Spiritual Disciplines

From the style of the language of the opening of this text it is clear that it was composed between 1790 and 1804 during the middle period of the reform movement established by the Shehu, which began in 1774 until his death in 1817. The specific target of this text was his son, Shaykh Muhammad Sanbu who requested the Shehu to put in writing some principles on the methodology of disciplining the soul through hunger and fasting. Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir ibn Mustafa informs us in his Bayaan at-Ta`abudaat that as a result of applying the discipline of the text at the hands of his father, Shaykh Muhammad Sanbu ibn Shehu Uthman ibn Fuduye` had attained the station of champion of truth (siddiqiyya) at an early age. The general target audience of this text were the many spiritual disciples of the Shehu who were apart of his close assembly in Degel just before the hijra in 1804. Among them were Shaykh Umar Kamuni, Shaykh Muhammad Yero, Shaykh Abdullahi Mujjin Mahwi, Shaykh Muhammad Kari`angha, Shaykh Muhammad Tukur, Shaykh Ali Dhimbu, Shaykh  Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Bukhari, Shaykh as-Sayyid Ibrahim, Shaykh Umar Ghurba, the wife of the Shehu A`isha Iyya Gharka bint Shaykh Muhammad Sanbu; and others. Shaykh Umar Ahmad Zaruq said that another important beneficiary of this text was the Shehu’s eldest son, Muhammad Sad, who died in the year 1791, which means the text was probably composed between 1789 and 1790. At the time of the composition, Shaykh Muhammad Sanbu was about 17 years old and Shaykh Muhammad Sa`d was about 20 years old.

Academic studies of spiritual formation need more networking with studies of church history and theology. Many popular approaches to spiritual disciplines lift practices, counsel, and examples out of church history for contemporary emulation without regard to their development, their historical context, or the meaning they embodied at their origin. Nor do some popular approaches to the disciplines weigh the theological roots or the theological fruits of the disciplines. We need to reconsider some of the plug-and-lay approaches to the disciplines and embed them in deeper, richer considerations of the ways the Spirit has developed them through the historical experiences and concepts of the saints and through the theological language that informs them.

The local church has one goal: to proclaim the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The God-ordained means by which the church is to proclaim the gospel is the preaching of the Word of God. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:21). 1 This is the point of preaching: to declare God's message to a gathered church for the purpose of salvation. God uses ordinary men through ordinary means to communicate his divine message of salvation to the world. What a privilege for those who preach! Bryan Chapell proffers, "If your goal is Christ's honor you can be a great preacher through faithfulness to him and his message." 2 This act of preaching is unlike any other task. In fact, it is a noble task (1 Timothy 3:1), and a task that allows the pastor to oversee what God has entrusted to him -his congregation (Titus 1:7). The most compelling way a pastor can lead his congregation is to expound upon the Scriptures faithfully. Preaching should be both the highlight and the most dreaded task of every pastor's week. Dan Doriani proffers that pastors should enter the pulpit in a mild state of panic. 3

Fasting may not necessarily produce spiritual leaders but one can observe throughout church history that leaders instrumental in bringing about significant church growth and revival are people who fast. Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, Andrew Murray, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Wesley, Charles Wesley and George Whitefield all fasted and prayed regularly. Some of the largest contemporary churches with over 10,000 members regularly fast. Conversely, not all the large churches have a fasting and prayer program in place and yet they continue to grow. This thesis will examine if there is a relationship between fasting and church growth.

Genevan Reformer John Calvin produced a half dozen catechisms during his tenure in the city from 1536 to 1538 and 1541 to 1564. While not nearly so well-known as his Institutes of the Christian Religion or Geneva Bible, and not nearly so heavily used today as the later Reformed catechisms of Heidelberg or Westminster, Calvin's catechisms were impressive for their biblical acuity, pristine language, and doctrinal precision and for their power to integrate the far flung Calvinist communities of the sixteenth century. This Article samples these catechisms, and analyzes their use in spiritual formation and discipline for both children and adults in Geneva.

The discipline of spiritual direction is defined by the classic work, The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun as follows: “to give caring attention to my relationship with God, accompanied by the prayerful presence of someone who helps me listen well to God” (Calhoun, 2015, p. 16).

This paper argues that Sabbath rest is a spiritual discipline with principles applicable to the church today. However, individualism has bred a concept of leisure in place of rest, leading one away from the biblical teachings on rest as a reliance upon God's provision and recognition of His kept covenants and promise of a future rest.

BONHOEFFER'S LIFE TOGETHER describes disciplines for Christian formation. Based on communal life, these disciplines assist Christians to take seriously Christ's call to discipleship.
This article describes the disciplines of dispersion and community, reading Scripture, prayer, solitude, discernment, service and confession. Disconnected from contemporary Western life, they seem to bear little relationship to spiritual awareness pedagogy contemporary classrooms. The article considers some classroom processes akin to Joyce and Weil's Personal Family and Social Family models of teaching that contribute to spiritual awareness pedagogy that eventually enables children to embody these disciplines as Christians who take their call to discipleship seriously.

Key Words: formation, classroom, spiritual disciplines, Bonhoeffer, Life Together, spiritual awareness pedagogy. Personal Family and Social Family models of teaching.

The prayer labyrinth is an example of an ancient spiritual discipline that, on the one hand, fosters a deepening relationship with God through slow and deliberate meditation, and on the other, is being destroyed by our modern incessant need for speed and efficiency. 

It is my intention, in this paper, to bring these seemingly opposite poles together so that within a contemporary society we can harness the technological advances of speed and efficiency to slow down and relate deeper with God.

When the Lord's Prayer is seen as providing a pattern for focused attentiveness in the life of prayer, it becomes a transformative means of immersing oneself in the human-divine dialogue, which authentic prayer ever is. A slightly different form of this essay was also published in Paul Anderson, Following Jesus: The Heart of Faith and Practice (Newberg, OR: Barclay Press, 2013) 68-77.

This paper, which is published online at http://graftedlife.org/articles/worldview-is-more-than-what-you-think/ argues that the emphasis upon worldview within Christian communities cannot be a purely intellectual enterprise.  The very tenets of a Christian worldview assume a relational God who is active and present in the world.  As a result, it is incumbent upon those forming others in the Christian worldview that they emphasize the relational components of the Christian worldview as well as the intellectual commitments.

""This book outlines Jonathan Edwards's vision of the Christian life. Focusing on his broad vision of a pilgrimage to heaven, and developing his understanding of the means of grace, this volume introduces readers to the spiritual life of one of Protestant's most spiritually-minded theologians.

This volume is written for the non-specialist, attempting to introduce Edwards to readers unfamiliar with his thought and the academic debates surrounding these issues.""