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 Formation	Invitation	Practical
Monastic	Less hurried / stress	Reordering life around Jesus
Revival	Experience	Encountering power around Jesus
Justice	Action	Extending care toward others
Doctrinal	Knowing Truth	Articulating a worldview
Obedience	Self-Denial	Dying to self, living to Jesus
Relational	Community	Being 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.