I firmly believe that all of us are called to be life-long learners. For me that means I read, and read often. I read the Scriptures. I read books by people who understand things far better than I do. I read novels. And I read church history.
Just this week I finished two books: Scot McKnight's wonderfully theological A Community Called Atonement (I'll blog more about this at a later time) and what was St. Francis de Sales' favorite book, The Spiritual Combat by Dom Lorenzo Scupoli. It's this latter work I want to wonder about a bit right now.
First published back in 1589, The Spiritual Combat is made up of 66 little chapters that give some pretty remarkable insight into human nature, all based on the maxim that in the spiritual life one must either "fight or die." It shows the Christian how to combat his or her passions and vices intelligently. Instead of running around blindly beating the air, one approaches growth in grace with a distinct method that moves the believer toward ultimate victory of union with Christ, toward what is clearly stated in the first chapter... spiritual perfection.
As one who loves Wesley's doctrine of perfection, I was fascinated to hear Dom Scupoli's. And in a nutshell it's this.
Spiritual perfection does not consist in external works and practices. It's not about appearances. Rather, spiritual perfection is all interior. It means knowing and loving God, despising and mastering in us all our evil inclinations that we may be able to submit our wills and freely abandon ourselves entirely to God, out of love for Him.
Our congregation's mission statement is to love God, love everyone, and follow Jesus. And it begins with a heart that is focused on Him. May we all strive to spiritual perfection.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Spheres of Influence
For the most part modern churches employ an invitational strategy for engaging the culture. The idea is to invite, entice, coerce, or otherwise lure the unchurched to become involved in church life. Basically, we try to lure them into learning our language, inhabiting our sphere. Our success at impacting the culture hinges on our ability to get people to show up… for something, for anything. In this model, the engagement begins when the prospect moves into our world.
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