[Company Logo Image] Urban Spirituality

Go Up One Level Urban Spirituality Pilgrimage Among Poor Seasons of Spir Growth To Have or Not to Have Families Motivations Analyzing Emotional Health Dealing with Bitterness Healing Painful Past 

URBAN SPIRITUALITY

 Lecture Notes - Viv Grigg, 2004

Learning Objectives:

1.Understanding: Trainees will understand a diversity of strands of Christian spirituality.
2. Understanding: Trainees will understand the relationship of the three main traditions of spiritual growth to urban poor ministry.
3. Skill: Trainees will evaluate the effectiveness of their spiritual disciplines in enabling them to cope with the pressures of urban life.
4. Character: Trainees will understand the effect of stress on spirituality and family by identifying three major stressors and determining changes of lifestyle or spiritual practices to cope with them.

 A. The Three Traditions of Spirituality

1. The Way of Action

a. The Way of Love (1 John)

  • Ma Theresa, the preaching friars,

  • St Francis of Assissi (1182-1226),

  • Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918),

  • Toyohiko Kagawa (1888 - c1946)

b. The Way of Doing Justice (Jer 23:29)

  •  William Law (1886-1761),

  • Liberation theologians,

  • Dom Helder Camara

2. The Way of Wisdom (Proverbs) (knowledge)

  • Augustine (354-430),

  • John Calvin (1509-1564),

  • William Temple (1881-1944)

3. The Way of Devotion (mysticism)

  • the age of mysticism (11th-15th C),

  • Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153),

  • George Fox (1624-1691),

  • Sundar Singh (1889-1933).

B. These Three Lead to the Way of the Spirit

e.g. Watchman Nee

C. The Spirituality of the Apostolic Workers

*      Servant-Partners: Incarnational Communities of Graduates

*      InnerChange: Following the Charismatic Prophet Among the Poor

            Kairos

D. Classic Spiritual Disciplines

·        The Daily Devotional

  • The Weekly Prayer Meeting
  • The Emergence of Corporate Prayer
  • Spiritual Formation
  • The Disciplines of Quiet Time, Memory, Bible Study, Mentoring

Spiritual disciplines (From the Lifestyle and Values of Servants)

We believe our whole lifestyle should become a true walking in the Spirit. We hold to the importance of Spirit-directed self-discipline in the cultivation of spirituality, through regular meditation, study of the Work, worship, prayer and fasting. We recognize that without steadfastness in these disciplines our lives will be inadequate to cope with the stresses of living among the poor. Our first work is intercession, from which spring our ministry.

Our lives are to be a sign of joy among the people. The center of our lifestyle is the daily celebration of our Lord’s death and resurrection. Wherever we go, we seek to lead others into this celebration of the resurrected Lord, bringing the hope of Christ into slums without hope, the joy of Christ into slums of despair.

We rejoice, too, in suffering, knowing that suffering produces character (Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2:4).

Celebration, rest and joy were built into the Scriptures in the concepts of the jubilee and Sabbaths. Knowing that joy flags under overwork, we will zealously keep free one day per week for rest outside of the slum areas. We will season our year with weeks for celebration and festivity, rest and retreat. The seventh year should be a year for rest, reflection, and recommitment.

We will read and review our lives at least monthly, rewriting our values and lifestyle yearly, in consultation with a spiritual adviser.

E. Spirituality in the Midst of Modernism

Responding to the Spirit of Greed  (From the Lifestyle and Values of Servants)

Non-Destitute Poverty
    The Master not only chose poverty in birth, in life and death, he also calls his servants to such a lifestyle. We recognize our basic needs for food and clothing (I Timothy 6:6-8, Matthew 6:25-33), which may include tools of our trade, children’s toys. We recognize the just need, inferred from the Scriptures for each family to own its own home, although some, like the Master, may choose a mobile, apostolic life with nowhere to lay one’s head (Luke 9:58). In putting our treasure in heaven, we covet the unsearchable riches of Christ.
    We desire to possess nothing that cannot be shared with those around us. Regarding what we have, we hold it not as our own but rather as lent to us for a season. We will seek to exclude from both our personal and communal lives the cares of the world, the delight in riches and the desire for other things (Matthew 4:19 A.V.). We will avoid the abundance of communal properties or wealth. Buildings, administration and ministry shall be developed in the simplest manner consistent with good health and with efficient, well-pleasing work.

Inner Simplicity
    Renouncing possessions is an outworking of an inner simplifying of our lives which lead to the openness, gentleness, spontaneity, and serenity that marked the Master. In renouncing possessions we seek to simplify our external lives in order to simplify more clearly our inner lives and focus on knowing our Lord.
    Along with outward poverty, we desire an inner humility; along with servant works, we seek the spirit of a true servant In caring little for this world where we are strangers and pilgrims, we set our hearts on that spiritual home where our treasure is being saved up, and on that glory which we shall share with our Lord, provided we suffer with him.
    We encourage middle-class Christians to such simplicity of lifestyle. For some it means earning less, and using their time for the kingdom. For others it means to earn much, consume little, hoard nothing, give generously and celebrate living. Such lifestyles are infinitely varied. We refuse to judge others in such areas.

How do we develop a spirituality that responds to the following elements of urban culture?

*       The Spirit of sex

*       The Spirit of power, expansion of bureaucracy, one world government

*       The Spirit of violence

*       The Spirit of technicism, positivism, scientism, mechanisation

*       The Spirit of secularism

*       Futurism

*       Nihilism

*       Homelessness, dispossession

*       Individualism

*       Narcissism, self-gratification

*       Abuse of Creation, Manipulation of creation

F. Spirituality Based on Spiritual Gifts

  • Evangelistic?

  • Pastoral?

  • Deliverance?

  • Hospitality?

  • Justice etc.?
     

What is your gift?
What is your style of spirituality?

G. Coping with the Stress of Urban Ministry

Theology of rest - the ebb and flow of ministry seasons.

Cities: Intensifiers of Stress

The mental stresses of the city require a response from the church. For example the stress of life in Hong Kong has resulted in 1 in 10 developing mental problems. The social dislocation of migration leaves long term social problems. The pressure of commuting, of economics, of education create stress.

Stimulus overload results from constant noise, people and events. We can only absorb so much. Hence we develop several stages of adjustment:

  1. Cutting off stimuli
  2. Being selective about movements
  3. Splitting society into sectors
  4. Find space away from the people over whom we have no control.

H. The Need for a Spiritual Advisor/ Supervisor

Human beings are limited and need other counsellors to help. Who do you meet with weekly to mentor you with spiritual issues?

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© Viv Grigg & Urban Leadership Foundationand other materials © by various contributors & Urban Leadership Foundation,  for The Encarnacao Training Commission.  Last modified: July 2010