What is Spiritual Formation?

If the Christian life is defined as being spiritually formed, without suggesting for a moment this is all about spirit and not at all about body, what would it look like to be spiritual formed? Diane Chandler, at Regent University in Virginia Beach, offers this definition in her new book, Christian Spiritual Formation: An Integrated Approach for Personal and Relational Wholeness:

Therefore, CSF is defined as an interactive process by which God the Father fashions believers into the image of his Son, Jesus, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit by fostering development in seven primary life dimensions (spirit, emotions, relationships, intellect, vocation, physical health and resource stewardship) [all italics in original, 19].

Her major lines of thinking for spiritual formation look like this:

As a result of divine intent, the love of God that infused creation is to be received and reciprocated (Ps 31:23; Mt 22:37-40) through fellowship with God (1 Cor 1:9) and others in the body of Christ (1 Jn 1:6-7) and through loving ones neighbor (Mt 22:39). We glorify God by stewarding through grace all life dimensions in order to be effective ambassadors in a deeply broken world (see Ps 34:3; 2 Cor 5:20; 1 Pet 4:10). This process begins by acknowledging that Jesus died for our sins and paid the price for our eternal salvation and by receiving him through faith as our personal Savior and Lord (Jn 1:12; Acts 4:i2). Then the restoration process of being conformed to the image of Jesus in order to glorify God begins in seven formational dimensions: (1) spirit, (2) emotions, (3) relationships, (4) intellect, (5) vocation, (6) physical health and wellness, and (7) resource stewardship (17).

At the center of Diane Chandler’s understanding of formation (CSF) is divine love (re-formatting her dense definition):

Godly love is the essence of God’s character and personality,

proceeding from the Father

as demonstrated by the Son

through the work of the Holy Spirit,

which unconditionally upholds the highest good of others and fosters the same altruism and benevolence in human relationships without regard for personal sacrifice.

This definition frames love as deriving from God, the source of all love, who demonstrated cruciform love through the cross. Godly love connotes being crucified with Christ, yet living for God’s glory through losing oneself for Christ’s sake and the sake of others (cf. Gal 2:20). In other words, godly love is the self-giving expression that results from divine ininative and human responsibility in serving God and others in relationality as evidenced by godly character and ethical living (20).

Here is her map: