#The Formation Field: Our Inner Life

Formation in Philippians (3.5)

New, non-traditional series

Read Philippians through the lens of spiritual formation

Dr. Adrian van Kaam and Formative Spirituality

Personally influenced by this model

Philippians 3:1–16 NRSV

Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh— even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, please be our companion in the way. Kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and in the breaking of the bread. Amen.

Formative Spirituality Model

Deeply Trinitarian

Starting Place and Center: The Mystery

Unique-Communal Life-Call

Form Donation and Reception

Genesis Story: Life is a process of being formed, deformed, reformed, and transformed (41)

Formation Events

Foundational Structure: The Formation Field

The Formation Field

The Formation Field

Intra-sphere (Our Inner Life)

Inter-sphere (Our Relational Life)

Situational-sphere (Immediate Circumstances)

Wider-world-sphere (Global Influence)

Divine Mystery - Triune God (Center)

Always in relation and always truly cares (12)

Trinitarian Nature of the Formation Field

Perichoresis is used in the context of the Holy Trinity to denote an interpenetration of the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each person remains distinct from the others, but participates fully in their Being and action as one.

Athanasius (296-373 AD)

Exiled 7 times for proclaiming Christ’s divinity

Listed the 27 books he thought should be in the NT; it’s the 27 books we use today

“I am in the Father and the Father is in me”

John 14:11

John 14:11 ESV

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

John 17:21

John 17:21 ESV

that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Dynamic not Static

Weaving: uses movement to create “thickness” and cohesion

“God’s mission utilizes movement: within the Trinity, into creation and humanity, and ultimately through the back-and-forth movement of pieces being woven together into a thicker whole...” (Okesson, A Public Missiology, 71) .

“Hence, life the twenty-first century is not a monolithic entity but more a spirited dance as free-flowing domains clasp hands, clutch one another in mad embrace, push apart, and spin across the ballroom, constantly seeking out new partners” (Okesson, A Public Missiology, 51).

Relationship and connectedness, not the oneness of eastern thought.

Persuasive because this view of reality corresponds to the very Being of God in His Triune nature.

Philippians 3:1-16 and the Intra-sphere

Phroneō

10 times in Philippians (26 in NT)

Thinking, feeling, acting (Dispositions)

Philippians 3.1-16 Summary

Inner world (Intrasphere): Heart, Mind, Will

Heart - core part of who you that effects every facet of your life

Formative Disposition: Patience

Deformative Disposition: Impatience

Philippians 3.12

Philippians 3:12 NRSV

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Mind - Attention and appraisal

Philippians 3.4b-11

Philippians 3:4b–11 NRSV

even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Will - Implementation

Philippians 3.13-14

Philippians 3:13–14 NRSV

Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

The Pace of Grace

Rock in a river bed - slow change

Reflection Questions

What is your unique-communal life call?

Is your inner life helping you or inhibiting you from fulfilling that call?