By Jim Probst
At Eastview Christian Church (Bloomington, IL), we were searching for a way to convey spiritual formation to our congregation. For many, this would be a new idea. Others would see it as the next step in their journey. For all of us the right metaphor could frame a common experience with a common language.
Ultimately WALK was developed as a daily devotional, video teaching, and small group study.
In our church, which has grown well beyond 5,000 on a typical Sunday, this would be a major effort requiring coordination between church leaders and many departments. After months of praying, planning, and writing, we determined to develop a churchwide study through our small groups and Sunday services with one simple metaphor and a working definition of spiritual formation.
We chose the vivid word picture “walk,” masterfully expressed in the book of Ephesians seven times with the Greek term peripateo (2:2, 10; 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15) and 97 times throughout the New Testament. It is most often translated as “live” in the New International Version while the King James Version, New Kings James Version, New American Standard Bible, and English Standard Version translators chose the word walk to best convey the meaning. It literally means to make one”s way or to progress; to make due use of opportunities.
Our definition of spiritual formation originated with J.K. Jones Jr., our pastor of spiritual formation. This six-part definition is filled with terminology and theological implications that were once unarticulated and unfamiliar to our congregation. However, this past September we launched an all-church study that catapulted our congregation toward a common language, experience, and understanding of spiritual formation.
The basis for this study was this definition of spiritual formation, which was used as a simple outline for our book and teaching. Ultimately WALK was developed as a daily devotional, video teaching, and small group study based on the following chapters:
Week One: God the Holy Spirit Takes the Initiative
Week Two: Through Various Means
Week Three: In Cooperation with Our Response
Week Four: Changes Us to Look Like Jesus
Week Five: In Order to Serve Others
Week Six: To the Glory of God.
From September 23 through October 28, we introduced each week”s theme through initial teaching during the Sunday services. Our junior high, senior high, and college preachers all collaborated with our adult teaching team to develop age-specific teaching through these six segments of our spiritual formation definition. The imagery and language of WALK began to saturate our congregation and awaken each person to the awareness of God”s work and their availability in this partnership!
We wrestled with many questions as a small group ministry. Could our leaders successfully navigate the incredibly deep and wide topic of spiritual formation? Would our groups demonstrate the kind of “buy in” that we saw in previous church campaigns? Should we try to simply create a working definition and metaphor that would move participants long after the study to keep exploring? Could faithful members in our ministries be equipped and encouraged to walk in Christlikeness, or would we find they were simply preoccupied and content with “church-likeness” where the business and busyness of church life can unintentionally compete with Christ following?
Answering the Questions
We are still learning the answers to these questions. As I write this article, we have had approximately 3,500 people from junior high through the most elderly among us work through this six-week study. Our congregation has been systematically exposed to Sunday sermons, small group discussion guides, video teaching, and daily devotions all addressing this six-part definition through the metaphor of WALK.
It has been an absolute blessing to hear the vernacular of this definition work its way into conversations among our congregation. Even our stage, decorated with hundreds of pairs of shoes of every shape, size, and color, helped to cement this image in our minds! In six short weeks we had immersed ourselves in the study of how we “journey toward Christlikeness,” and the overwhelming feedback is that this conversation is just beginning!
This study has introduced our members to new holy habits and authors through the daily reading, application in the small group study, annotated bibliographical information for each topic, and an appendix that details a wide variety of spiritual disciplines. Our hope and prayer is that our leaders and members find themselves all the more intentional and equipped in their “journey toward Christlikeness.” In his book Shaped by the Word, M. Robert Mulholland Jr. notes, “The question is not whether to undertake spiritual formation. The question is what kind of spiritual formation are we already engaging in? Are we being increasingly conformed to the brokenness and disintegration of the world, or are we being increasingly conformed to the wholeness and integration of the image of Christ?” (pp. 25, 26).
By God”s grace, we are becoming more aware of the things that deform and conform. Our prayer is that we are growing up as a church (1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 3:18)!
Based on feedback from members, the self-assessment of those who developed the resources, and the measurable participation rate, it is clear this has been the most impactful study we”ve developed as a church. It is flawed (like its authors), but God has used it to help our congregation wade into the immense ocean of spiritual formation.
Jim Probst is pastor of small groups at Eastview Christian Church in Normal, Illinois.
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