Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Spiritual Formation, Discipleship, Christian Education

What are the differences
between
SPIRITUAL FORMATION
and
DISCIPLESHIP
and
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
?
.

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4 Comments:

Blogger Kar Yong said...

Spiritual formation is the ultimate goal of the process of discipleship in which christian education is one of the means. Sorry, my brain is just not working well.... :-)

10:39 AM  
Blogger Alex Tang said...

thanks, kar yong.

I hope to hear more from the others. This is not a trick question.

12:17 PM  
Blogger Dave said...

Dallas Willard has tis to say:

Spiritual formation could and should be the process by which those who are Jesus' apprentices or disciples come easily to "do all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=58

If true, then discipleship is the goal and spiritual formation is the process to get there, christian education is one of those processes

2:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the *public* (and thus consensually used) understanding of the terms are as follows:

CE is the modern-day nurturing of the mind to make one think (and act) more like Christ and thus to grow in Discipleship.

CE would be a sub-set of Spiritual Formation which is the self-focused process of growing as a disciple (a'la Willard).

Discipleship, however, is "SF + Wide Engagement in Community"

I confess I'm not comfortable with the term SF, because the orientation still seems to be on a private (and thus 'me-alone') relationship with God, wonderful and necessary as this should be.

Discipleship is a 'broader' term which I think rightly encompasses one's relation to the community, the environment, and so on.

E.g. an ascetic monk may be VERY strongly 'spiritually formed' but is exhibiting less than full-blown Biblical discipleship, given his seclusion, no?

12:27 AM  

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