Contemplative, Integrative, Historical
Thinking deeply about formation
Our friends at Missio Alliance have a wonderful archive of thoughtful writing on their website, and they recently re-shared an article from author and pastor Rich Villodas that resonated deeply and gave much to consider. Here are Cultivating Communities, we are committed to exploring the idea of congregational formation; that is, how are we discipled and formed into the image of Jesus together as communities, rather than only as individuals? If we are called to be a church, a community, and a body, then it stands to reason that our shared body must in some way reflect the imago dei. Formation is not limited to our individual spiritual practice and belief.
I think Rich’s piece at Missio gives some helpful food for though in unpacking that reality. So today, I wanted to share an excerpt of that article, and encourage you to spend some time reflecting on what wisdom or insight it might have for your congregation.
Formation for a Newly Disrupted Generation
by Rich Villodas for Missio Alliance
Before the Church can properly engage the world in mission, there must be a clear and comprehensive exploration of formation. The great need and opportunity before us is to reimagine a paradigm of discipleship that truly shapes people into the image of Jesus for the sake of the world. In the words of the late Robert Mulholland, the call is to be “in God for the world” rather than “to be in the world for God.”
What is the Church to be for Christ today? Very simply, people formed into his image.
In nutshell, this is my working definition of spiritual formation:
Spiritual formation is the process of being formed into the image of Jesus
through Spirit-animated rhythms, practices, and relationships
for the glory of God, the blessing of others, and our own flourishing.
The Church fundamentally has one role in the world. That role is to be faithful to Jesus and to his Kingdom. The main ecclesiological challenge and opportunity before us pertains to discipleship. When talking about discipleship, we must hold in each hand matters of both content and container.
What is the Content We are Communicating and What are the Containers that are Needed?
I want to spend my time talking about the content; the substance of what we proclaim. The containers and structures have changed and will continue to change, and they need to change. Historically, whether it’s been through Sunday school, small groups, missional communities, huddles, or classroom-style structures, the process of discipleship needs spaces for biblical and theological reflection, relationships that help us embody this truth, and a praxis that roots us in loving mission and service.
This is what I contend: If the containers and structures will need to change from time to time, so will the emphasis and contextualization of our content and the substance of our discipleship.
This leads me to ask foundational questions:
What are the urgent matters before us as we think about being a Church for Jesus?
What does this moment in history call the Church to focus on?
What is the Holy Spirit beckoning us to?
I believe the Spirit is calling the Church into a robust formational framework that is:
deeply contemplative
profoundly integrative
robustly historical
This is necessary because the formation that is often featured in our communities is superficial, compartmentalized, and without memory.
Fleshing Out This Framework
Contemplative
Contemplation is not a way of life solely available to those who dwell in monasteries or ascend mountains. It’s a way of life offered to anyone who seeks to live in accordance with liberative wisdom of God found in prayer and self-examination. Being a contemplative is about a life given to loving attention of God. It’s a life rooted in stillness and silence, resisting a culture of reactivity and the “blasphemous anxiety to do God’s work for him.”3
Discipleship needs an emphasis on contemplation for the thoughtlessness that pervades our land, a commitment to humility that lowers our defenses, and a Spirit-generated ability to be a calm presence in an anxious world. As Ronald Rolheiser has stated, we find ourselves in a society marked by “pathological busyness, distraction, and restlessness.”4
What is needed is a catechesis that trains people to have a firsthand spirituality, equipping women and men to fashion a desert in the midst of our cities, suburbs, and rural areas where prayer becomes paramount.
When Jesus called his first disciples, “he appointed twelve that they might be with him” (Mark 3:14). This was the first call of Christ-followers: to be with him. This is the language of loving union, communion, and presence.
It was soon after my conversion to Christ that I was introduced to the Desert Fathers and Mothers. The Desert tradition—first prominent in North Africa—began to surge two centuries after the resurrection of Jesus. It arose from a countercultural monastic community in the deserts of Egypt that was marked by practices of silence, solitude, fasting, introspection, and meditation. The communities that formed longed to follow Jesus in a way that cost them something. They were not content mirroring the decadence of the collapsing empire around them. They wanted to live in God for the sake of healing the world. This is why they fled to the silence of the desert—not because they preferred introversion but because they knew something powerful was available only in the contemplation that could come as a result of spiritual solitude, silence, and stillness. The same is true today.
Studying the way of the Desert gave me permission to be still and know that God is God (see Psalm 46:10). I would find that the way of the Desert moved me from needing a word from God to experiencing union with the Word of God. As I worked to grow in my ability to contemplate—rather than merely request—in prayer, it became a sharing of hearts more than an offering of words. Certainly, words are an important part of prayer, but they began to flow from a different place, with the capacity to deeply change me, for the sake of love.
One doesn’t have to be decades into a relationship with God to enter this kind of prayer. It is not for spiritual “experts” (whatever that would be) or for those holier than most. I have led my two young children in this kind of prayer and have trained adults well into their seventies and eighties in new contemplative rhythms.
Contemplative prayer is not for the spiritually elite but for anyone hungry for God. And this is what is needed in our day: a way of life that deeply connects people to God. In the words of Karl Rahner, “The devout Christian of the future will either be a ‘mystic,’ one who has ‘experienced’ something, or he will cease to be anything at all.”5
…
I encourage you to read the rest of Rich’s article here; it is full of wisdom and insight.
He goes on to unpack the thought behind discipleship that is integrative and historical.
What questions or comments about your own congregational formation does Rich’s article spark for you?
More from Missio Alliance:
Liminal Retreats: In October 2026, Missio is hosting a retreat for “ministry leaders in the in-between — whether that’s a season of transition, the slow work of staying present, a growing sense that something needs to shift, or simply the desire for rhythms that hold.” There is space for just 15 people! Register here.
Sustaining Women in Ministry Cohort: If you are a female engaged in ministry work of any kind, consider joining this cohort. For only $99 (!!!), you’ll be connected to mentorship, community, and equipping. Learn more and apply here. Applications are due next week!