My failure to follow through on a good idea that was good for me illustrates everything that is wrong with our attempts to train for spiritual fitness in private. By going alone, I missed out on a great opportunity to develop “communitas” with a few others. I also put myself in a situation where it was easy to talk myself out of a repeat performance.
I had a good reason for not inviting anyone to join me. I didn’t want anyone else to watch me struggle outside my comfort zone. Which brings up a huge obstacle that keeps us from training our spiritual weaknesses together. I’ve gotten used to having my physical weaknesses exposed at the gym, but I’ve found all kinds of ways to hide my spiritual and emotional weaknesses at church.
Therefore, I receive absolutely no encouragement to improve my weaknesses because I project only my best. My spiritual community doesn’t rally around me and cheer me on when I’m struggling spiritually because I keep my struggles hidden. Remarkable community doesn’t come from seeing each other at our best; it comes from seeing each other at our worst and then encouraging each other to press on to something better.
Let’s return to the hopper model of spiritual training. Every training exercise has the potential to make someone in the group uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that they would never dream of doing it more than once by themselves. But because they’re training with others, they get caught up and carried along by the momentum of the group.
I’ve had several CrossFitters come into the gym and say about a workout, “This is why I love CrossFit. I’d never do this workout all by myself.”
What are some spiritual training exercises that you would never do by yourself, but would be willing to try if others would do it with you?
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
I think that much of the reason that we struggle with spiritual fitness is that we don’t really do discipleship. At least not in the way that Jesus did. I am beginning to see that this is the biggest problem for churches. They are not actually “communities”. Instead they are gatherings of individuals with a common interest.
Perhaps that is why CrossFit works, it looks more like discipleship….
Yes, and I think many churches still haven’t defined a clear personal outcome for each member. Even “discipleship” is meaningless without some benchmarks of what a disciple looks like.
That’s why I keep coming back to the health club analogy. Not everyone who belongs to a health club is interested in getting fit.
Thanks for reading and commenting.