Course: Spiritual Life of the Leader

Lecture 18: Christian Anthropology (Part 2)

It's important to keep Christ at the center of who you are. Interiority includes memory, intellect, will. Augustine says will is most important. In addition to our personal thoughts, we exist in community with others who are submitting their lives to the will of Christ. The Lord has placed us in a certain place and time and wants you to live a life of obedience in that context every day, not just one day a week. The Father is seeking to form your life into the image of Christ as you were meant to be. Through our experiences, God forms you into a unique person. On the relational side, this results in compassion for others because we love others with the same love we experienced. God gives us confidence that he has given us the gifts and resources we need to live out the calling he has given us. Competence that our ministry will be effective. Our courage comes from trusting in the strength of the Lord. Community, the work of God’s Church is a work done with others. Confirmation comes internally from God and externally from the community of faith.

I. Field Theory

I want to continue in our study of Christian Anthropology. This may be a new area that you have ventured into and also Van Com isn’t the only person who felt that Christian Anthropology was important. Dallas Willard spent a lot of time and energy working on this area. I have found it to be very helpful in my own ministry and understanding. These are like metrics that I have in my own mind and in my own heart when I am ministering to people and when I am speaking. First, I want to look at Von Com’s field Theory. This was inspired by his ventures into quantum physics, understanding that there is a whole field of energy in the physical universe; things that spin around other things and how those things are connected with each other. I am not talking within a spiritualistic standpoint here. I am talking about actual quantum physics. Let’s see how this relates in helping people to keep Christ at the center of who they are and to connect all these things back into this amazing focus and reality of the one who holds all things together. I want to point you to the text of understanding in our story which is Christian Anthropology by Rebecca Letterman and Susan Muto. They put up a field model that put the center in place so that all things are going to be held together in this center. This is the divine forming and preforming mystery.

A. Mystery of God as Revealed Through Christ

This is simply the revelation of Christ as revealed in and through the incarnation of Christ and the Word that has been given to us. This is the middle of this field theory where all things come not only out from Christ but will return to him. We start out then with our interior life associated by four poles. This interior life includes memory, intellect, and will; all of these things unfold at any moment in our interior life. This interior life is the area where we receive and give form to our personal directives, thoughts, feelings, modes and decisions; there is a whole sphere of the human life that is unfolding around our own thoughts, feelings, modes, directions, etc. So Von Com conceived of the human heart which he terms the core form as being a relatively stable configuration of character disposition. This is where all these disciplines that I have built up, the disposition to be kind and loving and thoughtful, to grow and to learn and to be compassionate. All of these things are a part of unique gift that makes you who you are. It is called the intra-sphere or your own interior life.

B. Your Interior Life

The most important thing here, according to Augustin is our will. It is the decision making process. So by orientation of will; it is openness to that transcendent meaning of life. We are open to the invitation that is coming from the Holy Spirit to form our lives in a certain way. All of that is processed there. Then a major component of every human life; is anyone born in isolation? Does anybody live a singular life? This is not what the Lord designed us for.

C. Your Relational Life

My life is not merely caught up in my own thoughts and feelings, even though sometimes feels like it is; I am also part of a community. Just think about this as being family, friends, co-workers; I live in relationship at various levels with a whole lot of people. Even my life in relationship with others in the church; the inter-relatedness of life is huge. It is not just a vertical thing with me and God; there is always a horizontal aspect of who we are. It is the body of Christ as well. The minute I submit my life to the Lordship of Christ, it is the minute that I am placed in communion with everyone else who submits their life to the Lordship of Christ. Historically, the church is called the communion of the saints. That communion is both with the saints in heaven; these are triumphant saints as well as the saints on earth. We are part of that same body as we submit our lives to the will of Christ.

D. You’re here and Now Life

There are two other poles, one that is critical which we tend to eliminate; it is our here and now life. This is the situational pole; our here and now life. The Lord has a place for me in a certain time and situation and he wants me to unfold a life of obedience to him in this certain place and time. If you are a student, then this is where he has called you to be. He has called you to that place, a school, giving your best for the Lord even as you stay in a relationship with others. This is where the work of your life is to unfold. You have to think in terms of every day. When Christianity is only thought about and practiced on one day, you do not have true Christianity. This is our everyday life where we are seeking to unfold infidelity to how and where Christ has placed us. Another pole involves being global citizens.

E. You are a Global Citizen

This top pole is our global life. I am not here just necessarily to serve one particular area, also in practicality that is how it works itself out. But even my service of love in one particular place in the truest since of the word can and will have global implications. It is the sphere of the world. We are not called to live in isolation and insolation. What you do today may have impact on others anywhere in the world. Think in terms of the largeness of salvation; it is meant for all people and for us to see ourselves as having the potential of reflecting his love to all people.

II. Implications of the Field Theory in Your Daily Life

What does this mean in our everyday life and seeking to live an obedient life that is connected with the Lord? Let’s look at the center of all it is in terms of the mystery of the Trinity. At the center of this, we have nothing less than adoration and awe; where you see Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father loves the Son and the Father pours his life out into the Son and the Son responds to that love and returns that Love to the Father. The bond between them is so incredibly strong; it is the kiss of peace between the Father and Son. The three in one is at the center of all that it is; Father, Son and Holy Spirit are giving form to all that is. This is what Von Com meant when he talked about the divine forming mystery of God. The Father is seeking to form your life into the image of Christ that you were meant to be. What if in the uniqueness that you are and created to be and when you get into heaven, you are actually going to instruct the rest of the heavenly host about a particular aspect of the nature of God. This is the whole body of Christ; each member of the body of Christ, all reflecting that image. God is seeking to grow us into maturity and that maturity is in the body of Christ. This is in order to find and know our place and to live our place.

It is going to be who he has created us to be. This is the symphony that the Lord has invited me to be part of. He is the director and I have an instrument to play. And through his grace in my own interiority, I’m learning how to do that. All of those crises and all that which we have been talking about can unfold into a deep sense of knowing what you were created to do. This is who he wants me and how he wants me to reflect his glory. These are the notes of the song that he wants me to sing. On the relational side, what begins to unfold is a true sense of loving compassion for others. That sense of loving others with the same God like love that I have received. And in regards to where he specifically placed me, what begins to unfold is a genuine and humble sense of confidence. The confidence that I can step into what he has called me to be. Whatever that is, I will be able to handle the things of God; there is no arrogance in this. There is a sense that I can do whatever he wants me to do. I have a confidence in knowing I am where I am supposed to be. In like minor where I am called to impact the world for his sake, then there is this sense of competence.

This is having confidence in the good work of God which results in confidence in the expression that I share with others; the ministry that I am doing with others. These things are going to be marked by courage. We become Psalm 27 people; we are taking the strength of the Lord and the courage of the Lord. These things will always marked by community. These works of God’s church is a work done with others in Christ as well. I am called to lead out of singularity, but instead I’m called to lead as a team, to be a member of a team and the body of Christ where I am loving others. There is also a sense of cooperation, loving cooperation and even deep hospitality where I am learning to work with others. Not just in a compassionate way but to work well with them; to learn how to work as a team. Then over here, I think what we are going to see unfold between our immediate situated place and our own interiority; we will have a sense of confirmation.

Confirmation is in an interior sense where the Lord is really at work in your life. The community will affirm this. It is so important for us to be Barnabas people; people who love and encourage others and seek to move them through our encouragement into the competence that Christ has for them. There is a balance through all of this definitely on the personal side. We need to see the firmness of Christ at place. When I am given a task, I am called to stay with it, not to be divided in so many directions. All firmness makes for a very mean person, not a fun person to be around. On the relational side, I am called to carry that delicate balance of gentleness. So gentleness is basically having mercy in regards to those others who have also fallen. There must be firmness and gentleness. If you fall off too far on the gentile side, then you will not be able to speak any kind of a corrective word or directing word into somebody. In the long run, this isn’t necessarily helpful. If you are too heavy on the firm side of things, you will come across as being overbearing and hard to get along with and nobody will want to be around you. There must be a sweet and delicate balance in regards to firmness and gentleness.

III. Conclusion

So what is this saying to me? I am bringing every aspect of my life into the same adoration and awe that is happening in the trinity. I am bringing everything into submission to Christ. I am taking the courage of the Lord; I am living in community. I am seeking to genuinely get along with others. I am both offering confirmation for others and I am receiving confirmation from others. Then these things begin to work in harmony together. The early church loved the word of harmoniously sounding together of all the parts. This makes for happiness, holiness and happiness. These two always go hand in hand and may these be a reality in your life.

You have to look at each of the four corners and ask yourself whether this is in balance in my life. Am I doing nothing but working on my competence, but I don’t have any compassion for people. Different pastors will have different sets of gifts that will allow them to be stronger in one area or another. But we all need to have that balance. If I am spending all of my time with people; we are called to love people and to spend time with people. Jesus spent a lot of time with people. If I am spending the vast majority of my time with people to the exclusion of having interiority time where I am alone out on the hillside with the Father in prayer then that isn’t in balance. Am I so caught up in the functional side of where I am situated that I neglect my own family, etc.

You mentioned cooperation relating to people; I see it as cooperating with the Holy Spirit in how he is trying to intervene in my life to bring the balance to cooperate as well as relationally with people. That is ultimately what we want to do; we want to be side by side with others cooperating with the Holy Spirit. This is how the Holy Spirit wants us to go and in our work with people when you are finding yourself pressing against people as a disposition, you are always having to come against. When there is no cooperation, you are always pressing. Who wants to work with a person like that? And if you are always getting away from people, you don’t want to take a chance of any kind of conflict. Or, you are trying always to meld with somebody. There are times when I need to come against and there are times when I need to get away and times when I need to meld, but not dispositional. We need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit; how do you want this situation to unfold.