Sunday School Answers: Inadequate Cliches and Spiritual Disciplines
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I have this running joke in the young adult group I lead about what we call “Sunday school answers.” Sunday school answers include things like, “Jesus,” “read your Bible,” “go to church,” “pray.” They are the simplistic answers that became rote. Rote and stripped of power. So oversimplified that they couldn’t possibly apply to any real questions. Or on the other hand, so cliché that they fail to have meaning.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against Sunday school. And furthermore, these “Sunday school answers” are usually developmentally appropriate when they are taught to young children. However, it seems like these answers get stuck at an early developmental level and fail to be modified for different stages. At some point, we need more than these cliché answers to experience spiritual transformation. Jesus is the answer. But being told so fails to give us any information on how to apply that answer. How does one read their Bible? What does it mean to go to church? And what is prayer?
From my life experience and relevant research, we see young adults leaving the church at astounding rates. Why? Though theories and factors abound, what I know from my people is that part of the problem is that these “Sunday school answers” weren’t adequate for college students, people in their 20’s, 30’s. This resulted in church becoming unnecessary, expendable. And many of the “Christian” young adults who do stick around church seem to be stagnant, caught in repetitive patterns, without power to change, stuck.
A New Creation
Almost every Sunday of my life, I heard the same verse from the pulpit: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV). Every Sunday. Rote. It is etched in my being. I loved the idea of this newness. I longingly admired it. Like a fairy tale I wanted to live. Like a destination I hoped to someday visit, or a dream that might one day be realized. But there was a deep chasm between this ideal of newness and what I saw around me: so many of the people around me seemed to be the same old creation. Nothing seemed to pass away. Patterns, addictions, behaviors, disfunction. And in so many instances, sooner or later, these things resulted in church splits, or people walking away.
So here was something I longed for, even believed in. But the incongruency was unsettling. I struggled to make sense of it.
I still struggle to make sense of it. And though I’m about to provide what I believe is a solution, I want to honor the fact that it is not so simple. We live in the “already/not yet.” A frustrating and glorious theological idea that the Kingdom is already here, but also not yet here in entirety, not until the end. So while we are new creations in Christ, and while the old has passed away, the new has not yet come fully, and all things are not yet new, not entirely. This tension is the painful point of transition that we experience while we live our redeemed days on Earth. There’s nothing simple about it. I get it, because I too, live it.
Before I share any solution, let me further explore the problem.
Is the problem the Sunday school answers themselves? Did those Kindergarten-level axioms fail us? Or maybe it was our disregard for them? Apathy? Incredulity that they would work in real life?
All of the above.
Part one of the problem: The Sunday school answers failed us because they failed to transmute, to transpose, to deepen and shift and apply to our context.
Now that we are adults, making our way in the world of career, roles, and relationships, what are developmentally appropriate “Sunday school answers” to our questions? Questions like, how do I be a Christian? How do I grow into spiritual and emotional maturity? How do I get unstuck from patterns that I’m enslaved to?
Spiritual Disciplines
The answer? Spiritual disciplines. At their simplest, most elemental definition, spiritual disciplines are the Sunday school answers: “pray,” “read your Bible,” “go to church.” But they are also so much more. So much more relevant. Spiritual disciplines are practices that make space for the Holy Spirit to transform us more and more into that new creation into which Jesus promises to make us. I prefer to think of the spiritual disciplines as spiritual practices. They are practices we can engage in to help guide and shape our spiritual development.
The practices in and of themselves are not what make us holy or take us deeper into spirituality, from a Biblical and theological perspective at least. In fact, they are “methods of indirection” (to borrow from Dallas Willard) and only work from the inside out. By change occurring in the inner man or woman, external transformation becomes evident. Conversely, engaging in these disciplines as our badge of Christianity will fail to transform our inner person. And quickly becomes legalism – the thinking that by doing or not doing certain things we earn righteousness. Instead, the habitual practice of disciplines can create a trellis to help your life intentionally grow in a way that is healthy, fruitful. Spiritual disciplines are habits of “indirection.” Meaning, like the trellis, they aren’t what creates the fruit. They are the way we put in effort to co-labor with the Spirit of God for our growth.
The word “discipline” might sound scary or even repulsive. However, these practices don’t come with a prescription to rigorously practice every discipline, every day, beginning at 5am and ending when you drag your weary body to bed. That’s not practical. Not sustainable. We aren’t living in monasteries. And if that’s the picture in your mind, I don’t blame you for your disinterest. Paul, in Philippians 4, told the recipients of his letter to “practice” all that they learned, received, heard, and saw in him, with the promise that “the God of peace” would be with them (Philippians 4:9 ESV). The term “practice” reminds us that we will never perfectly achieve. And rightly so, for achievement is not the aim of the spiritual disciplines. Space for transformation is.
Yet, many of the practices that make room for Holy Spirit transformation, are supported by neuroscience as beneficial to our brains and nervous systems. That means that even the act of practicing many of these disciplines creates immediate benefits. So, while spiritual disciplines aren’t the be-all-end-all of spirituality, while they don’t make us good or righteous, they are good for us in a wholistic sense.
Many of the inward disciplines are related to things from popular psychology, such as mindfulness and grounding (silence, solitude, meditation, contemplative prayer, gratitude). The benefits to our brains and bodies comes from the way these practices regulate and calm the nervous system. Some spiritual disciplines stimulate the attachment centers in our brains and facilitate conditions for secure attachment. Worship is connected to what one model of therapy calls a “transformational healing affect.”
Gratitude rewires our brain toward positivity and connection. Confession undoes shame. Community fosters relationships, which are predictors of wellbeing. As a counselor who is fascinated by neuroscience, I could say more on all these topics. For now, I just want to impress on you how beneficial the disciplines are, to not only spiritual health, but also to mental, emotional, and physical health! Though in and of themselves the disciplines have no power to spiritually transform us, they benefit our whole person while simultaneously inviting the Spirit of God to transforms us from one degree of glory to the next (2 Corinthians 3:18)!
Jesus himself engaged in spiritual disciplines, as well as the New Testament church. Though the term “Spiritual discipline” does not occur in Scripture, and though you won’t find a definitive list in your Bible, you can find Jesus and the church practicing the disciplines. In Acts 2:42 we read that the new believers devoted themselves to what they were taught, to prayer, to fellowship, and communion. We read in the Gospels that Jesus often slipped away to pray alone, in solitude. He obviously practiced Sabbath, being a Jewish man. He meditated on and studied Scripture, as evidenced by various accounts involving the temple and synagogues, as well as his teachings, which had the Torah (first five books of our Bibles) as a foundation. He was in community and fellowship with his followers. He lived and taught the disciplines: he taught his followers how to pray; he instructed on the importance of stewardship and service.
You may not be able to find a single, exhaustive list of the disciplines, because opinion varies. But as you begin to identify the disciplines, some categories might be helpful. Richard Foster divided the disciplines into three categories: inward, outward, and corporate. Dallas Willard addressed two categories: disciplines of abstinence and disciplines of engagement. And arguably, all the disciplines fall into one of the various “Sunday school answers” I have shared here. The following are some spiritual disciplines with very brief descriptions:
- Silence/Solitude. Taking intentional time for quietness away from others in order to be alone with God. Often a form of prayer is involved.
- Sabbath. Setting aside one day a week for worship and to cease from work, to rest.
- Gratitude/Remembrance. Expressing thanks to God, recounting and remembering, savoring what he has done.
- Prayer (and the many subcategories within). Communicating with God through various forms, including, but not limited to: thanksgiving, contemplative prayer, intercession, worship/adoration, listening, petition, lament, (and the list goes on).
- Fasting. Purposefully abstaining from food (or some other substance/process) to focus awareness on God and our need for him, and away from our failed coping mechanisms.
- Meditation. Using a passage of Scripture or a characteristic of God to guide focused thought on him. Scripture memorization.
- Study. Not just reading Scripture, but seeking out deeper understanding of what is read.
- Confession. Becoming vulnerable, transparent, and accountable to your community of faith by confessing your struggles and asking for prayer.
- Community/Fellowship. Engaging in real (as opposed to superficial) relationships with other believers.
- Service. Giving of your time and effort to help carry out functions in your home, in the homes of others, and in the church.
- Simplicity. Choosing to live counter to the empty promises of advertising, media, and culture; living oppositely to consumerism and materialism.
- Guidance/Submission. Seeking out direction from godly leaders and following it; accountability; Christian counseling informed by Biblical principles and truth.
- Stewardship. Using your resources in a way that honors God.
Sunday school answers were true, but not adequately conveyed. They are the key in taking us from spiritual and emotional immaturity, to looking more and more like Jesus. They are a factor in becoming the new creation that is free from the problems inherent in the old. These practices are what Paul directed us toward. Like a disciple, or apprentice to Jesus, the spiritual disciplines are part of how we shape our lives to the teaching of Jesus.
My joke about Sunday school answers is inherently ironic, because “Sunday school answers” are fundamental to following Jesus. I believe, not in their power exclusively, but in the power of Jesus to transform us. I believe in his power to transform us into something new. Even so, we also must intentionally seek after that metamorphosis using spiritual practices.
But remember, I said that the problem is two-fold. If part one is the lack of developmentally appropriate resourcing, then the solution is the spiritual disciplines. Part two of the problem is our apathy, our disbelief that these answers are applicable, and our disinterest in applying them. The solutions for that part of the problem are far more involved and nuanced. Our fallen nature plays a role in this part of the problem. Where this aspect of the problem is present, models for spiritual growth might be beneficial, as well as implementing a rule of life. A rule of life is a basically the trellis that I mentioned earlier. It involves starting habits and rhythms that facilitate growth.
I would like to offer you a free download that includes a description of a model for spiritual transformation, as well as a template for completing this model on your own. Click here.
Additional Resources
If you are interested in the practice of spiritual disciplines, here are additional resources that you might find helpful:
Spiritual Disciplines
Celebration of Discipline – Richard Foster
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality – Peter Scazzero
Renovation of the Heart – Dallas Willard
Brain Science and Spirituality
Anatomy of the Soul – Curt Thompson
Renovated – Jim Wilder
Joyful Journey – Wilder, Kang, Loppnow, & Loppnow
Spiritual Disciplines…related to slowing and anxiety reduction
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry – John Mark Comer
Get your Life Back: Everyday Practices for a World Gone Made – John Eldredge
Prayer
How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People – Pete Greig
Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home – Richard Foster
