There is a tendency in the church to turn “spiritual formation” into a purely personal and private issue — into something that is between you and God. It is. Spiritual formation is personal but it is never private. This is why I appreciate MissioLife so much: it is about spiritual formation …

Personally…

Corporately…

Locally …

and … it is shaped for different age groups. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach; nor is it insensitive to the needs of children, young adults or adults. Each age group enters into a resource that permits formation into the Story of God’s mission in this world.

Recently I blogged through an excellent book on Christian spirituality, and it was one of those let’s-get-together and discuss our differences books, but there were some dimensions of spiritual formation that were not present because spiritual formation is so often shaped by personal and private issues, or activist issues, or ecclesial issues, or sacramental issues.

But there’s more, and MissioLife features this dimension: formation is formation into a Storied narrative that tells us who we are, why we are here, and where we are going. In other words, a gospel-shaped spirituality is about the Story of Israel coming to completion in the Story of Jesus, and that means it takes a really good look at the mission of God in this world.

What does spiritual formation look like when it means being formed into becoming an agent in the mission of God? I would urge you to take a look at MissioLife.

When I was a little guy there was an old man in our church who had the right word for lots of situations. Here’s one I remember: at Christmas time, our pastor often asked college students to identify themselves and let us know where they were attending college/university. A number of schools were mentioned. About the time it was all over, ol’ Pop Brubaker would stand up and, finally grabbing the attention of everyone, would say, “I went to the school of hard knocks!” Everyone laughed, not because they hadn’t heard his story but because his story had become a fixed feature of our story and we all joined in knowing it was a good time for him to let us know again.

My church had people of all ages. We had a little kids, we had grade schoolers and junior highers and high schoolers and we had college students, and young marrieds (the natural progression back in the 60s) and … all the way up to Pop Brubaker and the Seniors my father taught in his Sunday School class.

And there’s more to this: most of us knew most of us. There is a tendency today to “do church” in niches, but this is a colossal mistake of missing the whole point. The church is a family, and a family is composed of two or three or four generations. Some folks move off and start all over again and live with no connections, but that’s not what a family is. [Read more...]

If you haven’t already heard about MissioLife, this is your introduction. Chris Folmsbee, along with a team of leaders who care about spiritual formation and local church and children and young adults and adult small groups — for both the individual and for the local church, have now developed MissioLife as a new digital small group/church resource. It is designed to lead each person and local churches from non-Bible readers to Bible literacy. But the genius of MissioLife does not stop at literacy, or knowledge of what the Bible says. No, MissioLife leads from literacy to intimacy with God and to intimacy with others and to intimacy with the world.

You can download, free of charge, some modules from the link in this paragraph to see just how solid, creative, and practical MissioLife is. This is a big project: each year of the MissioLife resource has six 6-week downloaded modules, and it is best for Sunday School classes and especially small groups. Each year takes us from Story to living the Story in our world in practical ways, both as individuals and as groups. Year One is about The God of Life, the Story of God’s Redeeming Shalom. I’ve been through it; I love it. (There will be four years in the MissioLife resource.)

What we have in MissioLife is a Bible Story approach to small groups, spiritual formation, and how the Christian lives today.

Small groups … just saying that evokes a spectrum of responses, and we are doing a series on small groups right now. But I sense that too many churches have explored the laissez faire approach (do whatever you want) and the total control approach (do what we tell you, how we tell you, and when we tell you). This MissioLife small group resource is different: there is really solid biblical and theological content. It’s all about Scriptures and the Story of God; this is a prima scriptura small group resource. But MissioLife is designed for a small group to be integrated with the whole church so that small groups don’t just branch out on their own. MissioLife leads a whole church to integrate a whole church into the Story of God’s mission in this world. Sound like a resource your church might need? Check out MissioLife.
[Read more...]