Publishers; the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible ( NRSV ), © 1989 by the Directors of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America; and the Authorized King James Version ( KJV ).
The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.
CONTENTS
COVER
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
INTRODUCTION 1 What Is Spiritual Formation? John M. Dettoni 2 Spiritual Formation in the Early Church Craig A. Blaising 3 Salvation and Spiritual Formation Robert P. Lightner 4 The Puritan Model of Spiritual Formation Leland Ryken 5 Counterfeit Spirituality Timothy R. Phillips & Donald G. Bloesch 6 God Is Most Glorified in Us When We Are Most Satisfied in Him John Piper 7 Longing for Eden and Sinning on the Way to Heaven Larry Crabb 8 Spiritual Formation through the Liturgy Lynn C. Bauman 9 Spiritual Formation through Public Worship Kenneth 0. Gangel 10 Living and Growing in the Christian Year D. Bruce Lockerbie 11 Nurturing the Spiritual Lives of Teachers Robert W. Pazmiño 12 Principles of Church Renewal Alan Schreck 13 Teaching Scripture Intake Donald S. Whitney 14 Following the Lord’s Pattern of Prayer James C. Wilhoit 15 Teaching People to Pray T.W. Hunt 16 The Imitation of Christ: Means and End of Spiritual Formation Robert P. Meye 17 Personal Healing and Spiritual Formation Leanne Payne 18 The Spirit Is Willing: The Body As a Tool for Spiritual Growth Dallas Willard 19 Spiritual Formation in Children Robert Clark 20 Spiritual Formation of Adolescents James Bryan Smith 21 Spiritual Formation in Older Adults Beth E. Brown 22 Spiritual Formation through Small Groups Peter V. Deison 23 The Family As a Context for Spiritual Formation Ronald T. Habermas 24 The Pietistic Tradition in Evangelical Spirituality: A Bibliographic Essay Lyle W. Dorsett 25 Annotated Bibliography of Resources James C. Wilhoit
REFERENCES
NAME INDEX
SUBJECT INDEX
SCRIPTURE INDEX
CONTRIBUTORS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BACK COVER
INTRODUCTION
Ninety years ago with the founding of the Religious Education Association (REA), a clear call was issued for a new approach to religious education. Many people followed that call and sought to correct some of the perceived abuses in the Sunday School model of Christian education. Some of these correctives, like the criticism of rote memorization without understanding and a naive connection between nationalism and Christianity, were on target. However, the modern religious education movement brought in its train a whole host of presuppositions and problems. Among them was the humanizing of the field of Christian/religious education. Much damage has come to the teaching ministry of the church through the liberal assumption that learning of religious subjects was entirely analogous to the learning of similar content in everyday life and that religious learning was largely a cognitive and mildly affective affair.
The naturalistic assumptions set forth by the REA (which became part of the very fabric of our culture) have certainly influenced many religious educators. The implicit goal for many Christian educators was the efficient transmission of religious information. The main variables the educator sought to alter were: (1) the efficiency of this information transmission, and (2) the learner’s positive affect toward the material.
The writers in this volume are diverse in their church affiliations and intellectual training, but they share a commitment to nurturing Christians in a holistic way. To see the contrast between those who might view Christian education as a sophisticated form of religious information management and transmission, these writers speak about education as a means of receiving God’s transforming grace. They see nurture as a way to establish the Christian symbolic system in a learner. They believe learning should imitate the devotional lifestyle of Christ as a means of transformation. Consider a few important commonalities amid the diversity.
1. The authors acknowledge the inability of a teacher to ultimately change a learner. They view learning as an invitation to a lifestyle and to a way of living, but acknowledge that ultimately the responsibility of learning lies with the student. This stands in contrast to the “social engineering,” confidence in the teacher’s knowledge, and personal efficacy that so often accompanied the old paradigm of teaching.
2. The authors see the direct connection between the person of the teacher and the outcome of the teaching. The words of Jesus, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40), seems to overshadow every chapter. Religious instruction is not viewed here as a subject that could be carried out irrespective of one’s faith commitment, but rather essentially linked to the individual person.
3. The authors who wrote these chapters see the need for learning to take place in a multiplicity of contexts, involving all avenues of learning. Without any denigration of the human intellect and analytic facilities, they celebrate what symbol, ritual, and community can teach.
4. The authors implicitly talk about a sacrament of learning. That learning becomes a way to receive God’s transforming power called grace that can strengthen and renew believers. Through teaching, students are encouraged to open themselves to God’s grace and thereby be changed. The time-honored analogy of teacher-as-midwife speaks to the humble and necessary role of those entrusted with spiritual formation.
This book represents a beginning. Evangelicals have not written as extensively on spiritual formation as they did in an earlier age. Other traditions have recently explored this area more exhaustively, and there is much wisdom to be found in their writings. We offer this volume as an alternative to a humanistic education which has robbed some churches of the ability to transform believers. We want to assist congregations in producing the kind of people who can witness to the world through both their words and the depth of their being. Our hope is that it will be used to educate and nurture believers in the process of spiritual formation.
James C. Wilhoit, Wheaton, Illinois
Kenneth O. Gangel, Dallas, Texas
ONE
WHAT IS SPIRITUAL FORMATION?
John M. Dettoni
Spiritual formation (of which nurture and discipleship are integral parts) is not just a new piece of cloth placed on old and worn-out garments of Christian education. Spiritual formation represents a radical paradigm shift, a new way of looking at the church’s ministry. Of course, this new paradigm can also be seen as a return to the original model to the nurturing patterns of the early church. Three elements mark the approach to Christian nurture and discipleship called spiritual formation: (1) it involves the whole church’s ministry; (2) knowledge is viewed as a means to Christian growth and never as an end in itself; and (3) there is a distinct accent on the work of God’s grace in the process of formation.
THE NEED FOR A UNIFIED MINISTRY OF SPIRITUAL FORMATION
Peter Benson directed a large research project, funded by the Lilly Endowment, which examined the effectiveness of Christian education at the congregational level. In the report of their findings he and Carolyn Eklin express a concern over the way Christian education is often seen as a separate entity of the church; their report asserts that it must be linked to other aspects of congregational life (Benson and Eklin, 1990, p. 67). In a summary of this report, Benson’s call for integrating Christian education into the life of the whole church was underscored: “Christian education cannot be set apart as a separate entity. … We cannot afford to merely tinker with Christian education; we must thoroughly restructure it …” (Youth Resources, 1990, p. 3).

Figure 1
The Lilly report provides a telling critique of the state of Christian education in mainline churches and, for those of us in evangelical churches, a word of warning. In the Benson and Eklin study 64 percent of the youth surveyed have an underdeveloped faith (underdeveloped faith was defined as being low on the vertical dimension of a “deep, personal relationship with a loving God”). Most discouraging, the largest percentage of adults in four of the five denominations studied had a poorly integrated faith (an integrated faith includes high levels of both vertical faith and horizontal faith actions of love, mercy, and justice) (Benson and Eklin, 1990, pp. 13–16).
Spiritual formatio