The Christian Life: Singular Is Out, Plural Is In

February 2008

The 8th and last key to spiritual formation tells the truth that Christian spiritual growth happens best in community. For other keys visit baptistdigest.org. 

Amelia Earhart made flight history when in 1932 she flew solo from Newfoundland across the Atlantic, landed in Ireland, just short of Paris, her original target. We need determined individuals to pave the way forward. However, lest we forget, (and not to minimize Amelia’s feat) it took hundreds of years of trial and error, thousands of inventors who devoted their talents and skills to enable humans to be airborne, a number of investors, engineers, and flight controllers who built and guided the plane she flew. That’s a team the size of a Kansas town. Solo doesn’t come close to describe the efforts it took to fly solo. Plural is more like it.

In Christianity rugged individualism (this dogged determinism to do it my way, without help) is no friend of spiritual formation. In shaping our character, in walking with the Master no man is an island. Doing the Christian life solo is not an option. Spiritual formation beckons us to do life in community. 

When it comes to our spiritual growth many of us are lonely. We know the depth of Paul Simon’s words in I Am a Rock: “Hiding in my room, safe within my womb, I touch no one and no one touches me.” The renovation of our soul happens best when we touch one another in groups where belonging and community prevail. Doing life together is spiritual formation’s bread and butter. 

Africans have proverbs about the way the village raises its children (a concept, former First Lady, Hilary Rodham Clinton, popularized in her book It Takes a Village). It also takes a village to raise a follower of Christ (Parents are primary, but grandparents, Sunday school teachers, aunts and uncles, pastors and youth leaders, etc… play a role). Spiritual formation tolerates no spirit of independence.

Shaping lives in the likeness of Christ is a multidirectional activity: Let us spur one another on to love and good works and thus to grow in Christ, enjoins the writer of Hebrews (10:24-25). When Peter commands “grow in the knowledge and grace of Jesus Christ our Savior” he uses the plural form of the verb to grow. The idea that spiritual formation happens best in groups is biblical and a way of life in church history.

Our God, who is Trinity, calls us and shapes our lives to become conformed to the image of his Son. This formation is done as the Holy Spirit acts in us as his individual and collective temple. Our Trinitarian God transforms us into his likeness individually (but never as separated from a community of believers). I am one member in the body of Christ. Most of the instructions for Christian living in Paul’s letters address groups. You is hardly ever singular.

Baby Boomers are attracted more by individualism than by plurality. The Marlboro Man fascinates us; that lonely figure who rides into the sunset with his cigarette as his only friend. We are attracted to the John Waynes, the Clint Eastwoods, the Colombos, and the Dirty Harrys of the cinema who personify rugged individualism. Trendle’s Lone Ranger attracts us with his mysterious private existence. This man whose name nobody knows, and who never takes his mask off, makes us wonder: “Who was that masked man?”, only to be told, “Why, he’s the Lone Ranger!” We build walls, “fortresses deep and mighty that none may penetrate” … “I am a rock, I am an island”, we sing with our lives. Individualism hinders the spiritual formation in the church. A new day has dawned and by God’s grace younger generations know spiritual formation is a community affair.

We spend energy to hire the best preachers money can afford, we develop the best programs, we stage the greatest music for worship, we house these in the best brick and mortar dollars can buy, and not much of it has had a sustained record of success in changing our character or the character of the church or of society! Meanwhile, in the chair next to us, many wonder: Where do I belong, how do I become Christ-like in my family, at work, and at church, and how do we do life together? And I wonder too. Who will be my companion on the road of seeking the heart of God? Must I do it in isolation?

Where would you start in making spiritual formation a communal endeavor if this becomes a passion for you and your church? There are no limits to what can be done, but space allows for only two suggestions:

1. Consider group devotions or spiritual formation groups. Finding a suitable time may be a challenge. But it’s worth the effort. We are not used to communal spiritual formation. Let us become a village and grow together up to the “stature of Christ”. Research shows that clergy and non-clergy struggle with solo quiet times. I am not against private devotions but I am even more for public devotions. Private devotions are a recent discipline in the Church. Until the 19th century, daily, the people of God gathered to pray, to hear God’s word, to confess their sins one to another, and to bless one another with the peace of God. These disciplines formed their lives and prepared each of them to face each day. This has Acts 2:42-47 written all over it. Many feel this is impossible to do. Prove them wrong. Community without solitude is unhelpful but so is solitude without community.

2. Consider a church-wide retreat where all who can come for intentional spiritual training to learn how to put on the mind of Christ, to pray, to reflect, to fast, to study, to serve, and other disciplines God leads your church to do.

Walking with the Master in groups anchors us in the way of Christ and the Church.

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