An entire church can participate together in the spiritual disciplines in a variety of ways:
While prayer, Bible study, and fellowship are part of almost every congregation, often they are not seen as spiritual disciplines. The first step of inviting and encouraging members to participate in the spiritually disciplined life can be to help the congregation understand that components of the corporate worship experience are spiritual discipline. This can be done through the words of the worship leaders or identified in the printed order of worship.
Develop a sermon series on the disciplines and write accompanying material for the Sunday School classes and small groups within the church. The written material needs to be more than just a study. It also needs to provide activities for the participants to do. I am familiar with a congregation that has a homework assignment listed immediately following the postlude in the printed order of worship. The homework assignment always relates to one of the spiritual disciplines.
It possible to use the Lenten season as an occasion to build the entire adult programming around disciplines of engagement which include study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, and submission. It can be as simple as providing a devotional guide with what is being emphasized in the Sunday gathering, or it can be developed into a more elaborate program designating specific spiritual discipline activities for each day of the week. This does require teaching and preparation in advance so that the congregation has a common understanding to the meaning and the purpose of the disciplines.
One of our church’s college students was raised in a small church in which Friday was dedicated as a day of prayer and fasting. They were also encouraged to spend the first 30 minutes of Friday morning in solitude and the last 30 minutes of the day in silence. This was emphasized to the church members when they joined the church. It not only helped them develop the disciplines individually, but it also promoted a unity within the body.
Gary Fenton Gary.Fenton@Dawsonchurch.org www.characterpath.com www.dawsonchurch.org
