Formation: Why it is Essential
My Journey into Formation
When I was first introduced to the idea of spiritual formation, I was resistant. It sounded both new agey and legalistic. My entire Christian life was marked by a definition of grace summarized in the phrase: “not do, but done.” Jesus had saved me, and it was not of my doing, it was everything He had done on the cross.
At seventeen, I went from a pot-smoking surfer kid immersed in sexualized surf culture to someone completely on fire for Jesus. Within a few years, I was a youth pastor, proclaiming the message of grace everywhere I went. That radical transformation was not my own doing but the sheer work of Jesus. Still today, I rejoice in the immeasurable richness of grace that broke through and made me new.
But in 2021, the Lord began to widen my understanding of grace. I was now a young husband and father of two, passionately pursuing ministry. Yet beneath the surface, deficiencies in my own character were emerging privately while “ministry success” was growing publicly. I was tempted to mask the cracks in my soul by pouring myself into church life.
Around that time, I regularly shared platforms with a pastor who embodied what I thought was “ministry success”, a thriving international ministry and large platforms. Then suddenly, he was exposed for major moral failures and disqualified from ministry. I received that news while binging The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill and reading The Pastor by Eugene Peterson.
The combination of Peterson’s compelling vision of pastoral ministry, the cautionary tale of Mars Hill, and witnessing those lessons unfold in real time through the life of a contemporary became a turning point that completely upended my understanding of success, character, calling, and ministry. From that moment on, I began reorienting my life around fidelity to Christ, faithfulness to my wife and children, and the slow, sacred work of being formed into the image of Christ.
In that season, the Spirit exposed my myopic view of grace. Yes, God saved me, it was all His doing. Full stop. Yet, as Dallas Willard famously said, “Grace is not opposed to effort, but to earning.” When Jesus first touched my heart, I responded by going to church as often as I could, reading my Bible, and praying. I didn’t realize then that these “practices” were the elementary disciplines of Chrsitian life. The Father was inviting me to grow into mature manhood through another set of practices.
As I began to mature and face the deeper work of formation, the Spirit began inviting me into other ancient practices, fasting, silence, Sabbath, confession, community. These “practices” became new avenues of grace. Not about striving for God’s approval but about dwelling in His presence more fully. This was my invitation to formation.
Introduction to Formation
Let’s take a step back. In our last article, we looked at the practices of feasting and fasting—the tension of living in God’s already-not-yet Kingdom. But before we go further, it’s worth pausing to ask: what do we mean by practice? And what does it mean to be formed into the image of Christ?
As Everlight continues to take shape, one of the clearest convictions God has given us is that formation is essential to who we are. Formation is one of our core pillars because we exist to reflect all of Jesus in all of life. We cannot reflect Christ without being formed into His image by abiding in Him.
The Pillar of Formation
At its core, formation is discipleship. It’s the lifelong process of being shaped into the image of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18
Formation. Discipleship. Sanctification. They describe the same holy process. A movement from death to life, where we embody the abundant life of Christ. Our formation is the Spirit’s work, yet it involves our participation. Paul captures this beautifully:
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:12–13
God works in us as we work out what He’s doing. This partnership between God’s power and our participation is at the heart of spiritual formation. And our participation finds expression through imitation.
Formation as Imitation
The call of Jesus to the disciples, “Follow Me”, is an invitation to imitation. The first disciples didn’t just listen to Jesus’ teachings; they patterned their lives after His life. His instruction shaped their minds, but His example shaped their lives. Both instruction and imitation is essential to following Jesus..
In the modern West, we’ve done well to preserve Jesus’ teaching through sermons, podcasts, books, and conferences. But if we’re not careful, we can lose something vital: imitation. The last several decades shows us that an increase of proclaiming Jesus’ teachings doesn’t automatically mean that people are beginning to behave like Jesus. Christianity has always depended on both orthodoxy (right belief) and orthopraxy (right practice). When either is neglected, the Church loses her ability to be the light of the world.
Paul’s exhortation to Timothy reverberates into the current cultural moment,
“Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
1 Timothy 4:16
As the Church struggles to “watch their doctrine” we risk neglecting the command to “watch our life” as well. Right teaching must be matched by a right way of living. To follow Jesus is to learn His way of life, to walk as He walked.
Practices as Rhythms of Participation
Jesus didn’t only preach the Kingdom of God; He demonstrated what it looks like to live in the Kingdom as we await its consummation. His life was marked by sacred rhythms — feasting and fasting, work and sabbath, solitude and community, silence and singing, prayer and proclamation, service and hospitality.
These “spiritual” practices are not religious checklists; they are rhythms of grace. As the Spirit of God forms us, our lives begin to take the shape of Jesus’ life through imitation. This is what it means to “work out” what God is “working in.”
Formation, then, is not the latest version of self-help with a Christian veneer, it is Spirit-empowered imitation. We practice these rhythms not to earn God’s love but to dwell in His love more fully, learning to reflect all of Jesus in all of life.
Looking Ahead
Formation is slow, sacred work, more like gardening than engineering. As we cultivate these rhythms together, we trust that the Spirit will make us a people who don’t just believe in Jesus but become like Jesus.
We’ve already explored the practices of feasting and fasting, and in the coming weeks, we’ll look deeper into other ancient rhythms of the Christian life: work and Sabbath, silence and singing, solitude and hospitality. Together, they help us learn how to live and rest in the abundant life of Christ. We find all of these practices in the life as Jesus as we read through the Gospel of Mark.
To quote my kids favorite Star Wars character, “this is the Way.”
