pat loughery

On Friday Apr 25 and Sat Apr 26, Jack Stapleton, Guardian of the Aidan Trust in the US, spoke at Bethany Community Church in the Greenlake neighborhood of Seattle. He spoke on the topic of “Living by a Way of Life”.

About the Church and Discipleship

What is church? Not a building or a denomination, but church, ecclesia, is a gathered people called out by a ruling authority for a specific reason. Believers individually are not strong by themselves; they are only strengthened in community.

It is this community dynamic that makes spiritual formation effective.

Jack lives near Mike Greeley, Vineyard pastor, and uses Vineyards as examples.

What is discipleship? Jack tells a story about how you become a pipe organ tuner, a long and artful process. You go from being a student to a doer to a leader.

A disciple is a unique person who reflects the character of Jesus through the prism of his or her unique life.

This church here (Bethany) cannot fully reflect the character of Christ. Together with the Ethiopian Lutheran church down the street and the one across the street from there – we need each other. And it doesn’t happen by simply showing up in the building.

Paul the apostle was quite a character. Sometime, you should read his letters not as Scripture you wish to apply to your life but just to understand the character of Paul himself. He had problems with sarcasm, fits of rage. Kind of neurotic, actually.

Not much of Jesus’ teaching (though there some powerful parts) talk about restoring relationship with God. Much more is about being a disciple.

See the Sermon on the Mount, Matt 5-7.

Jesus: 1) Calls his disciples to him, and 2) Sits down. In the ancient world, sitting down is a sign of teaching authority. (c.f. “endow a chair”). The chair is what a rabbi took when he is no longer teaching what others say – but what the rabbi directly says. 3) “Opened his mouth and taught them, saying”

SOTM is not a path to discipleship, but what happens as a result of grace.

See Phillipians 4:12 (work out your salvation with fear and trembling) – coming from a writer who’s so concerned with grace.

Dallas Willard in The Great Omission, on discipleship: Keeping one away from the actions (works) of discipleship can be construed as abandoning grace.

The Great Commission in Matt 26:

• Go (in and with what you have, wherever you are).
• Make disciples (train others to live as you do)
• Baptize them into the trinity (incorporate them into the life of the body; the trinity is a sign that eternal community is the very nature of God)
• Teach them to do the things (the things of Jesus, and the actions of Jesus, even though we know how to do them incompletely).

That’s the foundation upon which we will continue talking about how to grow.

(break time)

Beginning to establish your own Way

God has a much bigger image of what it means to be the church than we ever imagined.

Living by a way of life is going to require something that you haven’t got; time. So, something has to give. you’re going to lose something. you have to look at the activiites in which you’re engaged and discard the good for the best. Oswald Chambers: The good is the enemy of the best.

TANSTAAFL: “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”

Count the cost.

Inventory your life. Inventory your time and how you spend it; inventory your calendar. Inventory your banking receipts/checkbook.

Your pastor probably doesn’t have time. He or she cannot disciple probably more than 5 or 6. Jesus did it fulltime, and discipled 12. And of those 12 he chose 3 that he was deeply mentoring (Peter, James and John). but James is the 1st one to get killed – weird choice for an omnipotent God.

so if your pastor isn’t available to direct you in this way. You may be in a mentoring relationship already.

Jesus got in trouble for working on the Sabbath. The principle is simple: “take a day off!”.

This principle is true for the earth as well – fields were to be given a year off out of every 7. And then at 7 cycles of 7, the 50th year was Jubilee. Servanthood/slavery, debt cancelled.

Take a day off. You need the rest.

You also need someone with whom you can share this.

About the soul friend

Can be a mentor, can be a spiritual director. But anamchara, derived from Irish through Latin – means “person who loves my heart.”

This is someone who has committed not just to pray for you, but to help God to reveal his vision for you, and also to hold your feet to the fire for commitment. They pray for commitment, encouragement.

The only way to have a soul friend is to be one.

Everybody needs a soul friend. Most of you may already have one and not know it. Those who are married may soul friend each other (in the best of all possible worlds).

Pray for God’s vision for your friend.

One word of warning. Men and women shouldn’t soul friend one another if not married or engaged. Too risky.

Question about mentor/coach vs. spiritual director vs. soul friend. A: Soul friending frankly died out, replaced in european Catholicism by the professional spiritual director (usually a monk or nun), and the confessor.

Question about the suggestion that you meet your soul friend 2x/yr. A: This comes from days in which people would meet and travel with their soul friends for 3 or 4 days at a time.

Mentorship often isn’t a long-term relationship. It’s also more hierarchical.

Q: What about the professionalization of soul friending and spiritual direction? A: You can’t control how others use these terms. Within your community, make a covenant together about what this means.

Q: What about covenant, membership in community? A: You are a people who are searching for an authentic life in Jesus Christ. You can look to find other models from other communities, but you must find a common way that the community is committed to.

Q: What about confession? A: Definitely a part of the relationship, but more of “I need to have someone from whom I have no secrets.” The risk of confession is in betrayal; Jack tells the story of St. Patrick’s confessio, which includes a deep betrayal by a soul friend in his youth. But there is enormous value. James 5 and Ephesians 5.