Silence Communicates - Part II

July 2, 2008 | Filed Under georges boujakly, spiritual formation | No Comments

Another culprit (to experiencing silence) is our tendency to talk too much. Our worship is voluminous with words. We fill our worship with talk (The Lord is in his temple, let the earth keep silent). Not only when we worship, but in every way.

Gagarin said too much when he returned from space. The Russian cosmonaut pompously declared for the world to hear that he visited the heavens and God was nowhere to be found. A priest in Moscow responded: “If you have not seen him on earth, you will never see him in heaven.” Touché! A charge of too much talk will stick against this Russian cosmonaut. Will it stick on you?

“Too much talk restricts our capacity to listen, (to ourselves and to God) it banishes mindfulness and opens the door to distraction and escapism,” said Michael Casey. We become convinced we are correct in our own conclusions when we talk too much. We begin to think we are wise. When we talk too much the insidious and arrogant attitudes of superiority, manipulation, and dominance become permanent residents when they should only be strangers in the night. When we speak, let us speak rarely, briefly, directly, and simply in imitation of Christ. Let Peter’s tendency of too much talk signal our need and the value of silence as prayer.

Columba Stewart explains that “the issue becomes more clearly one of stewardship. Language is a gift that can be used thoughtfully or thoughtlessly, humbly or proudly. Someone constantly aware of the presence of God will know when and how to speak.” Or if speech is even necessary!

In prayer, silence (within and without) is about learning to listen. I suggest the following course of action for noise reduction.

1. One day a week, reduce or eliminate the external noise in your home after 6:00 p.m.

No gadgets blaring, no talking until the following morning.

Follow Anthony Bloom’s advice: “Settle down in your room at a moment when you have nothing else to do. Say ‘I am now with myself,’ and just sit with yourself. After an amazingly short time you will most likely feel bored.” I hope not. But if we feel bored with ourselves just think how bored others must feel in our presence.

Let the silence teach us. We will learn that often we live by reflection, or reaction. We will learn that often we live not from the inside out but from the outside in; that our life is only a response to incitement, to excitement. We are empty inside. “We are used to things happening which compel us to do other things. How seldom can we live simply by means of the depth and the richness we assume that there is within ourselves” (Anthony Bloom).

Find out who is at home in you. Access the One who inhabits your soul. Then, when you wake up in the morning let these words ring true: “Open my mouth, O Lord, that I may sing your praises!” Graduate to two times a week.

2. Eliminate sarcasm and put downs.

If you do, you will be doing everyone a favor and contributing in a major way to noise reduction, to too much talk. Observe any television program designed to entertain. You will hardly find talk which isn’t put downs and sarcasm.

“When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise” (Proverbs 10:19). Even stronger are these words: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21).

“Silence is golden” we were told back when. It still is, and the value of gold at true of the market increases daily for those who cultivate a life of prayer and Walk with the Master.

For a related post check out You Talk Too Much

Silence Communicates

July 1, 2008 | Filed Under georges boujakly, spiritual formation | No Comments

In response to last week’s synchronized blog dealing with the word “missional” I wrote a post in which I tried to deal with both the theological distinctions that I believe should be included when defining the word, as well as five practical issues that are necessary to consider when attempting to foster a missional mindset. The first of these practical issues was the need to start with an emphasis on spiritual formation.

With that topic in mind, here is a very good aritcle on the discipline of silence written by my friend Georges Boujakly. I am going to share the first part of his article today and the rest of it tomorrow. Here is part one:

Silence Communicates

Silence communicates. Silence has to be explained. Silence is capable of a variety of emotions, thoughts, conditions (states of mind), and attitudes. When the principal enters the classroom, a hush prevails. When the child refuses to answer for his actions, rebellion is not hard to see. When a witness to a crime refuses to testify to save the innocent, silence destroys. Sometimes silence is hard to explain.

How would you interpret Aaron’s silence (Lev. 10:3)? Is it grief, rebellion, or submission? How about God’s silence in Psalm 44:23 and 83:1? Consider Jesus’ silence at his trial (compare Mark 14:61 with Isaiah. 53:7)? There is no escaping it, silence speaks; sometimes more than words can say.

Confession: Often I am uncomfortable with silence and its partner listening. I would rather speak than listen. Especially in prayer. My sympathy is more with the one who says “listen, Lord, for your servant is speaking” than with young Samuel when Eli coached him to “speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” In my prayer silence is the underdog. How about you? I’m pulling for the underdog.

Several barriers are to blame. I will only name two. The first culprit is noise. We are always filling our world with noise. 90 decibels or more is nothing for restaurants. Church sometimes fares worse, depending on the music and the excitement of the preacher. Especially so when silence has taken a prolonged vacation from our worship! In life, the electronic gadgets we enjoy contribute a lion’s share to the noises of our lives.

Silence is hard to do. The screams of consumerism, materialism, diversion, and entertainment are hard to ignore. But we must.

Prayer depends on silence. Silence and its friend listening are the life spring of prayer. We must strive to live in conscious awareness of the presence and activity of the God we say we love with heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Silence as prayer is a good habit that will rescue us from the noises of life. Silence is a great help in living and praying in the present moment, the only moment we truly have.

Advent and Waiting For God

December 22, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, leadership | No Comments

My friend Georges Boujakly shared the following newsletter article from Margaret Benefiel, author of Soul At Work and Founder of Executive Soul. Benefiel writes that Advent ought to be a season for waiting and looking for what God is doing. She writes:

Advent is about waiting for God, looking for the new thing that God is doing. Advent holds a lesson for all of us in this busy world, especially organizational leaders.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like waiting, thank you very much. Like most of the people around me, I tend to rush from one thing to another in my busy life. When the bank puts me on hold during a phone call, or when I find myself stuck in a long line at the post office, I get impatient.

This season leading up to Christmas is Advent, a season of waiting for Christians around the world. What’s the point of a season of waiting? More>>

Spiritual Friendship - Part II

October 8, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, spiritual formation, spiritual friendship | 2 Comments

Friends naturally enjoy intimate sharing. Friends make time to develop trusting relationships. Friends enjoy being in the company of each other. But then superimpose a Christian model of friendship over these qualities and you’ll get at least one more non-negotiable characteristic of Christian spiritual friendship:

Spiritual friends help each other pay close attention to God.

Is there a higher calling of relationships in the body of Christ? Not to me! Christians involved in spiritual friendship help each other delight in God and in his word. As a discipline of the Christian life, spiritual friendship is no different than other disciplines in its purpose: To connect friends to God or to be transformed into the image of Christ.

Name 3-4 friends that help you connect with God? Can you name 2? How about 1? Then thank God, you are in the lower 25% of those who minister to God’s people.

I have read that 75% of ministers do not have any intimate friends. Can you imagine going through the hardships and delights of ministry to God’s people without someone to listen to us and help us see God in our ministry? O, to be listened to! What a gift awaits us. More>>

Spiritual Friendship

October 1, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, spiritual formation, spiritual friendship | 2 Comments

Guest blogger Georges Boujakly is going to be posting a series on Spiritual Friendship over the next few days. I know you will be encouraged and challenged by Georges’ insight. Here is the first post.

A couple of years ago I attended a week-long retreat called a 5-Day Spiritual Academy. This particular retreat was a ministry of Upper Room Ministries and was held in Wichita at the Catholic Life Center. After the retreat I completed a writing project and received credit for a course in doctoral work I was doing at the time. (They have a two year Spiritual Academy in case you are interested in training in spiritual friendship.)

From that experience I became more aware than ever before for my need of a spiritual director. I asked one of the leaders of the retreat and he recommended a spiritual director where I live. I see this person monthly and am thankful for the help I receive. I now return the favor to several people. More>>

Spiritual Transformation - Key #8

September 19, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | No Comments

Today Georges Boujakly completes his series on “keys” to spiritual transformation. Earlier posts in the series can be found here: key #1a, key #1b, key #1c, key #2, key #3, key #4, key #5, key #6, key #7.

Spiritual formation is plural.

The Bible is plural. It was born among a people, a community. Its truths and message were hammered out on the anvil of faithful community living. It is addressed to a people not to individuals. When it is addressed to individuals, (say Philemon, Timothy, or Titus) it is still for the spiritual formation of the community.

It is not often that Jesus is found one on one in the gospels. Even when he is, the community is close by and the work he does is in the context of community.

In his most recent work A Community Called Atonement Scot McKnight states:

Once again, we return to Mary, to Zechariah, to the inaugural sermon, and to the Beatitudes: Jesus’ mission, his vision of the kingdom, is about restoring the blind, giving limber legs to the lame, wiping the skin of the lepers clean, filling the ears of the deaf with music, and sounds, bringing back dead people from the grave, and making sure the poor are taken care of by restoring them to their proper social location.

The mission of Jesus is healing justice, the ending of disease, dislocation, and oppression. Beyond those conditions, Jesus announces the creation a covenanted community where the covenant, God’s will, is lived out for each and every person.

We cannot back down on this: if this is Jesus’ vision, and atonement is one way of speaking of what God’s redemptive work in this world is designed to accomplish, then the creation of a community where God’s will is done is inherent to the meaning of atonement.

The Gospel is inherently communal. Spiritual formation in the kingdom of God is inherently communal. It is necessarily individual but only in the sense of beginning there but never ending there. Everything about Christianity is communal in nature: The Trinity, the Gospel, Salvation, Sanctification, the Eschaton.

We go to great length in hiring the best preachers money can afford, develop the most fun programs we can muster, have the greatest music in the cosmos, house them in the best facilities money can buy, and not much of it has had a successful record in changing the character of the church or of society! While sitting in the chair next to us, in front and behind, is a community waiting to flourish and lead us to be conformed to the image of Christ.

How is plural spiritual formation happening in your community?

Where would you start in making spiritual formation a communal endeavor if this becomes a passion for your and your church?

Spiritual Transformation - Key #7

September 16, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | 5 Comments

Spiritual formation is not a luxury for the most spiritual among us.

It would not come as a surprise to know that Jesus did not have an elite club. Would it? Those we might consider elite as we read the gospels, were not so elite in Jesus’ book. Sure they had their special place as his chosen ones to lead the new people of God, but like their counterparts in the first testament they were just as messed up as the next guy.

In the past, I labored under the illusion that those who studied a particular 13 week course of study in discipleship were more spiritual than those who didn’t. Until a member had taken the course, obtained the certificate, he or she was not a serious disciple. Although this was well-meaning, it was misdirected. My greatest teachers were the older people who had had a long life of learning to love God and others in the crucible of life. While I am not knocking the intellectual development in discipleship, I am saying at the same time that gathering biblical information is not the key to character development or spiritual formation.

This vision of spiritual formation as what the church does for everybody (including children and seniors) is only dependent on the willingness of the disciple to be conformed to the image of Christ. It is not for a special category of Christian. It is for all believers.

Spiritual Transformation - Key #6

September 13, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | 3 Comments

Georges Boujakly continues his series on the key principles to spiritual transformation. These eight “keys” include the following:

1. Spiritual transformation is an inside job.
2. Spiritual transformation requires deliberate effort.
3. Spiritual transformation has a specific goal.
4. The goal of spiritual transformation is conformity to Jesus Christ.
5. The progress of spiritual transformation is always slow.
6. Spiritual transformation is the “business” of the church.
7. Spiritual transformation is not a luxury for the spiritually elite.
8. Spiritual Transformation is plural.

Today Georges elaborates on #6:

Spiritual formation is the business of the church

Dallas Willard has challenged the church to come up with a comprehensive process and curriculum that would take seriously the mandate Christ gave when he said in Matthew 28: “train them to do everything I have told you to do.”

Whatever training Jesus did with his disciples, he was entrusting to them (and to us) to pass on the training to do everything; ad infinitum!

One way to see this command is to understand Jesus’ words this way:

“You have one main business in the church; duplicate all I did with you. You heard me teach and you saw me practice many things. Some you won’t remember, but the Holy Spirit will remind you.”

The church should have one occupation, one profession, one process: That of the formation of the Spirit of Christ in his disciples. If that is not the business of the church whatever could it be? Willard, however chides the church for not taking this “everything I have taught you” most seriously. I agree, don’t you? More>>

Spiritual Transformation - Key #5

July 31, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | 8 Comments

Today Georges Boujakly continues his series on ”keys” to spiritual transformation with key number five:

There is only one speed on the highway of spiritual formation: slow.

Speed rules. Speed is everywhere. We expect all our services speedily. We expect our technology to respond faster all the time. Speed’s pervasive presence has affected our view of spiritual formation, and discipleship. (By the way, if you are looking for a simple way of telling discipleship from spiritual formation here it is: Spiritual formation is the work of the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ. Discipleship is learning to follow Christ as the Holy Spirit teaches us to do. God’s work is to form us. Our work is to learn his formation process and participate in it. This distinction is helpful to me.) Because God in Christ in the Holy Spirit uses life and disciplines to teach us himself so we may have a kingdom way of life, the process of spiritual formation is always slow. That we demand speed in this area of Christian living is an indication of our consumerist tendencies in the church today.

What does slow progress feel like? What does it look like? Chime right in. Here’s what I think. Frankness and personal experience must guide me here. More>>

Spiritual Transformation - Key #4

July 6, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | No Comments

The goal of spiritual transformation is conformity to Jesus Christ.

In light of the last post it is important to recognize that God’s telos is not nebulous. It is specific. It is love but it is love of a specific kind. It is particular. It is as particular as the life of the trinity: a life of perfect love.

Romans 8:29 refers to this particularity as conformity to the likeness of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ shows more than anyone else what the perfect life of love is like in the way he goes about loving as described in the Gospels. He loved God fully, and loved others fully. Nothing spared, not possessions, not even life itself. Paul tells Timothy to participate in his own spiritual transformation to attain a particular goal: godliness, i.e. to be and to behave like God (1Timothy 4:7-8). More>>

Spiritual Transformation - Key #3

July 1, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | No Comments

Today we continue with Georges Boujakly’s keys to spiritual transformation.

Spiritual transformation has a specific goal.

You notice in the third and fourth key to spiritual transformation is the very important word goal. However, better than the word goal might be the word end. The Greek noun for end is telos. The adjective is the word telic. More>>

Spiritual Transformation - Key #2

June 27, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, spiritual formation | No Comments

Earlier this month my friend Georges Boujakly shared eight “keys” to spiritual transformation. These keys include:

Today Georges elaborates a bit on the second key. More>>

Spiritual Transformation - Key #1c

June 19, 2007 | Filed Under books, georges boujakly, prayer, spiritual formation | 1 Comment

The Art of Telling God on Yourself.

In light of the previous post I want to share a helpful prayer of confession. It is inspired by John Baillie in his Diary of Private Prayer - day eleven:

Merciful heart of God, in true repentance, I now open my heart to you. Help me not to hide anything from you as I (”we” if prayed in community) pray. The truth of my sinfulness is humbling to me, but I take courage that I am confessing in your merciful presence. What I committed in shame I now confess in shame. In your wisdom use the pain of my confession to make me hate the sins I confess. The suspension mark (…) is where you can be specific. More>>

Spiritual Transformation - Key #1b

June 18, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | No Comments

The Art of Telling God on Yourself.

Today Georges Boujakly offers one last entry (in two parts) on the reality that spiritual transformation is an inside job. Spiritual transformation, sin (the breaking of relationship of trust with God and others), confession, and forgiveness are terms that converge as the inside job the Trinity does in us.

Is confession a regular part of your relationship with God? Any specific ways you practice confession? If you are a follower of the Christian Way you have to address the question of sin.

Sin in us is easily verifiable (my sin is ever before me). We experience it with the five senses. We can deny sin but we can’t exterminate it from our lives. We can cry over it but we won’t eliminate it. We suffer from it but we can’t overcome it yet. We can fight its force within while we seek a holy and divinely ordained life. We can hope sin goes away, but it’s here to stay. We can wait for its disappearance, but sin is no Houdini. What we can do with sin is confess it and seek forgiveness. If we are serious about confession, we would seriously study David’s confessions in the following Psalms. More>>

Spiritual Transformation - Key #1a

June 11, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | 3 Comments

My friend Georges Boujakly continues his series on spiritual transformation:

The first key to spiritual transformation is that it is an inside job. Last week I said that this inside job requires certain efforts. True, the job is initiated by the Holy Spirit as part of his constant ministry in our lives. But the Holy Spirit invites our participation. The form of participation I want to speak to this week is paying attention to God.

Peterson’s beautiful rendition of Romans 12:2 captures the image of paying attention to God with these words:

“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

I like Peterson’s rendition of the NAS translation “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” to “Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.”

Spiritual transformation happens when we pay attention to God inwardly. Think of this as the posture that Mary adopted when Jesus came to visit her with Lazarus and Martha. More>>

Spiritual Transformation - Part 2

June 2, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | 4 Comments

Last week my friend Georges Boujakly shared six introductory “keys” on spiritual transformation. This week he has added two additional principles (HT #7: Pastor Rod). Here are the eight principles that Georges is going to elaborate on over the next several weeks.

1. Spiritual transformation is an inside job.
2. Spiritual transformation requires deliberate effort.
3. Spiritual transformation has a specific goal.
4. The goal of spiritual transformation is conformity to Jesus Christ.
5. The progress of spiritual transformation is always slow.
6. Spiritual transformation is the “business” of the church.
7. Spiritual transformation (discipleship) is not a luxury for the spiritually elite.
8. Spiritual Transformation is plural.

Now a little more elaboration on inward transformation (#1). More>>