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Commentary
GEN-X RISING: Finding faith through the means of grace Andrew C. Thompson, Nov 12, 2007
Andrew C. Thompson
By Andrew C. Thompson Special Contributor
Editor’s note: This is the first in a four-column series on the means of grace in Christian practice.
The current issue of Interpreter magazine focuses on the path to spiritual formation through engaging in practices of the faith. Many of its articles examine ways the disciplines can be practiced by Christians seeking a deeper faith.
This is a timely issue that drives at a kind of Christian practice that is deeply attractive to Generation X and Millennial Christians.
“Spiritual discipline” is a general term for any regular practice that forms a person in the faith. Think of the disciplined life of a monk. Guided by a regular daily schedule of prayer, worship and work, the monk commits his life to being shaped into a deeply-committed disciple of Jesus. Practicing spiritual disciplines allows the monk to better combat sin and to learn to know God more fully.
Of course, you don’t have to be a monk to practice spiritual disciplines.
In fact, many Generation Xers and Millennials see the spiritual disciplines as the key to living a Christian life today. In a time when the church sometimes has a hard time distinguishing itself from the world, voluntary submission to a set of spiritual disciplines can help men and women to learn to practice their faith in daily life.
Spiritual disciplines take many forms: They are both public and private, individual and corporate. The disciplines that are focused on devotion can be practiced alone, such as the reading of Scripture and prayer. Disciplines that are more worship-oriented are always practiced with a body of other Christians, such as Holy Communion and “Christian conferencing” (which often takes the form of small group accountability).
These worship- and devotion-oriented disciplines are focused on the love of God. John Wesley called them “works of piety.”
But spiritual disciplines can be focused on love of neighbor as well. Working at a local soup kitchen or homeless shelter can serve as a formational discipline. So can engaging one’s own local community in issues of children’s health or adult literacy.
Such missional activities focus on advancing God’s compassion and justice in the world. Wesley called these “works of mercy.”
At first glance, placing too much emphasis on the spiritual disciplines as the way to a mature faith might seem like a form of works’ righteousness. Protestants rightfully get squeamish about anything that smacks of “earning your salvation.”
But the disciplines are not about merit. They are about shaping your life so that you can better receive God’s grace. That is why Wesley talked about them as means of grace.
In a sermon by the same name, Wesley says, “By ‘means of grace’ I understand outward signs, words, or actions ordained of God, and appointed for this end—to be the ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.”
For Wesley, the chief means of grace are prayer, searching the Scriptures and receiving the Lord’s Supper. But he also believed that many other disciplines could serve as means of grace as well.
In one sermon, he focuses on the way in which visiting the sick and homebound is a means of grace for both the visitor and the sick person. In a world with a constant media bombardment trying to tell us how we should live, what products we should buy and how we should spend our money, understanding spiritual disciplines as channels of grace is crucially important.
The question is not whether we will be shaped by outside forces, but rather which ones. Spiritual disciplines give us the opportunity of being shaped in Christlike ways. They are those means of grace whereby we are truly formed as Jesus’ followers.
And as we are formed, they show us the way to spread his gospel to a world that needs to be formed as well.
Andrew C. Thompson
