Spiritual Transformation

May 24, 2007 | Filed Under missional, spiritual formation |

spiritual-discipline.jpgMy friend Georges Boujakly - church planter, church planter mentor, spiritual director, and all around spiritual guru - is going to be writing a weekly post on spirituality in the life of the missional church and those who lead missional communities. Here is the first of Georges’ posts as he shares a few of his convictions concerning spiritual transformation. 

Anyway we cut it, missional leaders are in the business of participating in life transformation.

1. Spiritual transformation is an inside job.

Behavioral changes follow from inner transformation. Can a change in behavior lead to an inner transformation? I don’t know. Not in my experience. God sees the hidden areas (from ourselves and from others) of our lives and acts accordingly to transform us.

2. Spiritual transformation takes deliberate effort.

Some eschew effort since it is work. We are not saved by work, so the reasoning goes. But the Bible does not oppose work or effort to grace. Grace, as Dallas Willard is fond of saying, is opposed to earning, not works. I don’t exclude the possibility of change happening without any deliberate action on my part, but I know that my efforts to be transformed help me to change. Spiritual writers speak of this effort as a means of grace. By this is meant the practice of the disciplines of the Christian life such as study, Scripture memory, prayer, solitude, fasting, etc…

3. Spiritual transformation is a telic endeavor.

The adjective telic comes from the noun telos, which means that there is an end or goal for the change. When the end is not in view, intention or deliberate effort flies out the window and never to return.

4. The telos of the spiritual transformation process is conformity to Jesus Christ.

This is stated in different ways in the NT: imitation of Christ, being in Christ, conformity to the image of Christ, Christ being formed in you, having the mind of Christ, being like Christ, putting on Christ, etc…

5. There is only one speed on the vehicle called transformation - slow.

Sometimes by divine intervention God accelerates the speed on transformation. Sometimes necessity overwhelms us to change. For example, when I began my walk with Christ my swearing was miraculously and immediately left in the dust. It has stayed gone. John Trent in Heart Shift makes the case that to expect 180 degree change is wishful thinking. Lasting change happens when the heart shifts a little at a time, or as he says by 2 degrees. Seen from the perspective of a full life (not to mention eternity) the beginning of salvation is but a small shift though it seems like a 180 degree shift relative to our “Christless” lives.

6. Spiritual transformation is the “business” of the church. 

It is the content of the “Great Commission.”

We all realize (I trust) that heart renovation is mainly the business of the Holy Spirit which takes our willing involvement.

What insights from your personal and ministry experience can you share or add to what is described above about spiritual transformation? Moreover, why do you think that many of us shy away from talking about spiritual transformation as the business the church is in?

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