Claiming your Spiritual Style Part 1
Text: Ref. to Isaiah 55:1-9
While we are now three Sundays into the Season of Lent, my practice for the past two years has been to focus on some aspect of our Spirituality. Last year, it was an exploration of the book of Ecclesiastes, and how the teacher’s wisdom and insights on God can be a means for us to enjoy life as a gift from God. The year before that, I preached on “healthy spirituality,” before we even knew that officially as a congregation it would need our attention in the coming years.
It seems appropriate to take another shot at this theme, but with a few more practical tools. After all, the Season of Lent is a time for us to take stock of our faith, to spend some extra time and reflection on our relationship with God. It’s nice in a general sense, but in many respects, we really have no idea where to start. It’s not as simple as picking up a devotional guide, or starting to read the Bible at Genesis 1:1. Although for some people it might be a great place to work from.
So how about this question:
Why is it that we connect really well with the way in which one person expresses their faith, and not at all with the way in which someone else does? As an example… because of some rather bad experiences when I was growing up, I am very uncomfortable when I find myself in the midst of a Pentecostal-style worship service. Other people are there glorifying God, shouting “praise Jesus”, hands in the air… and I’m cowering in the corner. It does nothing for me…
Another example:
In the first congregation my wife served in, there was a one person that was very up-front about their faith. One day she cornered the choir director and asked him, “So, how is your personal
relationship with Jesus Christ?” To which Jeff responded, “Well Beth, that’s personal!”
Why is it that some people are extremely comfortable about talking about their faith story, while others find it a much more difficult exercise? Maybe they’re afraid of being judged, or that somehow we don’t measure up to somebody else’s standard.
Yet as I’ve been learning, much of it comes down to style. In the same way that educators have learned that children and adults have many different styles and patterns of learning, the same can be said in how we express our faith. It’s trying to break us out of that mould that authentic Christian faith is only expressed in a one-size-fits-all way. It’s not, and it hasn’t been that way for thousands of years… but somehow we’ve got it in our heads that we have to walk and talk the same. I think it’s time to put that to rest, and for us to start claiming our own Spiritual style.
We know that in very practical and real terms each of us has different learning styles, different ways we organize our lives, and different ways that we interact socially with each other. The same thing can be said about how we express our faith. Each of us has a different Spiritual Style. We may not even really be aware of it… and more often than not our starting point is more along the lines of what doesn’t work for us. If we’re lucky, we may find something that resonates with us, but I think more often than not we’re left feeling that something doesn’t quite fit.
In this way, the words from Isaiah seem to ring true, if only for a bit: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and labour for that which does not satisfy?”
So how do we go about Claiming our Spiritual Style?
Start Powerpoint Presentation
Well… here’s something that might help. Some of you might remember this picture that I used last year. The formal term for it is the “Trinitarian Compass” –using three different colours of light to show the different revelations of the Trinity. Green represents God as Father or Creator, Red as God’s revealing in the life and work in Jesus Christ, and Blue being symbolic of God as the Holy Spirit. Each of us naturally tends to lean toward one of these colours in how we best relate to God. We don’t all lean in the same direction either… but that’s not a bad thing at all. All of us have a God-given style in the way that we express our spirituality that is meant to compliment those around us. We all have something to offer.
Christian Schwarz, the minister who developed the idea of the Trinitarian Compass, noted that within these colours there are a diversity of ways that we express our faith. He’s given names to nine different styles… not so much to make definitive categories, but to show that even within the colours of the Trinity, there are a variety of ways in how we express our faith… as Paul once wrote, “Many gifts, one Spirit.”
Show Styles Slide
As you can see, each colour has two styles associated with it, and then there is one each on the border between the three colours. When it comes to our Spirituality all of us have at least some aspect of each of these… just one or two will be more highly developed than the others. Even with just putting these up on the screen, perhaps you’re feeling more of a connection with one particular style at the moment:
· Sensory – appreciating beauty and enjoying God’s creation
· Rational –strives for explanations, seeking to understand the nature of God.
· Doctrinal –thinking correctly about God, what the truth ultimately is.
· Scripture-Driven –applying the Word of God, Bible study, discipleship
· Sharing –Passing on the grace of God… Evangelism and serving people.
· Ascetic –Developing a discipline for God. Freedom from worldly things.
· Enthusiastic –Celebrating the power of God. Striving to see God’s power.
· Mystical –Enjoying the mystery and personal inner experience of God.
· Sacramental –Expressing faith in a physical way. Worship and Liturgical traditions.
Each of these styles has its own unique characteristics and gifts. When the Long-range Planning Team was first exploring this, Ron Sypher asked me which one of these spiritual styles represents “Passionate” Spirituality. The answer is easy… “all of them.” All of them have value, all of them have strengths. I could go into further depth on each of them… but oddly enough that would only appeal to those of you who favour the “Rational” style… and bore the rest of you to tears.
The point is that there is no one style that can be considered the “best.” It is merely where you are naturally wired to start. By discovering and claiming our own Spirituality we can begin to understand why it is that we react the way we do to certain situations… and why certain expressions of faith resonate very well with us, while others might repel us. I’ll be going into more depth on that later… but where I wanted for us to start at is to realize that all of us have a starting point. Growing in faith becomes a whole lot clearer once we know where our starting point happens to be. Once we know where we start personally, we can more easily learn and really take ownership of the things that nurture our own faith…
This is where the challenge lies for us. If we are not growing Spirituality as a congregation, then how can we expect our congregation to grow? Lent is the perfect season for us to be asking these questions. It’s a yearly reminder to us to take stock of what is really important in life. Through this we can really ponder and live Isaiah’s question, ‘why do you labour for that which does not satisfy?” Instead, maybe we can claim our own spiritual style, and discover what it means for us to truly grow in faith.
Amen.
While we are now three Sundays into the Season of Lent, my practice for the past two years has been to focus on some aspect of our Spirituality. Last year, it was an exploration of the book of Ecclesiastes, and how the teacher’s wisdom and insights on God can be a means for us to enjoy life as a gift from God. The year before that, I preached on “healthy spirituality,” before we even knew that officially as a congregation it would need our attention in the coming years.
It seems appropriate to take another shot at this theme, but with a few more practical tools. After all, the Season of Lent is a time for us to take stock of our faith, to spend some extra time and reflection on our relationship with God. It’s nice in a general sense, but in many respects, we really have no idea where to start. It’s not as simple as picking up a devotional guide, or starting to read the Bible at Genesis 1:1. Although for some people it might be a great place to work from.
So how about this question:
Why is it that we connect really well with the way in which one person expresses their faith, and not at all with the way in which someone else does? As an example… because of some rather bad experiences when I was growing up, I am very uncomfortable when I find myself in the midst of a Pentecostal-style worship service. Other people are there glorifying God, shouting “praise Jesus”, hands in the air… and I’m cowering in the corner. It does nothing for me…
Another example:
In the first congregation my wife served in, there was a one person that was very up-front about their faith. One day she cornered the choir director and asked him, “So, how is your personal
relationship with Jesus Christ?” To which Jeff responded, “Well Beth, that’s personal!”
Why is it that some people are extremely comfortable about talking about their faith story, while others find it a much more difficult exercise? Maybe they’re afraid of being judged, or that somehow we don’t measure up to somebody else’s standard.
Yet as I’ve been learning, much of it comes down to style. In the same way that educators have learned that children and adults have many different styles and patterns of learning, the same can be said in how we express our faith. It’s trying to break us out of that mould that authentic Christian faith is only expressed in a one-size-fits-all way. It’s not, and it hasn’t been that way for thousands of years… but somehow we’ve got it in our heads that we have to walk and talk the same. I think it’s time to put that to rest, and for us to start claiming our own Spiritual style.
We know that in very practical and real terms each of us has different learning styles, different ways we organize our lives, and different ways that we interact socially with each other. The same thing can be said about how we express our faith. Each of us has a different Spiritual Style. We may not even really be aware of it… and more often than not our starting point is more along the lines of what doesn’t work for us. If we’re lucky, we may find something that resonates with us, but I think more often than not we’re left feeling that something doesn’t quite fit.
In this way, the words from Isaiah seem to ring true, if only for a bit: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and labour for that which does not satisfy?”
So how do we go about Claiming our Spiritual Style?
Start Powerpoint Presentation
Well… here’s something that might help. Some of you might remember this picture that I used last year. The formal term for it is the “Trinitarian Compass” –using three different colours of light to show the different revelations of the Trinity. Green represents God as Father or Creator, Red as God’s revealing in the life and work in Jesus Christ, and Blue being symbolic of God as the Holy Spirit. Each of us naturally tends to lean toward one of these colours in how we best relate to God. We don’t all lean in the same direction either… but that’s not a bad thing at all. All of us have a God-given style in the way that we express our spirituality that is meant to compliment those around us. We all have something to offer.
Christian Schwarz, the minister who developed the idea of the Trinitarian Compass, noted that within these colours there are a diversity of ways that we express our faith. He’s given names to nine different styles… not so much to make definitive categories, but to show that even within the colours of the Trinity, there are a variety of ways in how we express our faith… as Paul once wrote, “Many gifts, one Spirit.”
Show Styles Slide
As you can see, each colour has two styles associated with it, and then there is one each on the border between the three colours. When it comes to our Spirituality all of us have at least some aspect of each of these… just one or two will be more highly developed than the others. Even with just putting these up on the screen, perhaps you’re feeling more of a connection with one particular style at the moment:
· Sensory – appreciating beauty and enjoying God’s creation
· Rational –strives for explanations, seeking to understand the nature of God.
· Doctrinal –thinking correctly about God, what the truth ultimately is.
· Scripture-Driven –applying the Word of God, Bible study, discipleship
· Sharing –Passing on the grace of God… Evangelism and serving people.
· Ascetic –Developing a discipline for God. Freedom from worldly things.
· Enthusiastic –Celebrating the power of God. Striving to see God’s power.
· Mystical –Enjoying the mystery and personal inner experience of God.
· Sacramental –Expressing faith in a physical way. Worship and Liturgical traditions.
Each of these styles has its own unique characteristics and gifts. When the Long-range Planning Team was first exploring this, Ron Sypher asked me which one of these spiritual styles represents “Passionate” Spirituality. The answer is easy… “all of them.” All of them have value, all of them have strengths. I could go into further depth on each of them… but oddly enough that would only appeal to those of you who favour the “Rational” style… and bore the rest of you to tears.
The point is that there is no one style that can be considered the “best.” It is merely where you are naturally wired to start. By discovering and claiming our own Spirituality we can begin to understand why it is that we react the way we do to certain situations… and why certain expressions of faith resonate very well with us, while others might repel us. I’ll be going into more depth on that later… but where I wanted for us to start at is to realize that all of us have a starting point. Growing in faith becomes a whole lot clearer once we know where our starting point happens to be. Once we know where we start personally, we can more easily learn and really take ownership of the things that nurture our own faith…
This is where the challenge lies for us. If we are not growing Spirituality as a congregation, then how can we expect our congregation to grow? Lent is the perfect season for us to be asking these questions. It’s a yearly reminder to us to take stock of what is really important in life. Through this we can really ponder and live Isaiah’s question, ‘why do you labour for that which does not satisfy?” Instead, maybe we can claim our own spiritual style, and discover what it means for us to truly grow in faith.
Amen.
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