Spirit-free Spirituality

I was raised without much talk of "spirit," whether Holy Spirit or anything else. My only recollection of hearing the word was in terms of death, when one's spirit leaves the body.

Spiritual talk, then, is a foreign language for me, like speaking in tongues without being Pentecostal.

My upbringing is cessationist, believing the Spirit's work was finished at the close of the apostolic era. Charismatics were way off my radar and the few times I heard my charismatic friends talk about church I got pretty scared. I know a lot more now, but I'm still uncomfortable with speaking in tongues, etc. That's not where I'm headed with spirituality.

So how can I talk about spirituality since I'm a post-cessationist, non-charismatic? Admittedly, it is a foreign language, but I and my compatriots are trying to learn the tongue.

One realization came from reading--you've got to love this--Acts 2:38. I knew the stuff about what I was supposed to do (repent and baptized) but the verse--yes the very same verse!--talks about receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit connected to baptism. Acts 2:39 says the promise of the Holy Spirit cuts across time and geography. Maybe there is some amount of spirit for me, a foreigner to the Spirit's land.

Eugene Peterson points out that the promise is not the promise of spiritual gifts, but the promise of the Spirit himself. This is not about what I can do, but about a powerful relationship with the Holy Spirit of God.

So spirituality begins with acknowledging that God is active in me by his Spirit. Talk about a paradigm shift! This means the spirit is doing more than merely animating me, waiting to flee my corporeal tent once I kick the bucket. It means never being alone, never far from God. It means having comfort to support me in what God wants me to do. It means having community support regardless of where I am.

So much spirituality talk today is about getting in contact with the inner me, having profound experiences that enrich who I am. Self-understanding and deep experiences are fantastic, but they don't necessarily have anything to do with the Spirit promised by God to meet me on the upside of the baptismal dunk. This spirit talk has no more Spirit than what I was raised with.

We need to move quickly past the albatross of a Spirit-free spirituality.

Fake Spirituality

Two forms of fake spirituality plague ministers: solipsism and capitalism. Both are well known and frequently mocked.

Solipsistic spirituality is the classic bookworm preacher who has no contact with people. His motto is "desk work is God's work." He understands his spirituality based on his own insight and knowledge, and he sees his job as transmitting his insights to those who come into his path.

Capitalistic spirituality, on the other hand, values production above all. This minister's motto is "Head count is all that counts." He constructs events that draw a crowd--any crowd--and determines his own success based on the size of the group.

Both groups have a scriptural basis--Mary and Martha are good examples. Solipsism says, "study to show yourself approved," and capitalism say, "Go and make disciples." Both are good, but the fact is that someone can study without showing himself approved, and one can go and get followers without making disciples.

Working at a graduate school, and being a product of said school, solipsism is an occupational hazard. We work intentionally to push students out of the library (OK, some we have to push INTO the library!) and into real ministry. These folks do not draw a crowd. It isn't their intellectualism that drives people away, but their inability to make their knowledge real for the average person simply does not attract the masses. They confuse acquisition of knowledge with ministry.

On the flip side, I have been at conferences where the speaker talks about "ten easy steps to grow a huge ministry." They tend to have an anti-intellectual bias, even to the point of degrading serious study, rather than seeing it as a tool. The speakers had fantastic stories of people loving each other in Christ, but from the speeches, I'm not sure how often Christ showed up. There is a lot of people and a lot of hype, and Jesus tacked on at the end. Most of what I find I also find at marketing conferences--as if sales and conversions are the same thing. They confuse community in Christ with a happy group of people.

My guess is that both groups are equally successful in the process of making disciples. Solipsism yields few converts, but the converts are good ones. Capitalists have many converts, but few endure past the hype. [The parable of the soils comes to mind.]

We cannot ignore the need for a minister to grow in knowledge and have a rich devotional life. Nor can ministers make excuses for not being evangelistic. A spiritual community assumes both kinds of perspectives in balance.

Balancing the need to have one's own spirit fed and feeding the masses is a spiritual struggle. One small victory in the battle--and this may be the hardest battle--is recognizing solipsism or capitalism in our own definitions of ministry. May God's Spirit speak to our spirits!