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Beyond the Ordinary
Spirituality for church
leaders
Ben Campbell Johnson & Andrew Dreitcer, Eerdmans, 2001, 169p
Review by Ray Hoekzema
Spirituality has become a topic of conversation in and outside the
church. Though reluctant to speak about church and religion, those
outside the church seem to have no difficulty talking about
spirituality. Many of us in the church share the same longing, and find
ourselves also searching for more vital spirituality, a life of faith
which is newer, fresher, more vibrant. Spirituality not only encompasses
attitudes of the heart and the practice of spiritual disciplines but
also includes all the ways we live our lives before God.
The authors say that there is still a good deal of misperception about
the meaning of spirituality. We are wary of the hypocritical
spirituality that Jesus warns about in Math 6:1 & 5-7; of
exhibitionistic spirituality that longs to be noticed and praised such
as we see displayed on television. Our suspicion of spirituality also
stems from our disgust with those who use it to escape responsibility,
bend the rules, blame others, or twist an interpretation. Spirituality
has also been misused by a vast number of pretenders - persons
presenting themselves as something they are not.
The authors say that these two realities – the spiritual hunger of the
masses and the suspicion of spirituality on the part of both church
members and church leaders – place many leaders in a bind. Every serious
leader knows that the yearning for the Spirit is a sign of the Presence
of God at work, but this sign also evokes feelings of frustration and
inadequacy. But there are other – and perhaps greater – forces at work.
It is said that the nominal brand of religion that shaped many believers
in recent decades contributes to the lack of spiritual depth in many
congregations and pastors today.
The collapse of our culture, alternately labelled postmodern,
post-denominational, secular, or pluralistic, has created much of the
shaking and quaking in the lives of men and women in congregations
today. What turnaround would we experience if ministers laid down their
old, negative struggles with spirituality and open themselves to the
hard questions of a new generation and elders became discerners of the
Spirit instead of managers of the church’s business? Using anecdotal
information and experiences, the authors attempt to demonstrate that
pain is one of our best instructors. For instance, the conflicting
expectations of a congregation and their minister could, through the
work of the Spirit, lead both to a rich new place with God, a situation
in which a spirituality that avoids superficiality and embraces a
relationship with God steadies the soul and empowers it in time of
upheaval.
The authors confirm their own suspicion about superficial ministers by
seizing on what Eugene Peterson wrote in his Working the Angles, a book
destined to be a classic of pastoral spirituality. He wrote: “The
pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and
the shops they keep are churches.” Peterson’s book title is a metaphor
from trigonometry. Most of what we see in a triangle is lines but what
determines the proportions and the shape of the whole are the angles.
The visible lines of pastoral work are preaching, teaching, and
administration. The small angles of this ministry are prayer, Scripture,
and spiritual direction. Peterson warns that the lines don’t work unless
the angles are given proper attention. Johnson and Dreitcer are in basic
agreement but take this idea one step further by emphasising that
spiritually nourishing experiences and encounters with God occur not
only in the angles but also along the lines, in the practice of
teaching, preaching, administration, and congregational care.
The authors chose to identify three dimensions of spirituality, i.e. the
sacramental, the activist and the mystical dimension, a spirituality
grounded in baptism, informed by the example of Jesus, and empowered by
His living Presence. The more transparent we are to the Presence of God,
the more fully the power of God flows through our thoughts, feelings and
activities, and the more authentically we minister. The power that flows
through ministry is a convictional power and one that manifests itself
through the body of Christ is also transformative. Leaders need to be
equipped to nurture both the personal and corporate spirituality of
their congregations.
In one chapter the authors deal with the character or story of
individual congregations, which they refer to as an invisible force or
myth, affecting every act of ministry. Either the myth of a congregation
supports and empowers the spiritual life of the community, or it resists
and confuses it. A new minister always needs to discover the myth and
before attempting to transform the myth, embrace it – even if it may not
seem immediately attractive, and the watchword is “handle with care”.
The process of change is slow and requires patience and persistence, as
well as solid support from a group of lay persons who share in
leadership.
The book is explicitly written to help church leaders who have had no
formal training in spiritual formation. The authors have taught
Christian spirituality for many years and drawing from their
experiences, explore the spiritual dimensions of leadership, looking in
depth at the meaning of spirituality – a spirituality grounded in the
Word – as it relates to the task of ministry. It is written for personal
and group use and includes questions for reflections and discussion at
the end of each chapter and at the end of the book a number of
cutting-edge issues to help keep the subject in context. Though the book
is helpful and edifying, it is not without its questions. In some later
chapters the directions for ‘achieving’ spirituality seem somewhat
monastic and artificial. What I did find irksome was that the authors
seemed unnaturally keen to acknowledge women in ministry and, perhaps
wanting to be ‘politically correct’, overcompensated by having a woman
in almost every example, analogy and experience they cited.
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