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Dear
Friends,
What is the future for RENOVARÉ?
An excellent question and I’d like for you and
I to think about it together in this pastoral
letter. Of course, the most true and honest answer
we can give to such a penetrating question is,
“We really don’t know!” No one knows, save God
alone. We do our best thinking and planning. We
study the currents of contemporary culture and
consider how we ought to respond and what we might
do to nurture a more life-giving society. We prayerfully
listen and wait for the Divine Whisper. We step
out when we feel the time and the action is right.
But where it will all lead we simply do not know.
To
illustrate: I recently received a letter from
a person I believe has a genuine prophetic gift.
She shared an encouraging and challenging prophesy
about RENOVARÉ. “Encouraging”
because it reminded me that God truly is in charge
of the good ship RENOVARÉ.
“Challenging” because it called us to venture
out into the spiritual unknown boldly, confidently.
However, if I were to condense the prophetic message
itself into one phrase it was simply this: “Things
are going to change.” Well, yes, okay, but: How?
When? Who? What? Where? These are matters unknown
to us. You see, even the most spiritually astute
of us still peer through a glass darkly. Even
so, it is incumbent upon us to do everything possible
to look ahead and consider the future face of
RENOVARÉ—ten, fifteen,
even twenty years from now.
A
LOOK BACK: THE MESSAGE AND THE MESSENGERS
Looking forward is almost always sharpened by
looking back. Fifteen odd years ago RENOVARÉ
started out with no material “things” . . . just
a message hammered out on the hard anvil of our
experience with God.
•
A message about the good news of the availability
of life in the kingdom of God, here, now.
•
A message of Jesus alive and here to teach his
people himself.
• A message of genuine forming, conforming,
transforming life in and through Jesus.
• A message of God’s grace-filled invitation
for us to co-operate in this transforming work
through Spiritual Disciplines appropriate to our
need and growth.
• A message of breaking down the old walls
that separate and isolate us.
• And more . . . .
From
its inception RENOVARÉ
has been an ecclesiastically positive movement.
We are inter-denominational and multi-denominational,
and at the same time trans-denominational. Rather
than bypassing or avoiding denominational life,
we wanted to gain from the best insights of all
the denominations. Instead of a religion of the
least common denominator we urge the denominations
to bring us their most distinctive spiritual insights.
We have found that the great spiritual treasures
are almost always “loanable,” especially when
our common core in Jesus Christ is firm. We want
the Presbyterians to teach us about God’s sovereignty
and the Baptists to teach us about evangelism
and the Mennonites to teach us about community
life and the Nazarenes to teach us about holiness
and the Methodists to teach us about social justice
and the Lutherans to teach us about justification
by faith alone and Roman Catholics to teach us
about liturgical life. And so on.
Further,
we have always been an intra-church movement.
We have no interest in doing an end-run around
the churches. Far from it, we are committed to
the Church of Jesus Christ in all her multifaceted
expressions. We believe in local congregations,
even with all their imperfections and frustrations.
And we know that new, creative expressions of
the People of God will continue to burst onto
the scene, and we are for them too.
That
has been, and is, our message. The messengers
in those early days were few in number: myself
and Dallas Willard and Marti Ensign and Jim Smith
and Bill Vaswig and Gayle Withnell and Roger Fredrikson
and a few others. Even then, though few in number,
we decided to work in teams whenever possible.
People needed to see our message embodied in the
love we had for each other. Without this fleshed
out love the message would be undercut and of
little effect for the forming of lives into Christlikeness.
In the early days when people asked me to speak
I always insisted on the inclusion of other team
members as well, and that insistence helped to
develop us as a community of love. Far from perfect,
to be sure, but always deepening in our love for
each other and for all people.
AND
TODAY: TWO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES
Two
significant changes have occurred since those
early days. First, the numbers of individuals
who “get” the RENOVARÉ
message of spiritual formation has increased dramatically.
All over this country people really are stepping
into this “life that is life indeed.” The RENOVARÉ
vision has become embedded in the consciousness
of multitudes and we thank God for it. Fifteen
years ago folk were asking for me and I was urging
them into RENOVARÉ
style events; five years ago probably 60% were
asking for me and 40% were asking for the message
of RENOVARÉ; today
maybe 30% ask for me and 70% are looking for the
RENOVARÉ message
and are glad for any number of messengers who
can rightly embody and articulate the message.
For example, our initiative into Africa last fall
was done entirely without me, and at the International
Conference in June we will be having key leaders
from Africa with us—leaders that are capable of
speaking the RENOVARÉ
message into African culture far better than I
ever could. The same could be said for our Korean
and Britain and Ireland initiatives. For this
change I thank God. It gives us high hopes for
the future, for, as we all know, a day will come
when I will not be able to give the same visible
presence to RENOVARÉ
that is now the case.
The
second change (and it is significant) is the volume
of literature now surrounding and reinforcing
the RENOVARÉ message.
Since Celebration of Discipline was published
there has come Devotional Classics and
Spiritual Classics and Freedom of Simplicity
and The Spirit of the Disciplines and The
Divine Conspiracy and Prayer and Streams
of Living Water and Renovation of the Heart
and A Spiritual Formation Workbook and
Wilderness Time and a host of other writings.
Beyond this is a ton of literature out there now;
it all needs sifting, of course, but many fine
works can be found in among a lot of silliness.
And I must not forget The Renovaré Spiritual
Formation Bible that has just been released.
It will give us a solid biblical foundation for
all the spiritual formation work we have been
doing. This Bible, I predict, will take on a life
of its own. The Bible is God’s book and we can
be confident that God will take care of it. It
will win its way into the hearts and minds of
honest seekers. And it is fully capable of standing
on its own in the open market of ideas. I expect
this new study Bible to be a fantastic aid in
our ongoing engagement with contemporary culture.
In addition, I just yesterday signed contracts
with HarperSanFrancisco for sixteen supplemental
books to surround The Renovaré Spiritual Formation
Bible. One is a “unity of the Bible” book
and the other fifteen will be study books designed
to help people walk through the entire Bible with
spiritual formation themes in mind.
AND
INTO THE FUTURE: FOUR DARING PROPOSALS
The future is bright. RENOVARÉ’s
beginning efforts have reaped a substantial harvest
and now it should be considered the major movement
within the field of spiritual formation. A solid
foundation has been laid. But now we must look
to the future, and not just the immediate future.
To that end allow me to cast a vision for perhaps
the next fifteen to twenty years in areas I believe
God would have RENOVARÉ
move into, confident of divine leading and undergirding.
1.
I long to see the gathering together of multiplied
numbers of “spiritual formation based congregations”
throughout the US and beyond. In the beginning
days it was important for us to cast the vision
of spiritual formation as broadly as possible.
We have done this and multiplied thousands of
individuals have responded. We thank the Lord.
Now it is time to see this vision find root in
congregational life. We are linking efforts with
other groups like The Spiritual Formation Forum
near Chicago and Springs of Living Water!
near Philadelphia and The Jesus Connection
near Kansas City that are working with many of
the same concerns. At the International Conference
we will have a congregational spiritual formation
workshop track, and we hope to learn much from
that experience. What future initiatives we will
be taking is yet to be determined. The operating
idea is to see a substantial increase in the number
of churches that value spiritual formation as
the organizing principle of their congregational
life. And to see them working together; sharing
resources, sharing successes, sharing failures,
sharing staff . . . sharing, sharing, sharing.
2. I long to see the nurturing and deepening
of the spiritual formation life of the global
house church movement. This is a non-traditional
church expression that has been exploding, particularly
in Africa, Asia, and South America. (It has had
only limited success in the Western World in pockets
of the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and England.)
Think of it this way: In the traditional church
model we have a church with small groups;
in the house church model the church is
small groups. In the West some are now speaking
of this as the “home churching movement” and RENOVARÉ
has much to give this burgeoning effort. In their
vast experience our RENOVARÉ
Spiritual Formation Groups have substantive insights
to bring to the table. We can enhance the movement
with a discipleship element that is rich in historical
perspective. In addition, we have an ecclesiastical
emphasis of network and connection that stands
in stark contrast to the independent, stand-alone
model of many house churches. In some respects
the global house church movement is akin to the
emergent church movement that is being talked
about so much in the US; in other ways the two
are quite distinct. We want to encourage and give
depth to both. To learn more on this topic I would
direct you to Dr. Rad Zdero’s book The Global
House Church Movement.
3.
I long to see new and creative missional efforts
to seeker movements everywhere. These seeker
groups—not yet Christian but deeply interested
in spirituality—represent our largest mission
field. They are post-modern in thinking and nearly
all are allergic to institutional religion. Because
RENOVARÉ’s history
and structure allows us to function without either
buildings or hierarchy we are ideally suited to
reach out in servant ministry toward these many
seeker groups. But to do so will demand of us
new cross-cultural thinking, writing, and outreach.
It will become our greatest challenge in the future.
But, also, perhaps our greatest opportunity. As
Western culture continues to deepen in its secular
outlook and to harden in its anti-establishment,
anti-religious sentiments, Christians will need
to find non-institutional ways to flourish.
4.
I long to see a solid financial foundation undergirding
all RENOVARÉ’s efforts.
It may sound strange to conclude a visionary list
of future ministry opportunities with harsh financial
realities, but without serious resources our most
visionary dreams simply will not get off the ground.
We are so thankful for the wonderful, sacrificial
support that has come from precious people over
the years. In addition to this, however, the time
has come to establish solid, dependable funding
resources for what we hope to accomplish. Frankly,
many of our most longed for hopes and dreams have
remained on the drawing board because we have
lacked the resources to bring them to pass. Now
is the time to work to solve this impasse.
Last
year we began “Partners in Renewal,” a small group
of folk who have proven to be generous toward
RENOVARÉ in their
giving or in their praying or in their volunteer
efforts, and often in all three. (If you want
to know more about this group contact Lyle SmithGraybeal
at
.)
But we must do more, much more. We need committed
monthly givers we can count on. We need to form
a RENOVARÉ Foundation
that can lay a lasting financial base under what
we do. We need to establish an endowment for RENOVARÉ.
And more. Already one couple has given us $20,000.00
as seed monies to begin a RENOVARÉ
endowment and in the months ahead we will be working
to build upon their generosity. So the time has
come for us to build a strong financial base that
is equal to our dreams.
Daring
proposals? Perhaps. And yet, I am reminded of
the evangelical cry of William Carey so long ago,
“Expect great things from God; attempt great things
for God!”
Peace
and joy,
Richard J. Foster
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