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Spiritual Fitness

Spiritual Fitness. SPTC - School of Theology 2014. Brian Appleyard.

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Spiritual Fitness

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  1. Spiritual Fitness SPTC - School of Theology 2014

  2. Brian Appleyard “Perhaps the least interesting thing about the future is the type of technology we shall be using. The most interesting thing is what kind of people we shall be. If we can focus on this, rather than the gadgets, then we might come up with some hopeful, or at least illuminating answers.”

  3. John Crace, The Guardian, 11th Nov. 2011 • “the joy of Rev lies in the characters. From Colin the drunk, through Alex the vicar's wife, to Robert the camp archdeacon, they all feel like people you might actually meet yourself. .... Quite deliberately, though, with little fanfare, Rev also gets to the heart of the modern church by exposing it as both a source of much goodness and a complete irrelevance. And that really is comic genius.”

  4. Factors in Contemporary Culture • The Irrelevance of Religion • The Pervasiveness of Consumerism • The Crisis of Character • Social Mobility • Liberal Pluralism • Moral Reluctance

  5. Gilbert Meilaender • “Successful moral education requires a community which does not hesitate to inculcate virtue in the young, which does not settle for the discordant opinions of alternative visions of the good, which worries about what the stories of its poets teach. In short, there can be little serious moral education in a community which seeks only to be what we have come to call ‘liberal’.“

  6. “I want someone wise to teach me how to do the things I need to know to survive the rest of my life...”

  7. An Ascetic Culture? • “If the world has a future, it has an ascetic future.” • Bruce Chatwin

  8. An Ascetic Culture?

  9. An Ascetic Culture?

  10. The perfect body…

  11. Body and Soul • 1 Tim. 4.7-8 “…train yourself to be godly. 8For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” • 1 Cor 9.24-27 “Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

  12. Allan Bloom “Students have powerful images of what a perfect body is and pursue it incessantly. But… they no longer have any image of a perfect soul, and hence do not long to have one.” (The Closing of the American Mind – 1987)

  13. Body and Soul • 1 Timothy 6.11 “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” • Colossians 3.12-13 “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

  14. Church as a School of Character • “But one thing the sacred text should teach us is that... those who are to be initiated into the secret mysteries of this book must no longer be mere men, rather they must be substantially transformed by Christ’s word into something divine.” (Gregory of Nyssa)

  15. Church as a School of Character • Josef Pieper: “real perfected virtue by the very nature of its concept, bears the joyous, radiant seal of ease, of effortlessness, of self-evident inclination.” • Stanley Hauerwas: “‘the most important social task of Christians is to be nothing less than a community capable of forming people with virtues sufficient to witness to God’s truth in the world… insofar as the church can reclaim its integrity as a community of virtue, it can be of great service in liberal societies… In fact, ‘the most important service the church does for any society is to be a community capable of developing people of virtue.’

  16. Douglas Coupland "Now - here is my secret: I tell it to you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God - that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me GIVE, because I am no longer capable of giving; to help me to be KIND, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me to LOVE, as I seem beyond being able to love."

  17. Questions • In what ways do you think involvement in church life builds (or erodes?) character? • Stanley Hauerwas: “the most important service the church does for any society is to be a community capable of developing people of virtue.” Do you agree? • In what ways is the metaphor of physical fitness helpful? In what ways might it be misleading?

  18. 1. INSPIRATION • The Holy Spirit and Character • Mission not Salvation • An Environment of Grace

  19. 2. INSTRUCTION • “...knowing God is the only way to reach the goal of human life: to become as God-like as possible…. The Christian life is a tutorial in holiness.” (Ellen Charry: By the Renewing of your Minds” 1997)

  20. 2. INSTRUCTION Doctrine is about Character Identifying the Virtues Classes on Virtue?

  21. Dallas Willard “Imagine if you can, discovering in your church newsletter or bulletin an announcement of a six-week seminar on how genuinely to bless someone who is spitting on you… Or suppose the announced seminar was on how to live without purposely indulged lust or covetousness. Or how to quit condemning the people around you. Or how to be free of anger and all its complications…

  22. Dallas Willard “Imagine, also, a guarantee that at the end of the seminar, those who have done the prescribed studies and exercises will actually be able to bless those who are spitting on them and so on… When you teach children or adults to ride a bicycle or swim, they actually do ride bikes or swim on appropriate occasions. You don’t just teach them that they ought to ride bicycles, or that it is good to ride bicycles, or that they should be ashamed if they don’t.”

  23. 3. DISCIPLINE EPHESIANS 4: • Truthfulness • Generosity • Encouragement • Compassion • Forgiveness • Peaceableness • Hope GALATIANS 5: • Love • Joy • Peace • Patience • Kindness • Goodness • Faithfulness • Gentleness • Self-control

  24. 3. DISCIPLINE • Disciplines of Abstinence • Solitude • Silence • Fasting • Frugality • Chastity • Secrecy • Sacrifice • Disciplines of Engagement • Study • Worship • Celebration • Service • Prayer • Fellowship • Confession • Submission

  25. 4. COMMUNITY • We become like the people we spend time with • Keeping the standards high • Models of emulation

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