Personal Transformation for Mission

PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION FOR MISSION

The goal of the church’s holistic outreach is the transformation of persons,
communities, and society for the glory of God. For God to work through us in this mission
requires that we first, and continually, allow Him to transform us. Each church member
comes to holistic ministry from a different starting point, but we all need to “grow up in every
way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Eph. 4:15). Some Christians need to be
transformed in order to venture out from self-centered comfort zones. Others discover a
need for transformation of their prejudice or hard-heartedness. Others seek to change from
being mere activists to become ambassadors of the Good News. Whatever our need, the
transforming Spirit of Christ takes root in our lives through the practice of personal and
corporate spiritual disciplines. Here we highlight three spiritual disciplines: prayer, Bible
study, and meditation.

Prayer
“Prayer changes things” as the popular saying goes, but it also changes the pray-er.
Prayer puts us on the potter’s wheel, so that we are empowered to carry out the good for
which we pray. As we beg that God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we present
ourselves to God to do it. Prayer strengthens resolve in the face of discouragement and
danger, nurtures the trust and patience to wait on God’s timing, and knits Christian hearts
together in unity of purpose. The prayer of repentance and intercession is particularly
powerful in combination with fasting, as the stories of Daniel and Nehemiah demonstrate.
Prayer also “transforms our vision of the world,” helping us keep a godly perspective
on our work in the world. Henri Nouwen wrote beautifully in The Way of the Heart about the
critical need for social activists to engage in the discipline of prayer:
As long as ministry only means that we worry a lot about people and their problems;
as long as it means an endless number of activities which we can hardly coordinate,
we are still very much dependent on our own narrow and anxious heart. But when
our worries are led to the heart of God and there become prayer, then ministry and
prayer become two manifestations of the same all-embracing love of God.

Bible Study
Another transforming spiritual discipline is the study of Scripture. The word of God,
“powerful and active,” is given that the Christian “may be complete, thoroughly equipped
for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16). Scripture provides a necessary corrective to the
culture’s distorted views of money and power. Ron collected all the passages of the Bible
pertaining to hunger, justice, and poverty in the book For They Shall Be Fed. It is two
hundred pages long! If more evangelicals were as diligent about reading and obeying the
whole Bible as they were about revering its authority, their ministry priorities would be
radically revised.

Meditation
Scripture repeatedly calls us to meditate on God’s actions (e.g., Ps. 64:9). The
biblical record of God’s salvation history, and our personal and congregational histories of
God’s presence, inspire faith in God’s faithfulness. As we reflect on what God has done
throughout history and in our own lives, we can sense more clearly where God is leading
us in the present. Meditation cultivates an attitude of hopeful expectancy for ministry,
because we can trust God to continue working in and through us in a way that is consistent
with his actions and character in the past. Introspection and outreach should be
complementary. Richard Foster (inspired by Karl Barth) suggests combining reflection on
God’s actions with exercises in awareness of the community and the global situation: “This
form of meditation is best accomplished with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in
the other!” Many find a spiritual journal a helpful tool in recording their reflections.
These spiritual disciplines take time. We must allow sufficient time for the work of
transformation in our lives, just as we must be patient with the slow but steady growth of
the fruits of our holistic ministry. But if we do not invest time in our spiritual development,
we will find our busy-ness becoming a waste of time. Mary Thiessen writes in God So
Loves the City: Awareness of the deep inner work of the Spirit is difficult when running from
job to project, from program to crisis, from family to neighborhood. When we
no longer enjoy God’s intimate presence in our souls, we merely tend to
respond to others’ wounds with cold action. . . . How we need the Spirit’s
life-giving breath to blow through the dryness of our souls!”

Adapted from Ronald J. Sider, Philip N. Olson and Heidi Rolland Unruh, Churches That Make a Difference: Reaching
Your Community with Good News and Good Works, chapter 6. Used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker
Book House Company, copyright (c) 2002.