The Power of Us

There is a great strength in community. No one of us is stronger than all of us. When you are connected with friends in Christ, you have a power and a force that is hard to defeat.

In the last section of Celebration of Discipline Foster provides disciplines that are to be done in the community of believers that strengthen the individual’s soul.

The first one is sadly strange to most Protestants. It is the discipline of confession. Most people think of a closet with a priest listening, when they hear the word confession. The discipline is more transparent and potent than that.

This discipline is potent because it destroys pride, which produces humility, and it creates community, which destroys isolation. The two best tools the devil uses against us is pride and isolation. This discipline will give us a strong defense against both.

Foster does a good job in explaining how to give a confession safely to the right believer and also how to receive one. He quotes St. Alphonsus Liguori who explains that to prepare yourself to confess your sins there must be three things present: “an examination of conscience, sorrow, and a determination to avoid sin” (p.151).

The second discipline is worship. I will not spend much time on this except to say that all people worship, but only Christians worship God with other believers in the power of Christ's indwelling Spirit. A person who does not worship God with other believers in the context of a covenant community or church is sinning against God and is most likely lost. There are extreme situations when on mission for God or in illness that a believer cannot exercise this discipline, but for the healthy-bodied believer who has access to a church family and does not choose to worship God under the authority and preaching of that church is not in God’s will.

The discipline of guidance is another aspect of spiritual life that many Protestants have lost. We have sought to replace it with mentoring and one-on-one discipleship, but have lost much of the meaning of spiritual guidance. Spiritual guidance is much more than steps to “your best life now.” Spiritual direction, like serious spiritual development, is not dictated to, but is received and results in a deeper love for God because of a deeper understanding, appreciation, and walk with God. In most mentoring or discipleship situations the person being discipled or mentored comes with a set of expectations of what they want. In spiritual direction the outcome is simply a connection with Christ that allows a person to follow Christ closely. It results in “a deep and profound experience of an Emmanuel of the Spirit – God with us; a knowledge that in the power of the Spirit Jesus has come to guide his people himself; an experience of his leading that is definite and as immediate as the could by day and the pillar of fire by night” (p.175).

The final discipline is that of celebration. Too many believers equate this with mere enthusiasm. True celebration comes from a deep abiding joy that rejoices in God regardless of circumstances. You can have your worst life now and still enjoy the greatness and goodness of God.

Far too many believers are running from church to church, from study to study, and from song to song seeking joy. Foster explains well, “Joy is found in obedience. When the power that is in Jesus reaches into our work and play and redeems them, there will be joy where once there was mourning. To overlook this is to miss the meaning of the Incarnation” (p.193).

I hope you will read and reread this book and learn to live out these disciplines. What I do each year is look at my schedule and plan all of them into my life for the year. It helps me to know not only what I will be doing, but when and how and with whom. This year could be a defining year in your spiritual development. I know the year I began to practice these disciplines, 1992, was one of the more pivotal years in my life and as I made key decisions in 1993 – ordination and continuing in ministry even after great suffering, 1994 – marriage, and 1995 – seminary and ministry track, I was helped greatly by these disciplines that led me down the path of my destiny that God prepared for me.