Month: March 2018

Small sailboats are steered by a simple lever called a “tiller” which is attached to the rudder.  Continuing the metaphor of discipleship and sailing, I want to add one other similarity.  We have said that in order to capture the invisible, renewable power of the wind of the Spirit, we need to rig the sails of spiritual practices on a mast of self-discipline.  But to pursue our course of pleasing God (doing His will) we need a means to steer our sailboat.

The “tiller” or steering device is what a sailor uses to keep the bow (front) of the boat pointed in the direction that maximizes the current wind conditions.  Unlike a motor powered boat, a sailboat does not steer in a straight line to its destination.  A sailor is constantly adjusting for the strength and direction of the wind as well as the currents.  The sailor’s path to his/her destination is a series of zigzags that are called “tacks” in nautical language.  Because the strength and direction of the wind is constantly changing, a sailor cannot simply be on autopilot.  He must constantly be sensitive and adjust to the wind.

Pressing our metaphor a little farther, an apprentice of Christ is one who walks by the Spirit, sensing and adjusting to His voice in the context of everyday life.  Our spiritual tiller is our response to what the Spirit is showing us in the Word.  That response involves obedience, but it is much more than following a list of rules or commands.   It is about discerning and complying with the will and pleasure of our King.  It is about aligning our lives with His will, ways, values, purposes, promises, as well as specific commands.  The tiller makes this possible as it maneuvers us into position to capture the wind in our sails, to keep us pointed in the right direction, to be sensitive to the Spirit and to thus live the life that pleases the Lord.

There is another interesting parallel of the sailboat tiller and alignment with God’s will.  The tiller, connected directly to the rudder operates in a counter-intuitive way; you move the tiller right to go left and vice versa.  Initially God’s ways also seem counter-intuitive.  His Kingdom functions in a way that is opposite of our culture and natural inclinations.  Jesus said in His Kingdom:

• To be first you must be last
• The greater reality is not what is seen but what is unseen
• Getting comes by giving
• Honor comes by humility
• Strength comes through weakness
• Influence comes through serving

It takes some practice (and faith) to live in a kingdom way.  It also takes intentionality to step in the direction of our faith.  When we are obedient, the power of the Spirit is released.  This pattern is consistent throughout Scripture.

A classic Old Testament example occurs when the children of Israel finally get to the Jordan River under Joshua’s leadership.  God tells them not only to cross the river with no bridges but to cross it at flood stage, making the difficult impossible.  He instructs the priests to take the ark and precede the people in crossing the swollen river.  Only when they stepped into the water, did He stop the flow upstream.  Had they not gotten their feet wet, they would not have experienced His power (Joshua 3:13).

Jesus’ pattern in healing people was to ask them to do the impossible.  He asked the man with the withered hand to stretch it out (Matt. 12:13).  He asked the paralytic man to get up from his bed and walk (Luke 5:24).  He told Peter if he was to walk on water, he would have to get out of the boat (Matt. 14:28-29).  As they took action in the direction of their faith and God’s Word, they experienced His power.  Now as then, obedience releases the power of the Spirit of God to live the life He has chosen for us.

Our alignment/obedience to all that He has commanded is the response of an apprentice of Christ.  Our hand is on the tiller of our lives.  It is our action, choices, and responses that determine the direction of our sailboat.  It take more than the wind, mast, and sails.  It takes sensitivity to the gentle wind of the Spirit of God and obedient hands on the tiller to align ourselves with Christ.  Only then can we counter the cultural currents and arrive safely at our destination.

          Those who trifle at the tiller risk the wrath of the waves. (Anonymous marooned sailor)

*DA Carson, For The Love of God, Volume Two (Wheaton:  Crossway, 1999)

Reflection:

1. What additional counter-intuitive kingdom ways can you think of?
2. What are some implications of thinking “alignment” vs. “commands”?
3. Can you think of a time in your spiritual journey where you had to step out in the direction of your faith before you sensed His power?

There are a variety of types of sails on a ship.  Some, called mainsails, are essential.  Others are added to complement the mainsails like a jib, topsail, spinnaker, etc.   Effective sailing requires knowing the difference.  Certain spiritual disciplines act as mainsails while others are good complements.  Rigging the mainsails is critical to effectively capturing the wind of the Spirit.

The mission statement for the Willow Creek Church in Chicago is to produce fully devoted followers of Christ.  A few years ago, they were courageous enough to ask the question:  Are we producing what we say we are?  They paid an outside consultant a lot of money to design a survey that would answer that question.

The result was a very extensive questionnaire (REVEAL) that assessed where people were along a continuum of closeness to Christ i.e. mature, fully devoted followers of Christ.  They were looking for what activities/spiritual disciplines contributed to personal spiritual growth.  The church’s assumption and strategy had been to emphasize three major activities (worship, small groups, and serving) as the mainsails on their ship.

“Participation is a big deal. We believe the more people participating in these sets of activities, with higher levels of frequency; it will produce disciples of Christ.” … “I know it might sound crazy but that’s how we do it in churches. We measure levels of participation.” Greg Hawkins, Executive Pastor, Willow Creek ³

What they discovered was shocking.  Their survey found that although these disciplines were helpful in general, they did not predict spiritual maturity.  In other words, a person could do those things and remain immature in his/her spiritual life.  But they also found that there were certain spiritual practices that were consistently related to life transformation and closeness to Christ.  Historic Christianity affirms their findings.

“We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and became Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self-feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”  Bill Hybills, Sr. Pastor, Willow Creek ³

 The spiritual disciplines that contribute most to personal transformation are not those that require large structures or budgets.  They are the classic inner disciplines of the heart, learned and practiced by individual disciples.  They are the habits that permeated the life of Christ and saints down through history.

The Navigators have historically promoted six spiritual disciplines that develop a balanced Christian life.  They are illustrated by a wheel with a hub, rim, and four spokes:

• Centered in Christ
• Obedience to Christ
• The Word
• Prayer
• Witnessing
• Fellowship

(see “The Wheel” illustration)

In the REVEAL survey they found one discipline that was critical to all levels of maturity.  They called it “reflecting on Scripture”.  Distinct from reading or studying the Bible, this discipline reflects the private practice of daily meeting with God in the Scripture.  Some have called it a “Quite Time” or a “Devotional Life”, but it is a combination of solitude, silence, meditation, and prayer, enhanced by journaling.

Several years ago I led a team of three mature Navigator staff who had a combined 160 years of disciplemaking experience.  Our mission was to design a discipling resource that would be gender specific, user friendly, and reproducible.  The result was the development of the discipling series called HighQuest.  We concluded that the mainsail discipline we had personally experienced and saw effective over the years, was the daily meeting with God (MWG) or appointment with God (AWG).

The HighQuest series builds the practice of spending 15-20 minutes a day in solitude with Christ, feeding personally on His Word by reading, reflecting and journaling.  This is complemented by a weekly time to share lessons learned with a small group of other apprentices who are practicing the same spiritual disciplines.

A common testimony from those who have used the HighQuest series is that the discipline of a daily AWG/MWG began as a duty but with practice became a desire and eventually a delight.  This should not be a surprise since it has been the mainsail for power for a long time!

Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart  (Jeremiah 15:16).

Recommended reading:

• Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster
• Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Donald Whitney
• The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard

¹ DWillard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, p156

² DWhitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, p15

³ Christianity Today, online Oct. 2007