Finished Doug’s book Reimagining Spiritual Formation during the drive to Jackson (my mom, and others, still think that’s horrible, but…I’m doing good so far). Enjoyed reading about a community that is actually trying to put many of these new(and old) ideas into action, practicing their faith out on a day-to-day basis. Definitely good to hear about struggles, joys, disappointments and everything else. I’m looking forward to getting to hang out with some of the Solomon’s Porch folks in Nashville. There were many parts of the book I enjoyed, but I think I got the most out of the last 3 paragraphs…
“This book is primarily about one community and the practices of spiritual formation in it. But the creativity required to live an imaginative, experimental faith is not limited to what we do during our worship gatherings or Wednesday night dinners. Central to the types of spiritual formation discussed in this book is the need for us – not only our Solomon’s Porch community but the church as a whole – to become theological communities.
“The work of theology must happen in full community. Of course it must include the ideas of those who have come before us, but to simply accept the work of our forebears in the faith as the end of the conversation is to outsource the real work of thinking, and that turns theology into a stagnant philosophy rather than an active pursuit of how we are to live God’s story in our time. The communities that are best equipped for the task of spiritual formation in the post-industrial age are those who make the practice of theology an essential element in their lives together. This is in no way a call to be less theological, but a call to our communities to be more involved in the work of theology as a necessary part of the spiritual formation process.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the task of both the new convert to Christianity and the experienced Christian was understood as not only believing the things of Christianity, but also as contextualizing, creating, articulating, and living the expressions of faith in their world? New Testament Christians lived it with the debate about how non-Jews would be called to live as followers of Jesus. The early Christians ultimately were called to a kind of spiritual formation that allowed Gentiles to fully follow Jesus in ways that were culturally appropriate to Gentiles. I am confident that we too will gradually move beyond the pre-industrialized approach of spiritual formation to one that better fits our own time.”
Thank you Doug. I wish you had gone on for a few more chapters about these ideas…maybe next time…