Why is Formation Important?
Christian formation is the process of increasingly, over time taking on the image of Jesus Christ, with us becoming little icons of the God that we have come to know in the second personality of the Trinity. Becoming like Jesus is the end of religious life from a Christian perspective. Once our hands, hearts, and heads are conformed to the hand, heart, and head of Jesus we no longer need religion. This is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer referred to as “religionless Christianity.” Enjoining this process of Christian formation is vitally important for men and women in our day as it has been in every day since the process of Christ-following was established some two thousand years ago. This is an opportunity for us to become our fullest selves, to live into the abundant life that Jesus offers (John 10:10), and to do so not only for ourselves but for the whole world in which we live. Now, of course, in most discussions of spiritual formation—and in this I mean both sacred and secular, organized and non-organized religion and the many programs for self-improvement that we can find outlined in books and videos—those doing the teaching focus on what is in the formation process for us personally: metaphysical states like peacefulness and endearment and happiness as well as actual physical responses such as a lowered blood pressure or weight loss. All of these are wonderful benefits, but for Christian spiritual formation the goal is much larger. Since we follow and are attempting to become like an actual person that lived, died, and was resurrected for the sake of others then that should be the goal for our own formation, that is, giving ourselves over to a process that will move our hearts towards the needs of the world around us. I am selfish. If I give my life and my time to the concerns of God the Creator, I will naturally become other-centered. I have lots of pride. If I pay attention to what God in Jesus is doing and who he spent time with in the Gospels then I will become more humble. I am covetous. If I listen to the whispers of God as Spirit throughout the day I will learn that all that I need is right before me, all the time. And in sum total these changes in my disposition towards my own self-needs will make me more available to the lives of others around me. The change in my own internal environment will lead to a change in the immediate social environment because I will now be acting out of a different, reformed center. Part of what makes formation so vital for our day is that these personal changes that I just described also apply to people groups—families and congregations and ethnicities and nations. There is a group-think that occurs in each of these that needs to be transformed. For some reason we think our family is better than other families or our race is better than other races or our country is favored by God and should be especially blessed. Well, quite frankly, this is contrary to the biblical vision. We people of the book—Muslims and Jews and Christians—are all children of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar, and they were called to be a blessing to all peoples (Gen 12:1-3). Christian formation, and arguably the process of formation that is offered by the other religious traditions, is a primary antidote to the malice and conflict that we find so prevalent in our world today. We are given a vision in Scripture of a world reconciled to God (Isa 11 and 65, Rev 7, etc.), we are called to become part of the people that bring this world about (just as Jesus called the first disciples), and we are given the tools for this formative process in Scripture (see, for example, the Sermon on the Mount) and in the devotional history of the Church (found first in but not limited to the sacraments and lives and writings of the saints). Now the opportunity is ours to become partners with God, Abraham/Sarah/Hagar and the first family, Moses and the prophets, the early Church, and the whole of the community of saints throughout history to crucify ourselves and follow Jesus and become the kind people that bring about God’s dream for the world. — Lyle SmithGraybeal