Page 39 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 19

and Family Therapy. Professionally, I have ser- love ourselves. In my opinion, this is a gross mi-
ved as pastor in NABC churches in Canada, and
as professor of counseling at the Briercrest Col-
lege and Seminary.
Each of the three ar�cles reviewed here bring
an important perspec�ve to the understanding
of the role of spiritual forma�on in the lives of
Chris�ans. Nicolene Joubert addresses the vital
role of inten�onal spiritual forma�on that is re-
quired of those who would be leaders in Chris-
�an endeavours, whether in church ministry,
mission or educa�on. I especially appreciated
her comments on the history of spiritual forma-
�on in the life of the church including the de-
sert fathers and the reformers. This is par�cu-
larly relevant for some evangelicals such as my-
self who tend to see church history as the Book
of Act and the last 100 years or so. The diagram
depic�ng a lifelong developmental spiritual for-
ma�on is a helpful tool for anyone in a ministry
leadership role. It led me to reflect on where I
might be on this �meline. The same kind of re-
flec�on was spurred by the three categories of
forma�on, ministerial, spiritual, and strategic. I
recognized each of those as phases I had expe-
rienced, with a back-and-forth movement bet-
ween each as I went through the stages of mi-
nistry. In my opinion, these are two processes
that could be very useful during a personal or
group retreat. They would enhance what Euge-
ne Petersen (1980) called “a long obedience in
the same direc�on.”
Each of the other two ar�cle point to this rich
history to which Nicolene Joubert referred.
Marcin Gaja’s trea�se on prayer reviews seven
characteris�cs of “real prayer,” and challenged
me to reflect on my prayer prac�ce and whe-
ther I really pray and led me to join the disciples
as they said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray”
(Luke 11:1). His first point, that “real prayer is
engaged in out of love” established the theme
introduced by his �tle to the ar�cle, “Love of
God (Prayer).” His discussion brings an import-
ant correc�ve to the popular psychological
view o�en taken about the second great com-
mand, to love your neighbour as yourself (Mark
12:29-31). The “pop psychology” interpreta�on
o�en given to this is that in order to be able to
love our neighbour we need to first learn to
39
sinterpreta�on of this command. To begin with,
it is the second command, which follows the
first, namely, to love God wholeheartedly. This
command is possible for us only because “we
love because we have first been loved” (1 John
4:19). It is the result of our response to the love
of God in praying that we recognize that we
have been loved and are thus able to turn to
the neighbour in love. Love of self, some�mes
popularized as self-esteem or self-worth, is the
product of this process rather than the precon-
di�on for it!
The third ar�cle, “To Love Because We Have
First Been Loved by God - Bernard of Clairvaux’s
Psychology of Love” by Gregory Jensen deve-
lops this theme of love of God by considering
the teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux. Bernard
of Clairvaux is somewhat of an excep�on to the
evangelical lack of historical awareness in that
his hymns show up in our hymn books. "O
Sacred Head, Now Wounded," "Jesus the Very
Thought of Thee" and "Jesus, Thou Joy of
Loving Hearts" are three of his well-known
hymns, at least for those of us who are old
enough to remember when we sang these
hymns out of hymn books. (I hasten to add that
I’m a big fan of contemporary worship music!)
These hymns express well the teachings about
the love of God as displayed in the life, death
and resurrec�on of Jesus that Gregory Jenson
reviews in his ar�cle. His presenta�on of the
four degrees of love, beginning with “loving self
for self” and culmina�ng in “loving self because
God first loved” states more eloquently what I
sought to express in my discussion of the se-
cond command in the above paragraph.
I want to make three observa�ons to encapsu-
late some impressions from reading these
three ar�cles together. First, I was reminded of
the rich heritage that there is in the two millen-
nia of Chris�an thought and reflec�on on the
ma�er of spiritual forma�on. The prac�ces of
the early church and the wri�ngs of the canoni-
cal le�ers are the important beginning of the
reflec�ons of a “great cloud of witnesses”(He-
brews 12:1) that make up the church universal.
The references that both Joubert and Jensen
make to this history underline the rich re-