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  • November 30, 1999

Archives For November 30, 1999

The Heart of It

Charles Kiser —  April 23, 2009 — 2 Comments

Storyline is in the midst of a series of conversations about living an “eternal kind of life,” to use Dallas Willard’s phrase. We’re examining texts out of Paul’s prison letters that relate to topics of spiritual formation: trust, purity, dependence, generosity, grace, collaboration, etc.

I’ve been thinking about the banner text of the series quite a bit lately, Colossians 3:1-4:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Paul follows this exhortation with counsel to put ungodly behavior to death and to put on their new selves that reflect God’s image.

I’m struck by Paul’s emphasis on the heart and mind. Before spiritual formation is about external actions, it’s about the heart and mind.

We can change our behaviors without ever changing our hearts or minds. Such behavior change is not spiritual formation, merely “sin management” (to steal another phrase from Dallas Willard).

Richard Foster addresses this very issue in a recent article in Christianity Today. There he lays out his three priorities in the church’s spiritual formation in the next thirty years, the first of which is “heart work.” He writes,

All real formation work is “heart work.” The heart is the wellspring of all human action….When we are dealing with heart work, external actions are never the center of our attention. Outward actions are a natural result of something far deeper, far more profound….This, of course, does not reduce good works to insignificance, but it does make them matters of secondary significance, effects rather than causes. Of primary significance is our vital union with God, our new creation in Christ, our immersion in the Holy Spirit. It is this life that purifies the heart; when the branch is truly united with the vine and receiving its life from the vine, spiritual fruit is a natural result.

Foster hammers it home by saying,

…Everyone thinks of changing the world, but where, oh where, are those who think of changing themselves? People may genuinely want to be good, but seldom are they prepared to do what it takes to produce the inward life of goodness that can form the soul. Personal formation into the likeness of Christ is arduous and lifelong.

The pathway to justice and restoration in the world is not public policy or a better system. Don’t get me wrong, a better system and better policies will certainly be helpful in curbing the injustice that stems from the evil of the human heart. And they are necessary in the time until God restores the world.

But the pathway to justice in the world is ultimately the formation of the human heart into the likeness of Jesus.

When God restores the world one day, drug policies will no longer be needed because people will trust the work of God in their lives for pleasure and provision. Prisons will no longer be needed because people will not have the hatred in their hearts that leads to murder and other crimes. Civil rights laws will no longer be needed because people will genuinely love those different than themselves. The human heart will experience radical transformation.

The good news of God’s kingdom is that God’s restoration has begun. It was ushered in by the resurrection of Jesus.

If that’s true, my first way of participating in God’s work of justice and restoration is by doing the hard work of heart work. How could I ever expect the world to change if I don’t expect myself to change?

We’re seeking for Storyline to be that kind of community — a community of grace; a community that cares first about what’s going on in people’s hearts rather than merely how they’re behaving.

That’s why we put on spiritual cleansing retreats like Marvelous Light. That’s why we participate in Formation Groups, where individuals confess their sins and listen to God’s voice in Scripture on a weekly basis. That’s why we’re committed to the values of life change and authenticity.

If I’m known for anything, I want people to know me as a person whose heart reflects the heart of God.

Man, I’ve got a long way to go.

May the Spirit of God be strong and alive within us all as we make ourselves available to him to form our hearts.

In Life Change, Spiritual Formation
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Marvelous Light 2009

Charles Kiser —  March 30, 2009 — 1 Comment

Marvelous Light OriginalWHAT: Marvelous Light Retreat, an experience of spiritual renewal and cleansing

WHEN: May 1, 7:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.; May 2, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

WHERE: Preston Road Church of Christ (map)

COST: $15 / person; includes 2 meals, snacks and materials

WHO: All are invited

REGISTRATION: Via Paypal @ storylinecommunity.com


TESTIMONIAL: “It was like a spiritual detox for my soul.” Lauren Cone, Storyliner

Reserve your spot today!

In Marvelous Light, Spiritual Formation
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What about Teaching?

Charles Kiser —  March 25, 2009 — 18 Comments

askWe talk often about translating more established, institutional ways of being church into more grassroots, decentralized expressions.

One topic that I’ve been struggling to translate is the role of preaching/teaching in the grassroots paradigm.

I’m wrestling with two points of tension.

On one hand, I have some level of dissatisfaction with the way church participants in more established contexts are overly dependent upon a teacher for their Bible study.

In many institutional contexts, the Senior Pastor/Preaching Minister is the fountainhead of biblical knowledge and truth and parishioners attend services to hear his (or her) words of wisdom. Many church members leave worship services believing they have had their dose of the Bible for the week.

The Barna Group has conducted some incisive research that demonstrates the growing levels of biblical illiteracy among American Christians. I wonder if this is partly because of an unhealthy dependence on teacher figures in the church.

Organic church leaders like Cole rail against teacher overdependence in favor of a more egalitarian, everyone-can-hear-from-God-through-Scripture approach. They also downplay the role of seminary experiences and highly cognitive theological education.

Yet, on the other hand, I’ve been part of less than stellar small group experiences that weren’t much more than sessions for pooling ignorance (not with Storyline, of course – all of our house church gatherings are awesome!). Even when Scripture was the center of discussion the group was somehow able to override the message of the text in favor of its preexisting assumptions.

There are other times when there is so much distance between the culture of a Scriptural text and contemporary culture that a group of people reading the Scripture can badly appropriate it because the text’s import is lost on them. For example, I know women who cover their heads in worship gatherings because they think it is required of them from texts like 1 Corinthians 11.

Moreover, I do think there is a place for a teaching gift in the church. Paul, after all, mentioned teachers among the big five equipping gifts in Ephesians 4. He also encourages teaching responsibilities for some of his apprentices like Timothy.

Up to this point, this is the role teaching has played in the Storyline Community: 1) I teach once a month in our community worship gatherings; 2) I share a teaching role in our formation retreats (like Marvelous Light and City on a Hill).

I also write the curriculum that frames up conversations for our house church gatherings. But these are not teaching opportunities. There are no podiums. There are no dry erase boards. The Holy Spirit teaches house churches as they listen to Scripture together.

Perhaps a fundamental issue in this conversation is how one defines teaching. In many established churches, teaching is provision of information about the Bible. In many organic approaches, teaching is less about information more about obedience and life change.

I much prefer the latter definition. It’s the reason my teaching and our house church conversations move from observation of Scripture (what’s going on), to interpretation of Scripture (what it means), to application (how it changes us).

To restate the tension, many traditional paradigms of teaching get stuck on observation and interpretation and almost completely neglect application. Such observation and interpretation often comes from a highly trained, highly paid leader. At the same time, I fear that some organic approaches move so quickly/poorly through observation and interpretation that application is shallow or just misguided.

I don’t want Storyline’s spiritual health to be overly dependent on me as a teacher. I also don’t want Storyline’s spiritual health to be shallow or misguided because it doesn’t have good frameworks for understanding Scripture.

How do you / would you navigate this tension?

In Institutional / Organic, Spiritual Formation, Teaching
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Advent Conspiracy

Charles Kiser —  December 2, 2008 — Leave a comment

Our house churches just started a new series of conversations on the first season of the Christian calendar: Advent. Advent is about waiting for God to arrive. The Advent season highlights two ways God’s people have waited throughout the ages: 1) for the first coming of the Messiah—in the incarnation; and 2) for the second coming of the Messiah—in the eschaton.

What would it look like if the anticipation required in Advent shaped our lives? What if we waited for God through the holidays instead of waiting for presents? In tough economic times, what would it look like to wait for God to arrive?

The churches behind the Advent Conspiracy think it looks like people who trust God fully, spend less, give more and love all.

What if more and more people lived into this Advent conspiracy?

Christmas might just be an enjoyable holiday again.

More to come about ways Advent will shape the Storyline Community…

In House Churches, Justice, Spiritual Formation
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Marvelous Light 2008

Charles Kiser —  November 24, 2008 — 2 Comments

Marvelous-LightWe participated in the Marvelous Light retreat this weekend at Camp Hoblitzelle in Midlothian, Texas. Nearly forty people from five churches recently planted in DFW came together for the event—Christ Journey (Burleson), New River (Forney), Storyline (Dallas), Sunrise (Grand Prairie) and VineLife (Savannah). Four of the five churches are associated with Mission Alive, our church planting resource organization.

I’m biased because I helped to plan it, but I think it was a tremendous success.

Many people came carrying heavy burdens and left with lighter loads. Many came with brokenness and left on the pathway to healing. Many came with darkness and left with more light in their lives.

One of our Storyline people said something to this effect:

When we lived in Los Angeles, going through a body “detox” was a popular thing to do. Marvelous Light was like a spiritual detox for my soul. I poured all of myself out through confession in my ministry group. It was hard, but by the end of it, I felt so much lighter.

I think that’s such a great description of the cleansing and renewal that occurs at Marvelous Light—spiritual detox for the soul.

Testimonies were hands down the favorite element of the weekend listed in our evaluation forms. They were vivid examples of how our lives change when God transfers us from darkness to light.

  • One woman talked about being freed from bondage to anxiety and aversion.
  • Another woman talked about learning by the power of God to forgive the man who raped her, and after that, to forgive herself.
  • Still another shared her story of growing up in a very legalistic environment, hating the god behind it, and then finding the true and living God.
  • One young business entrepreneur shared the panic attacks he experienced because he trusted money too much and how he learned to trust God by giving large chunks of his money away.
  • Another man shared how he had been enslaved by sexual addiction to pornography for more than thirty years and how God had given him sexual purity for more than three years.

What I love is that a couple of these testimonies were shared by previous Marvelous Light participants who were enabled to share the light they’d found because they had let God deal with their darkness in the Marvelous Light retreat.

Confession of sin is an oft-neglected discipline in the church. It’s much easier to stay in the realm of pretense and superficiality.

The gospel, however, calls us out of darkness and into light.

We have therefore made a rigorous commitment to authenticity, acceptance, confession and life change by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That’s why we put so much energy into experiences like Marvelous Light.

When’s the last time you dealt with your darkness and confessed your brokenness to someone you trusted?

God’s forgiveness—his marvelous light—is waiting for you…

In Authenticity, Marvelous Light, Spiritual Formation
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