Reimagining Spiritual Formation

I did not plan to purchase Reimagining Spiritual Formation. It was offered in a package deal on Amazon.com with A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren (my first ever McLaren book), and after the discount and the free-shipping incentive, RSF came into my possession quite cheaply, and I figured that if it turned out to be cheesecake, I could at least recoup my money on half.com, or even make a dollar or two, so I gave it a try.

It hooked me quickly by its communal composition—including six individuals’ thoughts and experiences through excerpts of their journals, which make up a good portion of the book. So, I continued reading.

I found in the book a solid board of ideas that I could butt up against, think through, and accept, tweak, or leave on the page. It did not read like church growth hum-bug, nor re-dressed Christian consumerism—like Emerging Church/Emerging Worship, wherein Dan Kimball seeks to avoid that trap, but seems to fall in, to some extent, nonetheless. The book presents what it intends to, a re-imagining of spiritual formation, and it does so without presenting itself as the right or true understanding, but as an attempt to step into God’s story with the whole person in the context of an open, sincere community.

Pagitt and company differ from the likes of Kimball in that reading this book does not lead me to the thought that I need to institute any particular practice into the community I am attempting to lead, but helps me redefine the context of that community. Granted, much of what was said was not new to me, but the individual experiences recounted, and the experimental steps taken by Solomon’s Porch (the community the authors belong to) really helped sharpen and focus some thinking, and challenged my reticence towards some ideas that have been floating around in my head, or the heads of others I have become acquainted with.

Finally, reading Eldredge’s Epic earlier in the same month had me very much ready for this book—a book about entering into God’s story, as opposed to believing a set of propositions about God. I love this.