Making Spiritual Formation Relevant to Life-long “Mission”

The “2nd Half Collaborative” (2HC) invites experienced mission workers to an intentional 10-month journey of greater spiritual depth, safe sharing and friendship. Listen in as two 2HC “learner-disciple” participants talk about making spiritual formation the lifelong nurturing paradigm for growth and fruitfulness.

Jamey:  My first Christmas in Indonesia as an adult was disheartening. I had returned to my childhood TCK “home” with my wife Cindy and our first child. I was regaining my language fluency and making visible strides of success. But the excitement and anticipation fueled by the training and preparation I had received were now behind me. Here I was at our treasured holiday season, and I should have been filled with joy and celebration. Instead I was facing the gap. The chasm between expectations and reality. I felt alone, keenly aware of the lack of inner resources to engage my neighbors as a vibrant and winsome Jesus follower. I was in a funk.

Decades later, I’m asking the basic questions I should have asked before leaving for the “field”—so many questions to consider. Questions of fruitfulness and personal flourishing that are typically missed when we recruit, mobilize, orient and train for overseas ministry. How will I respond when I encounter seasons of doubt and disorientation? What does lasting, nurturing contentment look like? How do I invite others to encounter Jesus rather than just hear my version of the “facts” about him?

We train in order to become skilled practitioners and experts—but if we can shift the paradigm and move our focus to the long arc of spiritual formation over a lifetime, it can transform the entire experience.[1] It moves us to a place of healthy, lasting inner work … carries us back to our vital conversations with Jesus about everyday experiences and all of life. It invites us to childlike simplicity and fruitful joy.

Ellen: I don’t think you were alone in that “funk”—for some of us it took longer to reach that wall. A lot of people in ministry are guarded about sharing those feelings, so we feel alone when our certainty starts crashing. But it’s not unusual to hear about deep questions troubling well-trained Christian workers.

I went overseas under a different paradigm—we were working in education. We didn’t have missions training or special expertise. The culture chasm was wide, and our expectations were vague, so maybe we were a little less disappointed at first.

But we faced similar challenges. How could we sustain ourselves through tough seasons and disappointments? What spiritual practices would nourish our well-being? How could we talk about Jesus in a community that wasn’t seeking His presence?

So we joined a mission agency, and it wasn’t long before we felt the pressure to “keep up” with goals and metrics. Numbers and success took over without us even realizing. We were soon doing all kinds of training to become more effective—monitoring our time and efforts, analyzing where to invest.

Jamey: The pressure to keep up can have unintended consequences. A subtle shift emerges as we mature in mission and become “experts” in our field of endeavor. Simply put, we become pride-filled and reliant upon our knowledge and experience. This is particularly true for men who are highly educated, have noticeable leadership skills, and whose social location privileges them for leadership roles.

God has a way of bringing us to our senses, reminding us of our humanness.

When we returned to the United States in 2016, Cindy and I resigned from our organization the following year. We sensed a calling to something new and different. I took several different jobs—becoming a barista, starting a life-coaching business on my own, being a resident manager at an apartment complex, becoming a part-time small group leader for “vocational formation” cohorts of seminary students. I had been a senior leader in our organization. I had advanced degrees in mission. I was fluent in the national language and regional language. Now, back in the U.S., I was no longer “special.”

It was humbling and—at times—even humiliating. Ouch. My pride was hurt. I see now how our focus on specialized training and equipping can reinforce a tiered system of being “special” in mission. Instead, a paradigm of “spiritual formation over a lifetime” helps to keep us focused on the simple rhythms that will continually shape us all as humble learner-disciples.

Ellen: In the first few weeks in 2HC, I saw leaders in “spiritual formation” approaching their role with deep regard for the dignity of each human spirit. The humility of co-learning infused our conversations. Respect for the timing of each person’s life is essential—what I have learned is not “mine” to teach, or even to explain. We each journey with the Spirit—and timing is key. If you are learning something that became clear to me years ago, that doesn’t mean I get to tell you how to proceed.

The practices of spiritual formation make room for each of us to encounter God’s light from our own “angle.” We find what we are ready to find, and grow at our own pace. We encourage each other by respecting that process, not by cheerleading or approving what we see or hear.

I can look back on my time overseas and see how I slowly came to understand that I didn’t have all the answers to give out to people of another faith. I had things I might passionately believe as true—but I also had things I could gain from taking a learning stance. I could engage others with curiosity and interest and let the Spirit be the “expert.”

Jamey: The Spirit of God is inviting us. The Lord God “awakens me morning by morning; He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple” (Isaiah 50:4). As we cultivate a posture of learner-disciple, we grow to become dear sisters and brothers in mission, loving mothers and fathers in mission and (eventually) wise elders who do not need to be the dominant light in the room. These roles prepare us to be along-siders who practice mutuality, who don’t need to win, and who join others as continual learners together under the goodness and guidance of Jesus.

What about you? How will you enter the long arc of spiritual formation over your lifetime as the framework for personal and ministry growth? How will this invite you into greater simplicity and intimacy with Jesus? What will you need to give up or change to see this paradigm grow in your own ministry context?

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[1] There is no standard definition of spiritual formation. M. Robert Mulholland provided a fourfold “working definition of spiritual formation” as “(1) a process (2) of being formed (3) in the image of Christ (4) for the sake of others” (in “A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation,” an article adapted from M. Robert Mulholland, Invitation to a Journey: A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation, InterVarsity Press, 2016. The article is available at: https://transformingcenter.org/2016/05/nature-spiritual-formation/ - downloaded August 4, 2022). See also Dallas Willard’s article “Spiritual Formation: What it is, and How it is Done” at https://dwillard.org/articles/spiritual-formation-what-it-is-and-how-it-is-done (downloaded August 4, 2022). Practically speaking, my own story of spiritual formation during my adult years in mission includes inner heart healing, learning to read the Scriptures to encounter Jesus rather than to master the text, growing my capacity to listen deeply to my own heart and to God and to others, relinquishing control to God and receiving his great love, and growing simple trust and reverence. This process is ongoing.

Photo by Amos Bar-Zeev on Unsplash.