Richard Foster on Spiritual Directorship…
Richard Foster says:
“Spiritual directorship is a Christian idea. It means having someone who can read my soul and give me guidance in my walk with Christ. Many churches call it “discipleship.”
Man, that is what I so strongly need..and what I so strongly run away from at the same time. How scary is it to know someone so well that they can read your soul? Was reading in Acts 4:35 ish where it says that all the believers were of heart and mind (probably a bad paraphrase there, I don’t have a Bible next to me here…) What a beautiful picture of a community of believers. How many of us can say that we have a spiritual director who can read our souls and give us guidence in the context of a community of believers who are of one heart and soul…I think this is something that I have tasted a small piece of in the last year. Its been so rewarding…
matt said...
102/3/04 8:37 AM | Comment Link |
Have you ever seen “We were soldiers”? There is a scene in that movie that I think works out to a beautiful analogy of Christian community; (probably because I really view this whole ’spiritual walk’ thing as a battle).
Mel Gibson’s character in that movie is training new recruits on helicopter landing drills: offloading the chopper, securing the area, getting back on, repeat.
One of the times in the drills, Gibson says “BANG YOU’RE DEAD” and throws the squad leader off of the chopper (on the ground of course), and asks the next guy; “WHAT DO YOU DO NOW!?”
He then goes on to tell each man to learn the “man in front of you”’s job and to “teach your job” to the man behind you. Beautiful model for discipleship.
If we have taken but two steps in our spiritual walk, we can disciple someone.
Todd Hiestand said...
202/3/04 3:25 PM | Comment Link |
I love that movie. It’s amazing to me that those poeple’s lives were defined by war, death, destruction and hate. I cannot even fathom that. (I also think of the movie “Black Hawk Down when i think of this idea”). My life is defined by some annoying things, a little pain here and there, a great family, and Apple Computers :-).
I think the one thing that scene fails to show is the “being” side of discipleship. While part of discipleship is about “doing” (like, what to do when the guy in front of you dies) it is so much more about “being” (i.e. the kind of person I am being made into. Sometimes I think we (including me!) look at discipleship (spiritual mentorship) as teaching poeple do look and act like a Christian, rather than acutally be one in their inmost being, in their hearts.
Again, just a random thought…
Matt said...
302/4/04 9:26 AM | Comment Link |
Good points, I hadn’t thought of that. I once gave a guy I was working with the advice to “Do less and BE more…” He was very focused on the DOING aspect of Christianity, and was missing out on things like, Peace, Patience, Gentleness…
On the other hand, people like me need to DO more and BE less :)
Does that make any sense?
Todd Hiestand said...
402/4/04 11:03 AM | Comment Link |
Totally makes sense, I think its a both/and issue. We all our “doing” has no value if we are not being changed on the inside…and if we are being changed on the inside…we’d better be doing!
I think we also have to take a look at what the important things are that we need to “do”…