Dallas Willard is often credited with popularizing the concept of spiritual formation. Instead of leaving spiritual growth as merely something to shoot for in a general way (go to church, read your Bible and pray), spiritual formation suggests specific goals with specific steps to reach these goals. For example, the ultimate goal of evangelism is not simply helping another person “get saved” in order to go to heaven when they die, but rather to “make disciples by baptizing them and then teaching them to obey all things he had commanded the apostles” (Matthew 28:19-20). Thus, as followers of Jesus, they are taught obedience to all that he taught, the path to becoming more and more like him.
The idea of having different commitment levels for different “types” of Christians with different expectations from God is nowhere to be found in the Bible. The clergy/laity distinction of commitment is a human invention, and a very bad one from multiple vantage points. Paul, as an apostle and disciple maker, would describe the path of spiritual formation as imitating him as he imitated Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Spiritual formation has as its goal becoming more and more like Jesus in this life as a part of his spiritual kingdom, and according to what we term his “model prayer,” his kingdom is where God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Seen correctly, being a Christ follower involves radical and continuing life change.
Consumer Christianity
Willard frequently calls current evangelical Christianity consumer Christianity. This is a much-downgraded version of true Christianity which could be described as “having your cake and eating it too.” In other words, once you “get saved,” then you can basically carry on your life focused on this world with its entertainment and materialism with little spiritual change, yet remain assured of going to heaven and avoiding hell at death.
This seriously misguided concept is enhanced by the also popular view of “once saved, always saved,” an odd remaining remnant (Perseverance of the Saints) of a generally rejected TULIP system of Calvinism. The foundation of the “P” is based on the previous four elements of the system which are now discounted by most evangelicals. (I have a chapter on Calvinism in my book, “Prepared to Answer,” available from Illumination Publishers). Consumer Christianity is in truth little more than spiritual fire insurance. It is not about life change through striving to become like Jesus as our model, and as a result, truly enjoying what he calls the “abundant life” (John 10:10).
Willard notes that the term “Christian” is found only three times in the New Testament and left undefined at that. On the other hand, the term “disciple” is found many times and is quite well described and defined. Consumer Christianity is an invention of a materialistic Western World, especially the American part of it. True Christianity is characterized by being a disciple, meaning one who follows Jesus with the express purpose of learning his ways and imitating him as a person and adopting his ways by putting them into practice.
The Basis of the Contrast
You will have to read Willard’s books to more fully understand and appreciate these concepts, but in a footnote (which is far more than a footnote), he makes a statement about the famous “Twelve Step” program of Alcoholics Anonymous, lists the full version of the steps, followed by a most profound statement regarding “how utterly superficial the consumer Christianity of our day is.” He than ends his footnote comments thusly: “Imagine, by contrast, being a member of a Church or local assembly of Christians where these 12 steps were applied without specific reference to alcohol.” Indeed! Were this to actually happen, we would reach a high-water mark of spiritual formation where implementing Jesus’ words in the Great Commission would become reality rather than simply wishful thinking.
He introduces the steps with this comment: “Because the famous 12 steps of A.A. are more talked about outside A.A. than actually studied themselves, it will be useful here to fully state them:” (Please read them slowly and carefully, putting your “besetting” sin in the place of alcohol as needed. It will prove to be a very valuable meditation time.)
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol; that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
From Alcoholics Anonymous, 3d ed., New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1976, pp. 59–69.
Read again Willard’s ending comments in the footnote. “Compared to this, one sees how utterly superficial the consumer Christianity of our day is. Imagine, by contrast, being a member of a Church or local assembly of Christians where these 12 steps were applied without specific reference to alcohol.”
Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God (p. 437). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
