One of the hats I wear is as “Pastor at Large” of the Carey Group. While the title sounds exotic, I’m not sure any of us really know what it means, but in practice I get to speak into and participate in the life of Carey at a meaningful level. It’s an enormous privilege. We usually choose a theme for each year – something that identifies where we will place special attention, and this year the focus is on formation. It’s a choice that delights me.
Why?
Well, it’s not claiming a static “formed” – as though we have arrived and now need simply to bunker down, showing everyone we are right. It is a process that is underway. It doesn’t belittle or diminish what has been achieved, but nor is it arrogant. We are not where we want to be – formation is still underway. It’s the Phil 3:12 idea: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” I press on, and on, for I am in formation.
Christian formation faces many challenges. The simple reality is that we are all in the process of being formed. Every day a tsunami of events and opinions confront us. Many urge us to be fearful or judgmental, others urge us to be self indulgent, even self obsessed, many urge us to be small, indignant, and petty. You hear them over and over, and slowly but surely they start to form you. The trouble is that they are forming you away from the image of Christ.
In my devotions I am currently reading through the letters of John. Todays dynamic challenge came from 1 John 2:6 “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” It’s pretty challenging. It’s not a soft suggestion (“perhaps you could consider”) but a confronting, “must live”… and that in an age when we are told we mustn’t tell anyone what they must do! And if the must is tough enough, the height of the challenge is even more so… “must live as Jesus did.” Wow – well I might not fully achieve that by Friday, but it is a lofty goal.
Living like Jesus did has many confronting aspects… it’s being outwardly tilted, it’s being God focused, it’s seeing others deeply, it’s living with challenging demands on time and energy, it’s spotting the outsider and the vulnerable, it’s thinking in fresh and different ways, it being willing to challenge, it’s speaking words of hope, it’s getting your hands dirty, it’s servant leadership, it’s being misunderstood, it’s turning water into wine, and it’s walking on water. It’s not just outside of my comfort zone, it is also way outside of my ability. But… “whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” Jesus lived in close dependence upon God. We must hold to the Zec 4:6 principle: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.” And that is so much easier to say, than to do.
But let’s not make it so hard that we are let off the hook. If I am being formed more into the image of Christ, what markers should I look for? Perhaps take the year on year test – in what way during the last year was I more outwardly tilted and God focused? Did I see others more deeply, was I open to demands on my time and energy? Who did I spot on the outside? Which vulnerable people did I seek to support… and so on.
It’s good to do this. Formation is not meant to leave you feeling slightly guilty and filled with excuses (“If only you would set a lower bar. Instead of being more like Jesus, could I perhaps be more like Peter – having the occasional meltdown and spectacular failure?”). Rather it should inspire us. I’m still in formation – keep pressing on.
If it’s not formed but forming, it’s as well to look at the other options in this posts title – reforming and deforming.
In the process of formation you sometimes look at things as they are, shake your head, and say simply, “Only one option for this. It must be reformed.” And then you scrunch it up, and start again. As a writer, I know all about that. It’s always annoying. There might be a few things that remain, but often you start again from scratch. When you reform, you work with the same material, but you shape it differently. You re-form it.
The church has often had to do this. Take the way it has worked with power. There have been terrible periods when it has used its power to control and coerce. It has tried to force conformity, and has sometimes attempted to gain converts at the point of a sword. It has always been disastrous. But when it has used the power of its resources on behalf of others – the re formation has often been staggering in its impact and beauty. Most positive societal reforms have, in one way or another, been linked to a spiritual renewal that has overflowed into society. True, there are a few exceptions, but a thoughtful reading of history will confirm that the “most” word is justified. When the church is open to reformation, extraordinary things can happen.
Sadly, formation can go badly wrong. I still think that though my book When Faith Turns Ugly, has sold less than my others, it’s message is really important. When faith justifies escapism, or when church communities become ghettoes of irrelevance, or echo chambers of thoughtless conformity, formation has morphed into deformation. We become an ugly caricature of what we are supposed to be.
Don’t think that faith can’t deform. Jesus noted how often it did! He accused the religious leaders of his day of being blind guides and terrible hypocrites. Matt 23 makes for very uncomfortable reading. The trouble is that every budding pharisee started out with enormous promise and enthusiasm. Somewhere in their journey they started to worry more about how things looked that about how they actually were. When formation is about how I look rather than about who I am becoming, formation deforms, and we all become less as a result.
But let’s not end with the caution. Yes, faith can turn ugly, but genuine formation doesn’t travel that path. Rather than veer away from the challenge of 1 John 2:6, it leans into it. “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” Note and question to self: John has been audacious enough to suggest that I must live as Jesus did. Actually, he didn’t suggest it. He put it in the must category. What will obedience to that “must” look like this week? In trying to live out an answer to that question, formation gets underway…
Nice chatting…
Photo by Tobias Bjørkli on Pexels.com
Please widen the reach of this blog by subscribing and by forwarding and reposting. You are free to reproduce material from the blog with acknowledgment of its source.
