Based upon your reading of Foundations of Spiritual Formation: A Community Approach to Becoming Like Christand your own personal experience, write a 1,000-word (double-spaced, 12-point font) blog post

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY

Spiritual Formation Blog Post

Submitted to Dr. Paul Greer,

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of

RTCH 500 – B10

Research, Writing, and Ministry Preparation

by

March 16, 2018

Spiritual Formation Concepts that I Need to Incorporate into my Own Walk of Faith

Reading Foundations of Spiritual formation by Paul Pettit has helped me to gain a better understanding of what spiritual formation is, and it has also helped me to know the elements that are necessary for spiritual formation. One of the concepts addressed in the book that I need to incorporate into my own walk of faith is character and spiritual formation. The author explained in his book that for a person to experience spiritual formation, they must have a good character. To understand how character affects spiritual formation, we must first have a clear understanding of what character is. Pettit defines character as the attributes or traits by which we identify someone or something. (page 146). The bible tells us in Genesis 1:27 that God created man in His own image; therefore, God’ character should be the standard by which we measure our own character. We must also aspire to be like Christ. Jackson Brown Jr. wrote “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are” Character is one of the most important elements of spiritual formation or spiritual growth.

Another concept that was addressed in the book that I need to incorporate into my own walk of faith is love and spiritual formation. It is hard to imagine that one can have a spiritual formation without him or her first learning to love. Love is the most important element to spiritual formation because Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40 that the most important commandment is that we must love the Lord our God with all our hearts, our souls, and our minds. He also said in the same verse that we must love our neighbor as ourselves. According to John 3:16, it was because of love that God sent his only son Jesus Christ to die on the cross so that we can have eternal life. We must not just love those who love us, but Jesus instructs us to love our enemies as well. We must love unconditionally. Loving unconditionally will lead to a true spiritual formation.

How I Plan to Incorporate the Two Concepts into my Walk of Faith

The first concept I learned was character and spiritual formation. To apply this concept to my life, I will begin by demonstrating the elements that form a good character. I will make sure that I always tell the truth, regardless of the consequences. Telling the truth will let people see me as a person of integrity and will lead to others trusting me. Another way I can exhibit a good character is to put other first. Anyone who is selfish will certainly not experience spiritual formation. I will make sure that everything I do, I put the interest of those involved first. I will also make sure that my actions do not harm others. For example, O work in sales, and sometimes I have seen some of my co-workers selling products to clients when they know that the client does not really need that product. They only do so because they earn a commission. Anyone who does this cannot have a spiritual formation because it is a sin. I will always make sure that I put my clients first.

To incorporate love and spiritual formation into my daily activities, I will always make sure that I treat others as I would like them to treat me. Since I love myself, and will never do anything to hurt myself, treating others like I would treat myself will help me not to do anything to hurt them. Another way I can show love is to be generous. I will hare whatever I have with those in need. For example. I will adopt a charity organization such as those caring for the homeless and give financial donation to that organization on a regular basis. Jesus has commanded has to give to those in need, so doing this will help me with my spiritual formation. Besides financial donations, I will also give my time to help other believers grow in Christ. Donating your time to help others is a great way to show that you love them. I will continue to volunteer at my church to help teach the Sunday school, and I will love everyone unconditionally.

One piece of Advice that I Think will help another person to continue to grow in Christ

For a person planning to enter a seminary, one piece of advice that I think will help him/her continue to grow in his/her faith while enrolled in seminary is that he or she should always look for the opportunity to put what he/she is learning at school into practical use. This is the best way to grow spiritually. There are many Christians who read the Bible regularly, but they do not see any spiritual formation or spiritual growth because they do not practice what they read. The same situation applies to seminary school. Bible colleges teach great principles on spiritual formation. The goal of bible colleges is to raise men and women to be like Christ and go out to make other disciples. My advice to another person in seminary is that he/she should look for the opportunity serve others, especially if they are not already holding a ministerial position. I will tell them to volunteer at other departments in their church or go out to participate in missionary work when they have the opportunity. When he/she puts what is learned from school to practical use, they will see that they are growing spiritually.

Bibliography

Pettit, Paul. Foundations of Spiritual Formation: A Community Approach to Becoming like

Christ. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2008.