Seeking a Balanced Spiritual Life
Congregations should offer regular instruction on each spiritual discipline, to show possible ways and examples from life.
In addition, congregations should offer opportunities to act, such as mission work and prayer vigils. Doing and learning need to go hand in hand. Otherwise, the doing loses its foundation, or the learning becomes sterile and precious.
The point isn't to promote a single way, but several ways that work together to promote spiritual well-being. For example:
- Confession opens one's eyes and heart to distance from God
- Prayer seeks to bridge that distance
- Mission follows as a way to express gratitude for feeling closer to God
- Stewardship follows as a way to act out Christian values in one's personal life
- Fasting follows as a way to rethink one's life in basic ways
Clergy or a lay teacher should offer spiritual direction focused on:
- Getting beyond obstacles
- Developing a personal plan for spiritual discipline
- Establishing a healthy relationship between pastor and congregant (better than the usual power-based relationship)
The congregation should steadily expand a core leadership cadre who understand spiritual vitality as essential.