Ancient Christian Witness

"In the next several posts, I want to offer some theoretical
and practical thoughts about group spiritual formation. Maybe the best place to
begin is by asking what I mean by "group spiritual formation"?


All
Christian life then is communal and all of us have been called by God to help,
each in our own unique and personal way, foster this share life in Christ. In
light of this, group formation is simply a practical means of exercising this
shared responsibility given to each of us in our baptism.


Unlike say
group therapy or a support group, group spiritual formation is built on a shared
adherence to tradition. (In the current example, this means the Tradition of the
Orthodox Church, likewise for a Catholic or Protestant group. ) But while there
is a shared commitment to a tradition, the exploration of this tradition as such
is not the goal of a spiritual formation group. The goal rather is to allow that
tradition, as expressed by the insights of the group members, to serve as a
guide for how we live our daily lives.


One touchstone of group
formation then is the tradition of the Church as an objective standard."