New Journeys on Well-Worn Paths
Rediscovering ancient practices in spiritual formation.
Rick Crocker wanted to go home. Two weeks into his sabbatical at a monastery in Pecos, New Mexico, Crocker felt uncomfortable. This was a strange place for a Christian and Missionary Alliance pastor from Erie, Pennsylvania, to find himself. And the schedule of fixed-hour prayer five times a day felt strange. Crocker considered calling it quits, until a conversation with another retreatant convinced the pastor he was out of his element, but still in God's plan.
He's glad he stayed.
"One of the instructors, Bruce Demarest, is a professor at Denver Seminary who had studied spiritual direction there at Pecos," Crocker said. "To spend the time with someone who is thoroughly evangelical in the environment of Benedictine spirituality--ora et labora, prayer and work--with monks and nuns with a charismatic bent was thoroughly refreshing."
Six weeks among them changed the way Crocker views spiritual formation.
We want to make the spiritual disciplines gritty and normal, not just mystical.
"We evangelicals tend to act like nothing existed in church history prior to the Reformation. While this isn't our tradition and we don't agree in all areas of theology and doctrine, there are many things of great value that we can draw from these wells."
And Crocker is not alone in his view.
In the nearly 30 years since Richard Foster wrote the classic Celebration of Discipline, the study of the spiritual practices of the pre-Reformation church has enjoyed a growing audience. To many Protestants at the time, it seemed the Quaker theologian practically invented the disciplines, until his exhortations to solitude, fasting, contemplation, and the like fueled the study of the Desert Fathers, ascetics, and monastics whose teachings were mostly the domain of Catholic spirituality.
"A lot of Protestants have discovered we kind of threw the baby out with the bathwater in the Reformation, in terms of practices," said Presbyterian minister Marjorie Thompson, director for the Pathways Center for Spiritual Leadership. "Now we're coming back and rediscovering them, and turning to our Catholic sisters and brothers because they're the ones with the expertise."
So Protestants in increasing numbers are bringing the classic disciplines into their spiritual practice. Bible-only Baptists are finding Lent, exuberant Pentecostals are employing silence, staid Episcopalians are walking labyrinths, free churches are following lectio divina, and iconoclastic evangelicals everywhere are bringing art back into the sanctuary. Why, after five centuries of stripped-down, theologically precise worship and three decades of rhythm-driven contemporary relevance, are silence and stained glass cool again?
What's driving it? Postmodern church expert Len Sweet framed worship in the 21st century as EPIC: experiential, participatory, image-driven, and communal. His description applies equally to life in emerging churches as it does to the centuries-old monastic communities that birthed these ancient practices. The spiritual connection between the two is what's amazing.
"There is a movement not only back to the disciplines, but a kind of instinctive, if not fully articulated desire to know the whole heritage of Christianity," said Phyllis Tickle, an expert in religious publishing and author of a best-selling series of books on fixed-hour prayer, The Divine Hours.
When Tickle speaks on the disciplines, she starts with Abraham's offering to Melchizedek, showing the Abrahamic roots of what she calls the first discipline, tithing. Tickle finds strong new interest in the ancient practices among Pentecostals, citing the Vineyard denomination in particular, and of course among those under 40. "Over and over I hear from younger Christians, 'Don't give us cheap grace. Give us religion that costs us something.' The laity I hear from may not know Bonhoeffer, but they're using his words."
In Erie, Rick Crocker's congregation continues to grow, both in attendance and spiritual depth, he said. Several early morning prayer meetings have started since the pastor's own personal renewal. Twice yearly Crocker holds an all-day prayer session using the lectio divina. He encourages journaling and silence. And he offers formation classes as part of the midweek Christian education program. Crocker doesn't force his practices on the church, but many are curious.
"I don't think it's a good thing for us to force our pattern of spiritual formation on someone else. We can share what we are learning and encourage others to take a look at it as well. It's kind of unusual for us to be talking in these terms, after all, I'm Christian and Missionary Alliance," Crocker said. "Some of my colleagues think I'm into smells and bells--they may look at me suspiciously--but I'm enjoying the journey. I really am"
(Reed, Leadership Journal, Summer 2005, http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2005/003 21.44.html