In this Issue

• Announcement of the Gathering on Reformed Spirituality in 2001
• Invitation to a retreat with Don Postema
• Report on what happened at the last Gathering
• Dave Muyskens writes about lefting go
• Book Reviews
   

Gathering on Reformed Spirituality,
Early Announcement

          The next Gathering will take place July 18-20, 2001, at Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan.  The theme will be "Deepening our Life in Christ." The emphasis will be on how the congregation can become a community of spiritual formation.  This recognizes the mutual spiritual connection between experiencing Christ and engaging the world.
          The sad reality is that all too often the last place we speak about Jesus or our spiritual experiences is the church.  Yet we and our people hunger to explore and expand this central aspect of being the people of God.  How can we reclaim the early and consistent practice that nurtured and renewed Reformed Christians for centuries?  Various terms were used to describe this emphasis, such as experimental piety, heart religion or experiential living.
          Marjorie Thompson, Director of the Pathways Center of The Upper Room, and Ben Campbell Johnson, professor of Christian spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA, will be the two key-note presenters.  We on the design team are excited about this topic and thrilled that Marjorie Thompson and Ben Johnson are planning to join us for this significant theme in the life of our churches.
          If you have ideas or suggestions that you would like the design team to consider regarding workshops or any other components that relate to this Gathering please write or e-mail me.
          Please mark your calendars now.  We hope to see you in 2001.

--Tom Schwanda

Report on the Gathering July 21-23 1999

          The Reformed Spirituality Gathering in 1999 was held July 21-23 at Western Theological Seminary, Holland, MI.  The theme was "The Transforming Power of the Holy Spirit."

          The main speakers were Richard Lovelace and Barbara Pursey.  On the first afternoon both of them shared their story of how the Spirit has inspired and guided their lives and ministries.  Lovelace spoke of his experience of the desert and how the spring of the reality and glory of God brought rivers of living water for him.  Pursey told how the Christianity she knew in early years was dispensational, rational, legalistic.  Responding to God's invitations has led to wonderful experiences for her.

          In his first presentation Richard Lovelace talked about "Spiritual Transformation in the Reformed Tradition." The lecture held before the gathering a 'string of pearls" beginning with Calvin and his informed faith in union with Christ.  Calvin placed the Trinity at the center rather than human effort.  Mortification is not suppression, but restoration and reorientation of drives by the Spirit.  Spirituality is the Holy Spirit's reordering of our lives.  The second "pearl" Lovelace spoke about was Puritan spirituality.  From 1600 to 1640 writing on spirituality flowed from Puritan authors.  They wrote about repentance and regeneration, sanctification and spiritual warfare.  Lovelace continued with the "pearls 11 of the Great Awakenings.  First in the Lutheran community, then in the Reformed with Whitefield, Edwards and others.  The Spirit's outpouring on whole groups of people led to moral reform and work for social justice.

          Lovelace's second lecture was on "Reviewing the Past to Prepare for the Future." He noted how the awakenings are high water marks for us.  They were outpourings of the Spirit.  But such revivals can't be programmed.  You can only pray for revival.  We need Spirit-filled minds today.  Lovelace called to mind the 'Wesley baseball diamond"- At home base - scripture, 1st base - tradition, 2nd base - reason. 3rd basse - experience, back to home base - scripture.  Test your own practice to see if you move to all bases.  He said, "Whenever you tend to be worried about something raise it up to God ... Begin each day walking in the Spirit."

          Barbara Pursey, in her first lecture, talked about "Telling the Gold from the Garbage." She said we need to recover the heart dimension.  She defined spirituality as a way of understanding and living out the Christian life with three dimensions:

• HEAD - Theological Dimension
• HEART - Affective Dimension
• HAND - Practical Dimension.

She spoke of spiritual direction and discernment. She emphasized that God is with us right here right now.

          In her second presentation Pursey spoke about "Critical issues for Reformed Spirituality Today: Worshipping the Creator in the Contemporary Cosmos." She spoke specifically of the need for understanding the relationship of science and religion.  She said there is a middle ground of faith with a modern cosmology.  Science and religion need one another.  She said the worldview in which God is Creator and continuing Sustainer does not clash with science but sees another aspect of reality.

          In addition to the lectures the gathering gave the participants the opportunity to meet in small discussion groups and to attend workshops.

          The topics of the workshops were "The Voice of the Lord and the Transformation of the Local Church" led by Sam Cooper, 'Being in Your Right Mind- Experiencing God Through Art and Movement" led by Rebecca Langer, "Calvin and Candles" led by Bob De Vries and "Spirituality and Structural Development" led by Jan Boer.

          Tom Schwanda presided at the Gathering.  Worship leaders included Sam Cooper, Carol Bechtel, Mary Huisman and Sharon Nelson Arendshorst.  The preacher at the Service of Holy Eucharist was Evelyn Dejong Diephouse .

 --J. David Muyskens

Letting Go

          I've been learning about letting go.  Last May I let go of my position as Pastor of First Reformed Church, New Brunswick, NJ, retiring from parish ministry.  In July my wife and I left a nine-room house to move into a five-room house.  It became necessary for us to let go of lot of the stuff we had accumulated for many years.  A garage sale took care of some of the stuff.  As I walked back from our mailbox, it was a strange feeling to see someone walk up our driveway with the radio in his arm that had been beside my bed for thirty years.  My first reaction was, "Hey, what are you doing with my radio.' I didn't say it.  I knew we had to get rid of things.  I knew I had to get free of my attachment to them.

          Gerald May (Addiction and Grace, The Awakened Heart and Will and Spirit) has been helpful to me in recognizing how detrimental attachment is to our spiritual life.  Letting go of attachments frees us to life in the grace of God.

          In Noah benShea's little book about Jacob the Baker Jacob is a man of wisdom.  People come to him to hear his wise words.  Some ask for more to which Jacob responds, "The only way I take a breath is by releasing my breath.  In order to be more, I must be willing to be less." (p. 19, New York: Ballantine Books, 1989)

          John Calvin taught that we are not our own but God's.  He said, "It is the duty of believers to'present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."' Since we are not our own, we are to "forget ourselves and our own interests" and simply follow the guidance of the Lord. (pp. 20-21, Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life, translation by Henry J. Van Andel, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1952.)

          In the Reformed tradition we have this rather foreboding word "mortification." It is the realization that we are mortal, that this life is temporary, that what is eternal is of God.  In his book on mortification (John Calvin and John Owen on Mortification, A Comparative Study in Reformed Spirituality, New York: Peter Lang, 1995,) Randall C. Gleason writes how both Calvin and Owen believe that sanctification includes mortification.  In mortification sin is destroyed and our lives are shaped by the Holy Spirit.  For Calvin the practice of mortification includes: (1) Self-denial.  This includes self-renunciation and love of others.  One is to be submitted and subjected to the Holy Spirit. (2) Bearing the cross.  Following Christ in humiliation, suffering and persecution. (3) Meditation on the future life. Awakening to a proper estimation of this present life, and longing for the eternal life to come.

          I've been impressed by the metaphor Thomas H. Green uses in his book When the Well Runs Dry (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1998.) He says the Christian life is a matter of floating not swimming.  In swimming we try to get somewhere by our strength.  In floating we yield to the flow of the water and savor where we are.  In floating we are going somewhere, but that is by the current.  So to living the Christian life means yielding to the will of God.

          The slogan used by many in twelve-step recovery has much truth in it: "Let go and let God." It is not far from the original meaning of Psalm 46. 1 0 to translate it "Let go, and know that I am God." Letting go of our frenzied activity and grasping attachment to things will free us to know God.

 --J. David Muyskens

BOOK REVIEWS

Imagining a Church in the Spirit: A Task for Mainline Congregations, by Ben Campbell Johnson and Glenn McDonald, Grand Rapids: Wm.  B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999. 160p., $16 (paper).
          Here's a significant book for reflection on the theme of the next Gathering of the Reformed Spirituality Network.  The subject of that Gathering will be how the church can be a spiritual place--a community of spiritual formation.
          In this book the authors claim that the greatest problem of mainline congregations in North America is loss of vision.  They say that if we can re-image the church as "the corporate expression of Christ," we will be on the way to recovery.  They advocate that the church rediscover the biblical promise of the presence of God--to see the church as "an embodiment of the presence of Christ and a bearer of the sacred."
          The authors of the book are Ben Campbell Johnson, professor of Christian spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA, and Glenn McDonald, pastor of Zionsville Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, IN.  Glenn McDonald writes out of the experience of being pastor of a church which "had multiplied the number of people who really had no clue how to obey Christ as Lord every hour of every day." The church now knows it is called to "fulfill God's primary mandate:" to become disciples of Jesus Christ with these marks - "a heart for Christ alone, a mind transformed by the Word, arms of love, knees for prayer, a voice to speak the good news, and a spirit of sacrifice."
          The first chapter envisions the church as a community which re-presents Christ. ty, Eight chapters imagine how aspects of the church can be formed in the Spirit: communi initiation of members, prayer, discernment of mission, preaching, inclusiveness, leadership and teaching.  The last chapter offers ways the book can be used as a resource for openness to the Spirit in a congregation.  Every chapter ends with discussion questions for group interaction.

Spiritual Theology: The Theology of Yesterday for Spiritual Help Today, by Diogenes Allen, Boston: Cowley Publications, 1997. 161p., $10.76.
          This book draws on teachings of the early fathers of Christian tradition with generous quotes from John Calvin and Simone Weil (20th century French mystic) to offer a theology of the spiritual life.  Allen expounds the centuries old teachings of the church to help us know what he calls the "habitual presence" of God, an awareness of God in every moment.
          Diogenes Allen is the Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton Theological Seminary.  While spirituality is, to be sure, experiential, Allen claims if it is not based in doctrine it becomes vague and limited.  Allen says, "If we neglect Christian teaching, we will miss a great deal.  People who try to understand and live in accordance with Christian teachings often find that their entire outlook changes.  Both their hearts (what they treasure) and their minds (what they find important) are transformed as they rise to a new awareness of themselves, the world, and God."
          Spiritual Theology by Diagenes Allen offers us a clear and concise summary of the teachings from which Christian spirituality flourishes.

--J.  David Muyskens

Retreat with Don Postema September 23, 2000
at Camp Geneva

A one-day retreat. is,being offered for September 23, 2000, 9 am. to 4 pm. at Camp Geneva on Lake Michigan.  The leader will be Don Postema.  The title of the event will be "On Being a Whole Calvinist: Loving God with our Head, Heart and Hands." The retreat will use worship, prayer, meditation, spiritual exercises, presentations and conversation to explore three elements of Reformed Spirituality--knowledge of God, experience of God and service of God.  We will focus on renewing our mind, listening to our heart, and opening our hands; developing a spirituality that fosters scholarship, prayer and action.

As Reformed people our hearts have often been informed by our minds, even dominated by our minds. Our minds also need to be informed by our hearts.  If our heart needs the mind to sort out and articulate what it hears, sees, receives and experienced, the mind also needs the heart to give it insight, warmth, sensitivity, depth and gratitude.  We need an experiential knowledge that will then shape us into active, caring people.

Don Postema is a popular retreat leader.  He is an ordained minister of the Christian Reformed Church. When he was pastor of a campus church in Ann Arbor, Ml, he took a sabbaatical to study with Henri Nouwen.  He is author of Space for God and Catch Your Breath.

The cost of the retreat will be $35 per person including lunch.  Please make your check to the Reformed Spirituality Network.  Please register for this retreat by sending the following form to Gladys Verhulst, 4297 Brooklawn Lane, Kentwood, Ml 49512.

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Registration for the Retreat with Don Postema at Camp Geneva, Sept. 23, 2000:

Name(s) _______________________________________________________________________

Address _______________________________________________________________________

Telephone number _______________________________________________________________

Enclosed find $35 per person.
Make check out to "Reformed Spirituality .Network."

Mail to Gladys Verhuist, 4297 Brooklawn Lane, Kentwood, Ml 49512.

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