DSMN Spiritual Formation and Discipleship Written Assignment 1

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Feb 20, 2024

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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY Spiritual Formation and Discipleship Submitted to Dr. Jonathan Geukgeuzian in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of DSMN 500-D03 Discipleship Ministries by Daniel Haller March 31, 2020 i

Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..3 Three Areas of Spiritual Growth………………………………………………………….……….4 Personal Growth Assessment…………………………………………………………….………..8 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………..……10 ii

3 Introduction When God draws a person to the place that they are able to understand grace, forgiveness and salvation offered to all men through faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, the new believer embarks on the life-long journey of spiritual formation, upon accepting this free gift of grace. Spiritual formation is done by the Holy Spirit which God places inside each believer. Spiritual formation is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, as God slowly changes a man from being the idolatrous sinner they were before Christ, into being more and more like Jesus, as Paul states, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29 NIV). Rob Dempsey writes that spiritual formation is “an ongoing, gradual process of glorious transformation into the image of Jesus by the Spirit of God that is available to every believer as a result of honestly and intentionally seeking the face of God.” 1 This transformation is done by God’s glory acting through the Holy Spirit, and it is to God’s glory that we are being continually transformed into the image of Jesus. Spiritual formation is a process of dying to the old self and becoming a new creation in Christ as Bonhoeffer states, “ When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call.” 2 As Paul states, “ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; The old has gone, the new is here” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV). [1] Dave Early and Rod Dempsey, Spiritual Formation Is…. (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2018), 4. [2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1963) , 99. [3] Unless otherwise noted, All Scripture references have been taken out of the New International Version unless otherwise stated.

4 Spiritual formation is often called discipleship, and all Christ-following Christians are called to be Jesus’ disciple as they become more and more like Him. As Jim Putman puts it “a disciple is a person who is following Christ (head); is being changed by Christ (heart); is committed to the mission of Christ (hands),” showing that there is a mental, spiritual and a physical response that occurs in a person when they encounter grace. 4 This transformation is only possible by God’s Spirit as a person abides and devotes their time, attention and affections to our Savior as stated by Jesus, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NIV). A disciple is completely incapable of any spiritual formation if they rely on their own ability. Only by abiding in and relying on Jesus, are we able to be transformed into the image of our Lord and Savior, as God works in us and through us as a vessel for His Spirit to impact and change us and the world around us. Apart from Jesus, we can do NOTHING!!! Three Areas of Spiritual Growth Rob Dempsey posits that the three main areas of spiritual formation and discipleship are, “Loving God (relating to God), loving one another (nurturing relationships), and loving our neighbors (apostolic mission) is the DNA of a follower of Jesus.” 5 All three of these main areas are physical outpourings of love as God works through His Holy Spirit in and through the disciple. “In fact, the first fruit of walking in and being controlled by the Spirit of God is love. As we become more loving, our influence and impact on the world around us become tangible.” 6 [4] Jim Putman et al, Disciple Shift: Five Steps That Help Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013) 51, accessed March 18, 2020, https://app.wordsearchbible.com [5] Dave Early and Rod Dempsey, Spiritual Formation Is… (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2018), 100 [6] Ibid., 99

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