Spiritual Formation

Drawing a picture of what
spiritual maturity looks like

Christianity in Namibia has often been called "a mile wide and an inch deep." That's why, when asked to facilitate the Campus Crusade for Christ staff retreat, I chose the topic of developing the inner spiritual life. They sounded about as excited to hear about the topic as I was to share it! Not only that, but they always say the teacher learns more than the student. I must say I have greatly benefited from my reading and study in preparation for facilitating this topic.

In our first session together we looked at our goal for spirituality. What does spiritual maturity look like? We often get the idea that it's external things, like how well we dress for church or how much money we give. But spiritual maturity cannot be defined by external criteria. So we looked at inner spiritual maturity through three different lenses:
1) Spiritual maturity is becoming the kind of person who lives out a spiritual life.
2) Spiritual maturity is learning to want what God wants.
3) Spiritual maturity is thinking God's thoughts after Him.

We spent our second session diagnosing our spiritual lives with questions that reached to our inner lives and not just the surface stuff. So we didn't ask things like, "Do you read the Bible?" But rather we asked, "Do you love the Bible and allow it to have authority over your life?" These kinds of questions reach to our inner spiritual lives.

Then we looked at some hindrances to spiritual formation, or ways that we sabotage our own spiritual development. We discussed how things like Christian education, spiritual busyness, unconfessed sin, and self-deception can all hinder us from growing toward spiritual maturity.

Communion service at sunset on the dunes

Then lastly we looked at how developing the inner spiritual life takes self-discipline. We have to become masters of our sinful flesh instead of allowing it to master us. Throughout the history of the Church people have used practices called spiritual disciplines to help develop their inner spiritual lives. The disciplines aren't anything magic in themselves, but they help put us in a position to receive God's transforming grace. God is the one who does the work, but it takes discipline to allow Him the time and space to shape our inner lives.

This is easily one of my favorite topics to talk about, especially here where religion largely stops at the external. I think this is an aspect of discipleship that has generally been left in the Middle Ages. We mostly focus on the external, not the internal. But when we recognize that our external lives are simply an overflow of our inner lives, it places a greater value on developing the inner spiritual life. As we shape our inner spiritual lives by pressing deeply into the depths of God, only then can we live out of those depths in our external lives.

Learning football on the beach

But besides our main sessions, we also had a lot of fun! On the first night I taught them a new card game, Up and Down the River, and they were so hooked that we played it every night! Also, using a mini-rugby ball, I taught them American football on the beach. It took a few times of explaining the rules, but they picked it up pretty quickly. Overall it was a really nice time and great getting to know the team that ministers to our nation's university students.

They must've seen "the huddle" in a football movie somewhere.

Sunset from the dunes

Guys pic!

CCC Namibia staff (minus 2)

Fall in SA

One of my favorite things about fall in New England is the extravagant colors of the changing leaves. I don't get much of that in Namibia. So it was nice to see some changing leaves at the conference center in Joburg while I'm here for this year's regional SIM Conference. This week I've joined SIM missionaries and church leaders from countries all over southern Africa at this lovely, quiet conference center in Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss issues like member care and discipleship in the southern African context. It's been great to meet lots of other people who have a similar passion for ministry in this part of the world. It's also been reinvigorating hearing stories of what God's doing in their countries and envisioning what He still has planned for Namibia!

Aside from the meetings and sessions, we also had some good downtime which was nice for me. The conference center has a nice garden with a little pond where I could sit on the grass (which we don't have much of in Namibia!) and soak up some vitamin D while typing away at my lessons for the upcoming CCC retreat. The cooler fall weather made it bearable and actually pleasant to sit in the sun. Not too shabby for an afternoon office space! One time I almost stepped on this big guy, which could have been painful since I was wearing sandals!

It's also been cool because many of the people are originally from all over the world, places like Korea, Australia, Switzerland, and the UK. I love the inter-cultural flavor of the Christian church! After one session we sang the simple chorus "God is so good" in all the different languages represented in the room. It was a nice foretaste of Revelation 7:9, "I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb."

Colorful sunset by the pond

False "Profits"

One of my co-lecturers at Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary (NETS) has long been an Evangelical voice against the prosperity gospel in Namibia. His latest brazen response against these false teachers, published in today's Namibian newspaper, gives an unfortunately accurate picture of a large segment of "Christianity" in Namibia and the effects on its followers. You can read the article online here: The Spiritual Supermarket.

The Changing Face of Missions

The world of missions is changing. It used to be that Western countries were taking the gospel to unreached peoples in other parts of the world. But now Christianity has taken root in many of those places and they are sending out their own missionaries. So now missionaries are being sent from everywhere to everywhere!

It was my privilege this past weekend to take part in commissioning a good friend and former NETS graduate who will be heading off as a “missionary” to Scotland. He’ll be working at a Christian hostel where he will have many opportunities to share Jesus with those he interacts with. It’s exciting to see Namibia not only receiving, but also sending out people for Christian ministry around the globe!

Fishers of People

When was the last time you explicitly talked to someone about following Jesus? Religion is always one of those taboo topics that most people don't want to talk about, yet religion addresses the deepest questions of life that everyone must answer. What's the point of everything? What am I here for? What's truly satisfying in life? Am I accountable to anyone? What happens when I die? These are questions that Christianity has good answers for. But we tend to keep those answers to ourselves because we're afraid people might think we're judgmental or too religious or just plain weird. But sharing the answers to questions like those with people who don't know Jesus is exactly what we're here for! But instead we tend to walk around hiding our light under a cover and thinking if somebody asks me about it then maybe I'll mumble something religious before changing the subject.

I've mentioned before that I'm involved in a young adult Bible study on Sunday nights that specifically addresses this topic. We meet together weekly at the park to encourage each other and keep each other accountable on how we're doing with sharing the gospel with others. We share testimonies of opportunities we've had the past week or of struggles we've had. We do Bible studies to challenge and motivate us and to help us learn how to better share the gospel. We worship together and pray together and weekly send each other out on mission. Obedience is a lot easier when we're doing it together in community.

The Great Commission in Matthew 28 isn't optional. It's a command. And if we're not doing it then we're being disobedient. So let me ask again, how's your sharing going?

Village Life

Everything is a bit slower in the village. You can take your time waking and getting ready for the day. Meals take longer to cook. Recreation takes longer to organize. Preaching messages (as they're translated) takes longer. Even slow conversations in the shade of a tree fill the long afternoon. The only thing that's shorter is the amount of time you can run the water in the shower.

I was invited to speak at an Easter Conference for Grace Reformed Baptist Church. One of the members was hosting the conference at his homestead in the village, over 100km off the tar road and some 30km into the bush past anything even resembling a town. What I mean by village is a number of spaced-out plots each with a house and a cattle krall, surrounded by some communal grazing land. It doesn't even get a name on the map.

We were the first to arrive at the homestead in the late afternoon and helped others set up their tents as they continued arriving throughout the evening. After dark the men sat around the fire drinking tea while the women were preparing a late dinner on the same fire. The meal was pap and soup and of course, some meat. Fortunately they served me chicken, figuring I probably wouldn't be interested in what everyone else was having . . . cow stomach. They were right. (Note: I wasn't just copping out. I've tried cow stomach before and was not a fan!)

The theme of the conference was "The Wrath of God." I was asked to do four sessions on the doctrinal aspects, while another speaker was doing four talks on the practical side of it. At first the prospect was a bit intimidating, but the more I prepared and studied the more excited I became about it. The doctrine of the wrath of God is certainly under attack in our culture today. It makes God seem judgmental and angry, when really we just want Him to be tolerant and loving. Therefore, I presented a defense of the wrath of God based on the consistency of His character. The first morning we looked at God's wrath as a response to His holiness (2 Sam. 6:1-11). During the second session we looked at God's wrath as the necessary response of His justice (Gen. 18:16-33). The third lesson was reconciling God's wrath with His mercy, seen in Christ's death on the cross satisfying God's wrath on our behalf (Lev. 16; Mark 15). And then the last evening we looked at the wrath of God still to come on those who reject Christ (Rev. 19:11-21), and God's patience allowing them more time to repent (2 Pet. 3:9). I never thought I would be much of a fire and brimstone preacher, but sometimes that's what teaching the full council of God's Word requires.

By the end of the weekend I had heard a lot of encouraging feedback. One guy, being challenged by the over 2 million people dying in Namibia without Christ, wanted to leave his job in the city, move back to his town and start a small business to support the family, and commit his time to sharing Christ in his own community. In reality I don't imagine he will go to those lengths, but it shows that his heart was stirred to action. And that was our goal, as our final prayer together was that we may be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

We had a friendly guest crash the conference, usually at meal time.

We organized a game of volleyball despite the gusty wind.

Speaking at one of our morning sessions

A baptism after our Sunday morning church service

The whole crew at the conference

Photo of the Day

Last summer sunset