The Spiritual Formation Of The United States

Wilhoit, while teaching and having dialogue with his students pertaining to their spirituality formative influences which lead to conducting interviews with a number of church leaders, he realized, through these stories and interviews there has been a “sea of change in our formational structures and their effects will take a generation to fully manifest themselves.(13)” This establishes the basis for writing this book, to make a “call to intentionality about our formation and to repentance about how we have tried to engineer formation more than we have prayerfully opened our lives and our churches to God’s grace(14)”.

The compassion shown by the Pastors and leaders helps people's faith walk become "a mile deep" while walking in Christ and engaging in the community. Individuals who remain active in the church, are the ones discovering their gifts and using their talents for the glory of God and to build the kingdom of God up. Also, the church must take ownership of their faith and grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ to the point where they are willing and ready to reinvest their faith into the life of another person. One of the ways to succeed in doing this is by putting together

Spirituality is one of the most important aspects of life to some communities, cultures, and nations. People who believe in God usually become more spiritual as they age. In American societies, the mosques and churches have older people than younger people. In most cases, we become more spiritual or at least start looking for religious answers when we are faced with a death in the family. In a study by Moremen,(2005), 26 older women who had not experienced a life changing even or recent death in their families were interviewed on their views in terms of “their place” in society” and the “order of things”. None of the participants were facing a terminal illness. The majority stated that they wanted to understand things and were looking towards

While the goal of Christian education and discipleship is spiritual formation of the new believer into a true disciple who makes other true disciples, this concept has been watered down in the American church today by emphasis on programs instead of progressive spiritual growth in every member’s life. There are many

A church whose pastor and others in leadership have failed to put in place a proactive plan for discipleship for Believers is usually a “growing” church — growing stagnant, growing cold, growing spiritually immature Christians, and eventually, many growing closed. Patte said, “There is much at stake in accepting or rejecting the challenge of discipleship…” When a pastor or a church makes a conscious decision to make discipleship of Believers a primary focus in their

Spiritual nationalism is the emotion that invoked the people of America to take action after severe taxation was put in place by the British government on goods like sugar (Sugar Act of 1764), stamps (Stamp Act of 1765), and tea (Tea Act 1773). This was in order for Great Britain to collect more money from the American Colonies. America revolted from 1763 to 1775 with the main goal of a united national identity in America where all would be created equal and have a superior quality of life. Many colonists pushed for separation from Britain so the Colonies could be a separate, democratic nation, which spurred on revolutionary ideals by feeding a growing sense of nationalism in the United States. The Sugar Act was the beginning of Britain overstepping

What is spiritual formation? That is a question many evangelical Christian’s began to wonder as it became a popular topic of discussion within many Christian churches in the past twenty years. Dallas Willard in this article takes a look at that question throughout this excerpt from a book he wrote in 1999. Throughout this piece he takes an in depth look at what spiritual formation looks like in different contexts. He begins with what it might look like for the average person walking down the street, but then transitions to what it should look like in the life of a believer in Jesus. Willard is thorough in giving us what spiritual formation is and even why it is such an important part of the life of a Christian.

Function, order and fruit issue from this law of life within. It was solely on this principle that what we have in the New Testament came into being. Organized Christianity has entirely reversed this order” (Viola, 2010). After reviewing the Rod Dempsey’s Disciple Making is: Evaluating Church Models Chart, this is more of a cult model: incarnational lived out in the community, relational missional groups, intentional mentoring in the community (Dempsey, 2015).

My model for spiritual formation in the local church would include spiritual, relational, and missional aspects such as personal devotions, spiritual friendships, participating in corporate worship, and serving God’s Kingdom.

God is using the church to restore broken lives. We should greet each other warmly and compliment the good things in each other’s lives. The author makes a distinction between compliments an entertainer might receive as opposite a ministry-oriented church. An entertainer might hear things related to looks and performance whereas a church member would hear things related to how you were helped by the message and song. Churches that move ahead anticipate mistakes because they know that people are not perfect. They allow the members to grow and exercise their spiritual gifts and skills for the edification of the body. The church leadership is to encourage spiritual growth, but some in leadership may be uncomfortable letting people discover and use their gifts because it might not be in the style they are comfortable with. It might look like, “it is our way or the highway.” “And the church becomes paralyzed because it can’t tolerate the possibility of somebody messing things up.” (p. 109) David Mains sites two main church areas that are prone to perfectionism. They are the kitchens and sanctuaries. Heaven forbid, someone comes in and puts the spoons in a different drawer or the pots on a different shelf. The women in the church have strong feeling about how a kitchen should be organized. The church members can either work it out or eliminate the kitchen. The

Perhaps out of concern that the process may reflect corporate culture more than a biblical one, it is argued that planters should be called by God and organizations should not tell those who are called that they cannot plant a church. Some

I am not passively receiving and serving in the gifts of the Spirit, I am actively pursuing, receiving, and cultivating them. And all of this requires an ongoing transformation of my inner being. Spiritual formation lays the foundation and provides a suitable framework for the exercise of gifts of the Spirit by the individual and group, and the appropriate exercise of those gifts by the individual for the group, and by the group for the individual, is necessary if the spiritual formation is to go forward as it should. Gifts by themselves do little to form the spirits of those who exercise them. Gifts of the spirit are not substitutes for spiritual formation, though they must be involved in

Religion has played a large role throughout History. Entire nations have been founded on the ideals of one religion or another, and many wars have been fought purely for religious reasons. In fact there are wars still going on that are almost completely religiously motivated. New Religions may form, old religions may die or change, but they will always be a part of our culture and society. Religion always seems to play a large role in the formation of societies and cultures, and the history of the United States is no different from that of the rest of the world. Religion played a major role in the formation of the United States of America. More specifically between 1607 when

In the Christian context, formation is the process by which someone is made a disciple of Christ; it is “a continual process in the individual of maturation in faith and likeness to Christ, according to the will of the Father, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit”. It is “the call to growth and a continual process of maturation, of always bearing much fruit.” Thus, formation entails a gradual and continual process of conversion that happens day by day throughout one’s life.

However, our church does have a spiritual growth plan call the growth track. The Growth Track puts Christians on a track to be lifelong followers of Christ.