Spiritual Formation
Spiritual Formation is a journey that everyone experiences every single day. The question is not, are you being formed, it is how are you being formed and, into what are you being formed. Jesus says that everyone who listens to Him and then puts his teachings into practice is like a wise person who builds their house upon a rock. That’s what we desire for you!
The more common view of Salvation in the modern Western church is that salvation is the finish line. It’s what we cheer about and celebrate. At Element, we see Salvation as the Starting Line. Salvation, Rebirth, or spiritual birth begins a lifelong journey with Jesus and of being formed by Him.
The person of Jesus is the vision of success that we look to as we intentionally grow toward Him. Hebrews 12:2 tells us to fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. This growth process is commonly referred to as sanctification.
Practicing the Way Course
The online course and small group curriculum Practicing the Way provides a framework for us to work within and tools for us to use in the sanctification journey of following Jesus and being formed by Him.
At Element, we are utilizing Practicing the Way as a tool in our Spiritual formation journey. The Practicing the Way Course offers a baseline for all who desire to use the Practicing the Way framework. The eight sessions include video and book content in the following order:
1. Following Jesus
2. Formation part 1
3. Formation part 2
4. The Practices
5. Meeting God in pain and suffering
6. Healing from Sin
7. Creating a rule of life
8. Life together
The premise of Practicing the Way is to begin by Being with Jesus. This is followed by being like Him and finally, doing what He did.
While this is not revolutionary, the more common narrative of the modern Western church is to start doing what He did immediately after salvation. And while the process is not linear, many times we jump straight to the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 19-20) of doing what Jesus did and take for granted Jesus’ first disciples’ process of apprenticeship to Him. The disciples spent 3 years following Jesus in addition to their required training in the Torah as young boys. Then they were sent out. We believe that a vast majority of our spiritual formation should be spent with Jesus in order to be like Him and do what HE did.
The Nine Practices
Following the Course, there is an invitation to begin the nine practices. These practices are best developed in community where one will experience both encouragement and feedback from others on their own journey. The practices can be woven into our lives using the Rule of Life builder. The Rule of Life builder is a tool that helps construct a life centered around Jesus through the practices. Using this tool helps us work out how to integrate the practices into our lives.
TOOLS
Information is not enough to lead to transformation. We believe that training in the practices of Jesus by cultivating spaces for Him to speak to us and form us will move us closer to Him. This is ultimately the vision of success in the Christian life, that by being with Him, we would become like him and do what he did. That is in fact, life and life to the fullest. We’ve created some tools to help you put these teachings of Jesus into practice.