Tag Archives: Comer

Why We Keep Finding a Better Way to Follow Jesus

In a previous blog we discussed different types of spiritual formation to help us sharpen our faith as followers of Jesus. You can find that entry HERE and HERE.

I’ve noticed an interesting pattern among followers of Jesus regarding these areas of spiritual formation. We discover an approach to a spiritual formation that seems to provide something we’ve been missing. In the beginning, we’re excited about this new discovery. We experience some vitality in our spiritual life. We discover some areas of our spiritual life that were neglected. It’s great!

But, then eventually we discover its weaknesses. Soon we become disappointed. And sometimes we begin looking down on the very thing that once helped us. But, then we discover something new and the process starts all over again. It can be exhausting!

“This Is What I’ve Been Missing”

John Mark Comer is an author who has recently become popular. Most of his writings are around monastic parts of our faith, so Comer is tapping into the part of the soul that feels hurried, exhausted, stressed, and anxious. Enter Comer!

There’s nothing inherently wrong about creating some structures to our life where we practice spiritual discipline of solitude, fasting and hearing from the Lord. It’s a consistent part of our faith throughout Scripture.

But give it a few years. Eventually those practices will start to feel like a normal part of our faith. Sometimes we mistake the energy of discovery for the power of the practice. And, it’s possible those practices could lose some of their vitality, so that over time we can get stuck in this cycle of jumping from one spiritual formation to the next and not actually growing in our faith.

Discovery Isn’t the Problem

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with discovering another Christian tradition. In fact, it can be incredibly healthy. Sometimes another part of the church has been preserving something our tradition neglected.

A doctrinal Christian might genuinely need to rediscover prayer. A revival Christian might genuinely need to rediscover ordinary faithfulness. A contemplative Christian might need to rediscover mission. A justice-oriented Christian might need deeper theological foundations. A relational Christian might need solitude. We should be able to learn from each other.

The problem isn’t discovering something new. The problem is the story we sometimes tell ourselves afterward. “I used to believe that because I was immature. Now I understand what Christianity is really supposed to be.” That’s where spiritual growth can quietly become spiritual pride. 

We Rewrite Our Own Spiritual History 

Instead of saying: “My doctrinal background gave me a deep love for Scripture, but I needed to grow in prayer and dependence upon the Spirit.” We say: “I grew up in dead evangelicalism or my revival background focused too much on experience and emotion.”

Instead of receiving something new as an addition, we use it as an indictment of what came before. Then something interesting happens. We compare the best version of our new discovery with the worst version of our previous tradition. Of course, the new thing wins. Until we stay around long enough to discover its problems too. Then the cycle begins again. 

Spiritual Formation Can Become Something We Consume

I wonder if there’s something deeper happening. We can end up becoming consumers of spiritual formation itself. We’re constantly searching for the teacher, church, book, practice, experience, theology, podcast, or system that will finally produce the Christian life we’ve been looking for. And every new discovery gives us something…NEW!

New ways of understanding problems we’ve felt but couldn’t explain. For a while, it’s energizing. Then the novelty wears off. And eventually we’re left with the same basic problem: ourselves.

No approach to spiritual formation eliminates sin, suffering, unanswered prayers, disappointment and unanswered prayers. And none eliminates the painfully slow process of becoming more like Jesus. Eventually every system leaves us standing in front of the same invitation Jesus gave to His disciples, “Follow Me.”

Maybe This Is Part of Maturity

Maybe spiritual maturity includes reaching the point where I don’t have to destroy what came before in order to appreciate what I’m discovering now. I can say: “That formed something good in me. This is showing me something I was missing. And neither one is Jesus.” That’s a very different posture.

It allows us to receive something from Christians who emphasize things differently than we do without constantly reconstructing our entire faith around our latest discovery. Maybe spiritual maturity isn’t finally discovering the right spiritual formation system? Maybe it’s becoming mature enough to receive what different parts of the church have to teach us without believing each new discovery has finally solved Christianity?

Because eventually the novelty will wear off. The system will disappoint me. The people will disappoint me. The leaders will disappoint me.  But, Jesus invitation will be the same, “Come to Me, follow Me.”

Every Approach to Spiritual Formation Has a Shadow Side

In a previous blog we discussed different types of spiritual formation to help us sharpen our faith as followers of Jesus. You can find that entry HERE.  

But each spiritual formation also has something about it that can become unattractive.

  • The monastic approach offers something many of us desperately need: peace, depth, and intentionality. But taken too far, spiritual formation can begin to sound like lifestyle management. 
  • Revival Christianity offers an emotional connection with God. God isn’t merely someone we study. He’s alive and actively moving in our life through answered prayers. That’s awesome! But taken too far, spiritual formation can be built around emotion and dramatic encounters with God.  
  • Compassion and justice-centered Christianity reminds us that following Jesus should actually make a difference in how we treat suffering people. That’s desperately needed. But it can also turn spiritual formation into activism and political commitments.
  • Then there’s the doctrinal approach. This is probably the world I know best. Experience and action are important but we need truth, Scripture, and biblical thinking to guide our decisions. But there’s an obvious danger here too. We can become incredibly skilled at evaluating Christianity without becoming particularly skilled at living it.
  • Obedience to God’s Word is important, but it can also become mechanical. Sometimes we can even feel like we are just making a list of rules of what to do and not do, so that we forget the emotional / relational connection to Jesus.
  • Lastly, relational spiritual formation is probably the one that shapes our values the most at North Village Church. We love the idea of people getting to know one another, but it can be overwhelming to open up your life to someone at a deep level.  

Every Path Eventually Costs Something

Maybe that’s what all these approaches ultimately have in common. At first, each offers something attractive.

  • The monastic tradition says, “Wouldn’t you like peace?”
  • Revival says, “Wouldn’t you like to experience God?”
  • Compassion and justice say, “Wouldn’t you like your life to matter?”
  • Doctrine says, “Wouldn’t you like to understand what’s true?”
  • Obedience says, “Wouldn’t you like to develop new habits?”
  • Relational says, “Wouldn’t you like to be genuinely known?”

But keep walking down any of those roads and eventually something changes. Eventually every serious approach to spiritual formation interferes with the life we would naturally choose for ourselves.

The problem isn’t ultimately finding the perfect spiritual formation system. The question is much simpler. Am I actually getting to know Jesus? And, am I helping someone else follow Jesus?

Am I actually getting to know Jesus?

And, am I helping someone else follow Jesus?

Because Jesus didn’t simply invite us to know more, experience more, serve more, or develop better spiritual habits. He said: “Follow me.” And I’m increasingly convinced that one of the best ways to do that is remarkably ordinary: Follow Jesus with other people. Then help someone else do the same.

Conclusion

Maybe the uncomfortable part isn’t always a sign that something has gone wrong? Maybe sometimes it’s the very place where spiritual formation is beginning to do its work.

Silence sounds great until I have to sit with what’s going on inside me. Experiencing God sounds great until I have to trust Him when I don’t feel anything. Compassion sounds great until loving someone costs me something. Knowing truth sounds great until Scripture confronts something I don’t want to change. Obedience sounds great until Jesus asks me to deny myself. Community sounds great until someone knows enough about me to ask a question I would rather avoid.

That’s when we’re tempted to look for something else. But maybe the goal isn’t to keep finding a form of Christianity that feels better. Maybe part of following Jesus is staying long enough for the uncomfortable parts to actually form us.

That doesn’t mean every approach is healthy or that we should never change. It simply means disappointment isn’t always evidence that we chose the wrong path. Sometimes it means we’ve finally reached the part where following Jesus costs us something.

Why Sunday Morning Worship Doesn’t Feel Like A Comedy Show

If you haven’t heard, I dabble in stand-up comedy in Austin, TX as a pastor. It’s been fairly common when other comics see me do well in a comedy set and win over a room they naturally assume I would bring that same style into Sunday morning. In fact, many of them have said, “If you did that on Sunday morning you would see a lot more people attending your church.” Maybe?

But my goal as a pastor isn’t trying to get a lot of people to attend on Sunday morning. My goal as a pastor is to invite people to be known relationally, so that together we can grow closer to Jesus and eventually help someone else do the same.  

Types of Spiritual Formation

Different Christians are drawn to different ways of following Jesus. 

Spiritual FormationInvitationPractical
Monastic Less hurried / stressReordering life around Jesus
RevivalExperienceEncountering power around Jesus
Justice ActionExtending care toward others
DoctrinalKnowing TruthArticulating a worldview
ObedienceSelf-DenialDying to self, living to Jesus
RelationalCommunityBeing known, helping others do the same

Some Christians are drawn toward one approach more than others. It isn’t that one approach is wrong, and another is right. In fairness, most probably involve a little bit of all of them, but it was helpful to me to see them distinguished from one another. 

The Cost of Being Known

There are strengths and weaknesses to all of these spiritual formations, but there is something unique to what we are trying to build at North Village Church. You can practice solitude anonymously, you can attend an incredible worship service anonymously, you can protest injustice anonymously, you can read theology anonymously, and you can deny yourself anonymously.  

But it’s much harder to follow Jesus with someone who actually knows you. Because eventually they ask a question. And then they remember your answer. And then you are left in a space of, “What happens next?”

When that happens, our faith in Jesus starts to intersect with actual life on life and that is both incredibly attractive and incredibly uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable for the person being asked and it is uncomfortable for the person asking the questions because in my experience our lives don’t dramatically change overnight. 

Instead we are all entering into a season of long-suffering with one another as we take multiple “one step forward, two steps back” throughout the life of these relationships. It involves multiple layers of confession, multiple prayers, and sometimes seasons of waiting when we don’t really understand what the Lord is doing in our lives.

The Cost of Knowing Someone Else

And Then It Gets Worse, because eventually spiritual formation at North Village Church isn’t only about people getting involved in our life. North Village Church is wanting to build up a church family that is interested in all of us helping someone else.

This is where our faith in Jesus isn’t only something we consume from others, but we start asking ourselves, “How can I pray, encourage, teach, support, and care for someone?” Someone walked beside me during a painful season, which is great! But also asking, “How can I do that for someone else?”

That’s where a relational approach to spiritual formation becomes “Jesus is doing something in me, and Jesus wants to do something through me.” We need both. Without the first, our faith in Jesus becomes an activity of; schedules, serving, and experiencing without necessarily becoming more like Jesus.

Conclusion

In the end, maybe my comedian friends are right? Maybe I could use some of what I’ve learned in comedy to create more energy on Sunday morning? There’s nothing wrong with that. But winning over a room and forming a people aren’t the same thing. One can happen in ten minutes. The other takes years.