Knowledge vs Discernment

My group on Sunday mornings is moving through the spiritual disciplines. We have covered the "inner" disciplines of silence and solitude, meditation, prayer,study and fasting. It has taken us 13 weeks to cover what I consider the core of the disciplines. We have all ages from just out of college to folks more senior than I am in this journey. It is a break point where we shift to the "outer" disciplines and this is where I am going to run amok with the conventional church approach.

Here is what I mean. Nearly all churches have embraced the secular knowledge regarding our daily lives. Churches have launched huge ministries into financial management (Dave Ramsey, Crown Ministries, etc.) marriage enhancement (His Needs, Her Needs, or as one friend of mine said, "Her Needs, Her Needs") Addiction Needs (Celebrate Recovery) and the list goes on and on. The dependency on formulated studies is a growing and prosperous endeavor. At a fundamental level, I think acquiring this knowledge is fine. What creates heartburn for me is that this is the new "catechisms" for the church. In other words, if we can get our money in line and our marriages in line and stop eating/drinking/smoking/injecting stuff, then we will be good citizens of the new, secular church.

The problem is that these are symptoms, not root causes. So we look to society to answer the questions we have with secular wisdom. Then we wonder why we still have other and sometimes more serious problems show up. These philosophies create their own problems and none of them address the real issue...growing closer to God.

I am a little surprised that most of the folks at the church where we are camped right now wouldn't jump on the chance to get to the core of the real problem. As I have walked this group through the disciplines, it occurs to me that all of the above problems are dealt with because the root problem is being answered. Do you want to grow closer to God? Live a simple (or frugal) life. The money belongs to God, not you. Do you want to be the best spouse ever? Then invest deeply in the spiritual disciplines that will transform you into someone that God is close to. Now there is someone that a spouse can love. Want to kick those old, unhealthy habits? focus on the word and wisdom of God. There is simply nothing out there that a deep and transformable relationship with God won't fix.

So why is this so hard? Why do churches fall into this trap? I think there are several reasons
1. Peer-pressure. Other churches are doing it, it is popular, it must be working. So we should do it. Besides, it comes in this great little pre-packed, slick binder, with CDs and workbooks, and some scant reference to scripture. It must be good, everyone is doing it.

2. People (and this includes paid ministers) are looking for the easy solution. I hate to use the word lazy, but nothing else really comes to mind. I spend about 10 hours a week covering the material in my mind to go over with my little group. I dig out the scriptures myself, I do the exegesis myself, I pray for the Spirit's guidance myself, I construct the conversation myself. None of this includes the hundreds of hours of developing the original plan and the daily routine of keeping my own disciplines in order. I have had people ask me what I read. I usually hate to tell them that most of my reading is scripture, slowly, with a lot of meditation time in between. This really disappoints them. They want me to give them new author's names, or book names, or study guides. This is heavy-lifting type stuff, most people sort of blanch when they understand what it takes.

3. It is unpopular. I am here to tell you that most folks don't want to hear that shifting from a secular life-style to a spiritual life-style requires sacrifice. Current preachers have over-reacted to sectarian religious methods and have spent the last 10 or 15 years preaching only grace. It needed to be done, but the concept of creating disciples has been relegated to the back of the bus. You want to find church leaders in today's market, ask this question, "What does your current spiritual discipline life look like?" We don't have maturing churches because we don't offer anything but spiritual junk food. Nearly all the preaching and teaching I hear and read about is a mile wide and paper thin. The preachers and teachers are all afraid that if they shift to a more mature approach that people will leave. Hmmm, says a little something about priorities doesn't it?

You see the point of these secular-based studies is knowledge..how to. The purpose of spiritual disciplines is discernment..or wisdom. We change our hearts and we change our actions, not the other way around. Knowledge fills our head, discernment changes our heart. God doesn't need smarter people, or more talented people, he needs deeper people. Discernment gives us the proper perspective to deal with life, both within us and around us.

Godspeed, thanks for following this blog. It is my prayer that you can live a life of discernment.
Don