Dr. John Piippo - "Servant Leadership Emerges from the Presence-Driven Chu...

Spiritual Formation Students - Payne Theological Seminary - Jan. 2016

Spiritual Formation Students, Payne Theological Seminary, January 2016

Connecting the Spirituality of Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Payne Theological Seminary

It is my great privilege to teach Spiritual Formation at Payne Theological Seminary. I have been influenced by the spirituality of Howard Thurman, and present Thurman's basic ideas on this. I connect Thurman with the spirituality and prayer life of Martin Luther King, Jr., remembering that Dr. King carried a copy of Thurman's brilliant Jesus and the Disinherited with him. I especially use Walter Fluker's excellent work in this area. Here are notes I sometimes give my students on connecting Thurman and King, as regards spiritual formation and spiritual transformation.

CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN HOWARD THURMAN AND MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

From: Walter Fluker, They Looked for a City: A Comparative Analysis of the Ideal of Community in theThought of Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr., share these common themes (Fluker, 158):

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•     The interrelatedness of all life.
•          The primacy of religious experience.
•          The moral order of the universe.
•          The love and power of God.
•          The dignity and worth of human personality.
•          The social nature of human existence.

Relating this especially to spiritual formation and spiritual transformation we see connecting points between Thurman and King as follows:

•          Love of the enemy is the true test of love. (Ib., 161)
•          Personal “spirituality is inextricably bound to the struggle for social justice and liberation. Spirituality, as personal encounter and commitment to the God of love, provides the ground (the love of God), the means (the power of love) and the goal of social action (a just human society, i.e., human community ordered by love).” (Ib.)
•          Thurman “does not simply bring the message of truth from God to the religious community, but he leads individuals and the community to have an experience with the divine from which they may gain a sense of wholeness themselves.” (Mozella Mitchell, in Ib., 162)
•          Thurman’s methodology involves a movement from the inwardness of religious experience (the God-encounter) to the outwardness of religious experience manifested in community and society. (Ib., 163)
•          “In Thurman and King, the character of community is triadic, i.e., there are three basic elements in their conceptions of community: the individual or persons, God, and the world.” (Ib.) Thurman especially emphasizes the individual and God as primary, and out of which comes true community. King’s deep prayer life shows a commitment to this order as well. (See Lewis Baldwin, Never to Leave Us Alone)
•          “Martin Luther King, Jr., like the faithful pilgrim, Abraham, according to Thurman, ”looked for a city where the builder and maker is God.” However, the clue to the search for the ideal city was first and foremost within him. This is the lesson, says Thurman, that every crusader for social justice must ultimately learn; [viz.], that which one seeks for “without” is found “within,” for the beyond is within.” (Ib., 164)

Spiritual Formation - Part I

Pastor to Pastor - UTS - John Piippo - Abide in Christ - 2013.9.21 - Part 1 from Urbana Theological Seminary on Vimeo.

Jesus Came to Make Disciples and Disciple-Makers (Real Jesus Sermon #7)

My seventh (out of 7) messages on the Real Jesus can be heard online here - "Jesus Came to Make Disciples and Disciple-Makers." 

The Powerpoint is also available to pull up and follow along with the message.

Jesus Comes to Heal the Wounded Heart: Part 2 (#6 in Real Jesus Series)

My sixth (out of 7) messages on the Real Jesus can be heard online here - "Jesus Comes to Heal the Wounded Heart: Part 2." 

The Powerpoint is also available to pull up and follow along with the message.

Teaching Spiritual Formation at Payne Theological Seminary This Week

January 2012 class

Linda and I travel to Dayton today. I will begin teaching another Spiritual Formation class at Payne Theological Seminary, in Wilberforce, Ohio. I love teaching at Payne. For Linda and I it is an honor to be there.

Course goals:

1.      To encounter and experience God

2.      To experience personal transformation

3.      To deepen one’s prayer life

4.      To discuss issues of personal transformation with colleagues in ministry

5.      To reflect biblically and theologically on this experience, especially within the African American perspective of Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr. Special emphasis will be given to Thurman’s personal challenge to Dr. King to never lose his rooting in spiritual practices such as meditation, prayer, singing, celebration, and worship and silence, and that social change would only come through personal transformation and spiritual disciplines such as meditation.

6.      To understand personal spiritual transformation as the necessary foundation for all relevant church, urban, and global transformation.

I'll teach from Tuesday - Friday. Subjects I will cover include:

• One hour of daily praying, in a certain way, with parameters.
• Small community sharing on one's prayer experiences. 
• Intro to Spiritual Formation
• Keeping a Spiritual Journal
• Restoration, Renewal, Formation, Transformation
• A Phenomenology of Spiritual Formation
• Spirituality of Howard Thurman & Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Deconstruction of the false self
• Ontological dualities (the “from-to” nature of spiritual transformation)
• Spirituality and Servant Leadership
• Spiritual Formation, Prayer, and Leading the Presence-Driven Church
• Humility
• Discernment

The Lottery Is the Mightiest Fairy In the World

I entered a convenience store in Joliet, Illinois. It was 1975. Some people in front of me were purchasing lottery tickets. When it was my turn to pay for my items the attendant asked, "Do you want to buy a lottery ticket, too?"

"No," I replied.

"Aww, come on! You could win the big jackpot!"

No.

They pressed a little further. That's when I said, "Only fools play the lottery."

And a great silence came over the convenience store.

"Fool" here means: people who are ignorant of probability and statistics. "Fool" means someone who falls prey to the "Gambler's Fallacy."

I may be a fool, but not when it comes to the lottery. I have never played it, never bought one single ticket. Playing the lottery is throwing money away.

In 1842 Honoré de Balzac wrote:

"This mania, so generally condemned, has never been properly studied. No one has realized that it is the opium of the poor. Did not the lottery, the mightiest fairy in the world, work up magical hopes? The roll of the roulette wheel that made the gamblers glimpse masses of gold and delights did not last longer than a lightning flash; whereas the lottery spread the magnificent blaze of lightning over five whole days. Where is the social force today that, for forty sous, can make you happy for five days and bestow on you—at least in fancy—all the delights that civilization holds?" (La Rabouilleuse)

USA Today asked the question, "Is the lottery the new American Dream?" Probably. But by probability, it's as likely to happen as fairies landing on your head.

My Book "Praying"

My manuscript for my book Praying is now at the publisher. I sent it in yesterday.

Thus begins the content review (editorial) process.

Hopefully it will be out this spring.

Let the 'No' of Christ Be Formed In You

Sunset on a Lake Michigan beach

Robert Bly wrote: “The making of a man is making your body do what it doesn't want to do.” (Bly, Iron John: A Book About Men)

The mature person flourishes in life as they are able to wield the powerful word "No." The Jesus-idea is that, as we connect to him as a branch connects to a vine, we bear "fruit," part of which is awe-inspiring "self control." (Galatians 5:23) People drop their jaws and stare in wonder as people say No to mere self-gratification.

A Spirit-led, self controlled person is a free person. They have grown in their humanity to say "No" to eating the wrong things, to spending money they don't have to buy things they don't need, and to engaging in sexual behavior as the objectification of other persons.

"No" is the ultimate boundary word. The capacity to wield this word will not come from hearing slogans like "Just say 'No'." The authentic, boundary-setting 'No" must become one's heart, one's inner being. This happens as Christ is formed in us.

Think, e.g., of Jesus after he fed the 5,000. The people rushed after him to make him an earthly king. To this Jesus exercised his innate self control and refused. His 'No' was not only for him, but for the sake of others, indeed, for the sake of the whole world.

M. Scott Peck described The Road Less Traveled as "gratification delay." "No" is, perhaps, the ultimate other-centered word.This is a narrow road, said Jesus, and few take it. It is the road to freedom.

Let the "No" of Christ be formed in you and go free.