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Dear
Friends,
“Superficiality
is the curse of our age.” When Richard Foster
wrote these opening words of Celebration
of Discipline, he may well have suspected
that a generation later they would still
ring true. What he certainly didn’t anticipate,
however, was the impact his writing would
have for the next three decades on a church
caught up in the culture of “surface living.”
It is hard for some of us to remember just
how startlingly radical Celebration
was when first published in 1978. Today,
spiritual formation is hot news. The shelves
in Christian book stores groan with the
weight of books on the spiritual disciplines.
An increasing number of churches are appointing
spiritual formation pastors. Evangelicals
talk with easy familiarity about great Christians
of the past such as Thomas à Kempis, Brother
Lawrence, Mother Julian of Norwich, Francis
of Assisi, and Teresa of Avila, and are
often (though not always!) immersed in their
outlook and ideas in a way that would once
have been unthinkable. The liturgical churches
are rediscovering the depth and importance
of spiritual practices, which have always
been there in the background but too often
seemed to lack vitality and purpose. Across
the whole spectrum of church life we are
finding common ground with one another in
the pursuit of Christlike living and learning
to share—and receive—the riches of our different
traditions.
This year RENOVARÉ
is celebrating Celebration: 2008
marks the 30th anniversary since its first
publication. During all those years, Celebration
has never once been out of print—it is one
of only a handful of contemporary books
(of any kind, not just Christian books)
to have achieved this distinction. It has
sold over two million copies worldwide and
been translated into some two score languages.
It is recommended reading in countless colleges
and seminaries. It has been recognized and
honored by the Christian media and publishing
industry as one of the most influential
Christian books of the 20th century, and
many believe it will endure further to become
one of the great classics of Christian writing.
But for many of us, impressive as this is,
the real significance of Celebration
of Discipline lies in the personal impact
it has had on our lives. I can remember
well the spring evening in Wales when I
first began to read it. As I have related
elsewhere, I practiced Zen Buddhism before
coming to faith in Christ, and, since committing
myself to life as a disciple of Jesus, I
had been struggling to reconcile what seemed
to be a very intellectual, academic faith
with the spiritual hunger in my heart. In
fact, I had not been succeeding; I spent
many months caught halfway between Christ
and Buddha, sincerely desiring to walk faithfully
with Jesus but unable to live without the
depth of spirituality I had found in Zen.
I can remember the almost physical feeling
of shock I experienced when I turned the
page in the first chapter of Richard’s book
and read, at the top of the next page, “Chapter
Two: The Discipline of Meditation.” In a
moment of blinding revelation, I realized
what now seems so painfully obvious: that
following Jesus is a spiritual journey.
The meditation Richard described, rooted
firmly in the Scriptures and the experience
of the Church across the centuries, was
in many ways quite unlike that which I had
been taught in Zen. It focused the gaze,
not within, but without, on Jesus. Zen sought
to perceive the illusory nature of reality,
and so achieve detachment from it. Christian
meditation opens us to the possibility of
God’s transforming grace in both our lives
and our world, and so encourages us rather
to embrace the world around us in hope.
And yet . . . here was someone whose writing
was so clearly rooted in the gospel of Christ
and yet knew what it meant to explore and
experience spiritual depth. I can remember
thinking, “I didn’t know Christians did
this!” Looking back, it seems to me that
my conversion to Christ, begun when I made
a decision “in theory” to follow Jesus some
months before, only crystallized, completed,
that evening. Now, I felt, I can really
follow without reservation.
I devoured the rest of the book. I still
have it with me, now a 20-year-old, battered
copy replete with underlinings and notes.
The cover is a little grubby. Pages have
fallen out and been carefully taped back
in. But it’s still going strong. I am encouraged
to believe, if I am careful with it, that
it might outlive me and end up in the hands
and hearts of my children.
So what am I saying, that Richard Foster
changed my life? No. Jesus changed my life.
But—and there are so many others who could
say this too—Jesus used Celebration of
Discipline to make that change possible.
In his introduction to the revised edition
of 1988, Richard wrote, “I am struck even
more profoundly that God can take something
so inadequate, so imperfect, so foolish
as words on paper and use them to transform
lives . . . It is a miracle of grace and
points to the fact that, if there is anything
in these pages that ministers life to you,
it did not come from me.” Perhaps a future
day will see the founding of the Church
of St. Richard, and the earth will quake
to the mighty marching of the Fosterites.
I, though, will not be one of them, and
neither, I sincerely hope, will you! To
the end, I will be following Jesus
. . . and I will always be grateful for
the way Richard’s writing has helped me
do that.
Celebrating 30 years of Celebration
means not only looking back at the impact
of this book, though; it also means looking
forward to the future. God has been working
amongst his people in the most surprising
ways these last three decades, not least
in the coming together of God’s people from
across the traditions of the church and
in the growing emphasis on spiritual formation
in so many Christian communities, and many
of us are now living in great anticipation
of what might be coming next. In Houston,
Texas, October 2-4, 2008, RENOVARÉ
will be holding a significant conference
marking the 30th anniversary of Celebration
of Discipline’s publication: Life
with God: CELEBRATING
LIFELONG DISCIPLESHIP.
In October we will discern how the emerging
spiritual formation movement might develop
and help shape the church over this next
generation. We are looking forward to first-class
contributions from an excellent group of
plenary speakers—Richard Foster, John Ortberg,
Ron Sider, Dallas Willard, and Lauren Winner—together
with a wide range of workshops and some
inspiring worship. I hope many of you will
be able to join us for this groundbreaking
event, as we look together into the future
which God is bringing. See the enclosed
brochure for details
But
as we look ahead, it is clear that we still
have a long journey to travel. The challenge
30 years ago was twofold: (1) to open up
the riches of the Christian spiritual tradition
to a church which had become largely alienated
from it, and (2) to encourage Christians
to use that wealth of experience to engage
in a serious and intentional process of
spiritual formation so that they might be
formed into the character of Christ and
so that we might realistically call ourselves
disciples of Jesus Christ, and not
admirers only. The publication of Celebration
came at the beginning of a contemporary
spiritual formation movement that is in
danger of meeting the first part of this
challenge far more successfully than the
second.
Writing, preaching, and teaching about the
spiritual disciplines is now widespread.
The great Christian classics are more available
and accessible than ever. The churches have
become comfortable with the language of
formation and intentionality. But the utter
devotion to the way of Christ that lies
at the heart of spiritual formation seems
to elude too many. The classics are more
often bought and quoted than actually read
and wrestled with. Too often, our
eloquent teaching and preaching far outstrips
our practice. And while we might applaud
a church for appointing a Spiritual Formation
Pastor, it begs the question: what are the
other pastors doing? In many churches formation
and intentional discipleship remain electives
for the enthusiastic rather than requisites
of the core curriculum.
Abba Poemen, one of the Desert Fathers,
said 1,500 years ago of his generation:
“People are talking to perfection, but they
do precious little about it.” The same danger
presents itself to us. The church is experiencing
a renaissance in the teaching of spirituality.
But this teaching is only the first step,
not the last: transformation does not come
from knowledge alone, but from the openness
to grace that knowledge makes possible—and
that openness entails engagement in the
fierce inner struggles by which the spirit
is molded into the image of Christ. This
is not, and never will be, an easy path;
it is the narrow gate and hard road of which
Jesus warned us (Matt. 7:14). But it is
the only way to life. So we must courageously
act, live, do; we must become a church
of practitioners, not simply professors.
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