Of fundamental importance to the spiritual formation of Christ’s followers are a range of issues which cluster around the idea of our dependence on Him to produce certain virtues. In this particular venue it is the virtue of clearly and effectively proclaiming the good news that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself--with all that it implies! And it implies a great deal.
While the issue of spiritual formation and virtues are teased out in a general way on the “eastern” side of the divide on this site, it is worth our time to say a few things about the need to address this particular virtue (or excellence) here and now.
Again, on the “eastern" side of the continental divide (as we use those terms) on this site we take time to address the history of the Church regarding its variance of views about the nature, purpose and means by which spiritual formation for Christ followers is accomplished in this life. But, since the subject comes up here and space will not allow for a complete review of that material, we wish to sketch out the theological position we take.
Because of the inherent problems with simply proof texting, we wish to outline what we think are some important questions and issues. At a fundamental level we hold that as followers of Jesus Christ we now trust that He indwells us and is able to perform through us His good will and in particular if we trust Him to use us in this ministry of reconciliation, He will in an important way do that through us.
It is not something we hope He will do or even necessarily feel that He is doing through us. Rather, with some qualifications and nuances, we take confidence that as we have yielded ourselves to Him in the journey of our lives--as a way of life--He desires and is able to use our temperament, personality, personal narrative, and social gifts to participate with Him in this process of reconciling others to Himself.
In this cooperative effort where we depend in a fundamental way on Him to do what He can only do, we thus acknowledge that He has also chosen us to be used by Him doing those things mentioned above. He didn’t have to do this that way, but He chose to include us as a participant in the process of reconciling the world to Himself.
We do our 100% and He does His 100% and his 100% is more important than ours. So in the human 100% of the equation as a part of our stewardship we seek to be found faithful in the development, nurturing and use of the gifts He has given to us.
We also wish to say that we have also found it extremely useful in the early development of this cooperative arrangement to consciously acknowledge our confidence that He is working and His ability to use us where we are in our journeys to the extent He wishes and in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.
A good way to capture this basic stance of faith is to acknowledge to God (and ourselves) that we cooperate in this process of reconciliation of the world to Christ by trusting that He has the capacity to use us where we are in our journey. That is, use us in the lives of the people and communities with whom we seek to serve, by means of His Spirit working in us and through us. In a fundamental way we trust Him to reconcile others through us, whether we feel like it’s happening or not and we leave the results to Him.