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Richard Averbeck: On Spiritual Formation

This last Sunday, Dr. Richard Averbeck, Old Testament Professor from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School who is partnering with Timothy Training International, preached at GBC on The Presence of God. In his introduction, Pastor Arnold referred to Dr Averbeck as a professor of spiritual formation.

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What is Spiritual Formation? The following extract is taken from Dr. Averbeck's writing on the topic. 

Source: http://metamorpha.com/blog/2011/10/01/richard-averbeck-the-human-spirit-in-spiritual-formation/

Spiritual formation is increasingly becoming a term used in the academy and in the church here and around the world for a kind of ministry that focuses on going deeper and farther with Christ in the life of the individual Christian and the community of faith. Nevertheless, there is still today a great deal of confusion about what “spiritual formation” really is or should be in the evangelical context, and how it relates, for example, to “discipleship” and “sanctification.” Admittedly, like some of the other terms we regularly use in Christian theology (e.g., Trinity), “spiritual formation” is not actually a scriptural term. Given that, from a biblical point of view it seems most natural to approach the subject of “spiritual formation” through passages that refer to the Holy Spirit in the context of forming, conforming, or transforming one’s life toward Christ-likeness (the Greek morphe and its compounds; e.g., Galatians 4:19). One of the best passages to begin with is Romans 8:26-29:

26 . . . the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s (i.e., the Father’s) will. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed (συμμÏŒρφους) to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (NIV)

Thus, one can properly start with the proposition that spiritual formation, rightly understood, is first of all, above all, and throughout, the life shaping (i.e., “forming”) work of the divine Holy Spirit, carried out according to the will of God the Father, for the purpose of conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ his Son (cf. also, e.g., Romans 12:1-2 and 2 Corinthians 3:17-18). Spiritual formation consists of the Trinitarian work of God in transforming the lives of genuine believers in Christ through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. A spiritual formation ministry is one that is devoted to stimulating and participating in this work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians through the ways and means revealed in scripture.

There are three primary dimensions of the forming work of the Holy Spirit according to scripture. These are represented by the three concentric circles in the illustration below (Figure 1). Each of them has important implications for any biblically based “spiritual formation” ministry, practice, or program. These three dimensions of the work of the Holy Spirit are intimately bound together, not mutually exclusive or isolated from each other, and have direct impact on the effective working of each other in the lives of believers (see the four lines traversing the concentric circles, with arrows pointing in both directions). Nevertheless, the images, concepts, and institutions on which they are based are distinctive. All three have their roots set deep in the soil of the Old Testament. They also have explicit, meaningful, and traceable trajectories into the New Testament for the church and the Christian life.

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Figure 1


First, at the inner core of spiritual formation is deep personal intimacy with God and the personal Christ-like integrity and character worked in us from there by the Holy Spirit who is in us; that is, in our human spirit. This is the main topic of the present essay. The second dimension, represented by the second concentric circle, illustrates the work of the Holy Spirit among us as a redemptive community of faith, building us together into a worship-filled temple of the Holy Spirit in which the love of God and one another abounds. Since the Holy Spirit is actually “present” in us and among us as he works in the human spirit of each believer, the true church is the corporate temple of God the Holy Spirit today. The Old Testament theology of God’s tabernacle and temple presence comes through into the New Testament in the description of the church as a temple “being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit,” as Paul writes in Ephesians 2:22.

The third dimension of spiritual formation, represented by the third concentric circle labeled “Prophetic Spirit and Holy Spirit,” is meant to illustrate the work of the Holy Spirit through us in the world, making us effective in the Gospel mission, living as salt and light in the world. The foundation for this dimension is in the close relationship that the pouring out of the Spirit has with the prophetic institution in the Old Testament. The quote from Joel 2 in Acts 2 as the main text of the first sermon of the church age brings the prophetic work of the Spirit directly into the church as its basic purpose. Witnessing and preaching the Gospel are by their very nature prophetic acts, and we are all called to this. The church has been an essentially prophetic institution since its inception. In anticipation of the day of Pentecost, Jesus put it this way in Acts 1:8: “. . . you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The overall point here is that spiritual formation is about what the Holy Spirit works in each of us, among all of us, and through us in the world around us. At the end of the day, this is what we are all called to in our individual lives and our ministries, and this is precisely what spiritual formation is all about.

Read the rest of Dr. Averbeck's article here.