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Symposium Draft Edited NAZARENE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY A COVENANT GROUP’S SIX MONTH JOURNEY TOGETHER FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH IN THE NANAIMO CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE A Project Submitted to the Seminary Faculty In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF MINISTRY By Gary Peter Nawrocki Kansas City, Missouri February 28, 2014 A COVENANT GROUP’S SIX MONTH JOURNEY TOGETHER FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH IN THE NANAIMO CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE Approved by: __________________________________________ First Reader __________________________________________ Research Consultant __________________________________________ Director, Doctor of Ministry Program __________________________________________ Date ii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Overview of the Study ……………………………………………………...1 The Need For Spiritual Growth ……………………….………………………….5 A Deficit in Spiritual Formation ……………………………….................6 Wesley’s Vision of a Christian …………………………………………...9 Wesley’s Means to Forming Christians …………………………………12 Theological Implications ………………………………………………..14 Means of Grace …………………..……………………………………………...15 The Centrality of Grace ……………………………………....................15 Confronting Antinomianism and Works-Righteousness ………………..16 Challenges to Discipleship ………………………………………………………19 Definitions ……………………………………………………………………….21 The Project ………………………………………………………………………22 The Document …………………………………………………………………...26 Chapter 2: Literature Review …………………………………………………………29 Introduction ………………………………………………………….…………..29 More Than Words ……………………………………………….........................32 Spiritual Formation ……………………………………………………………...34 Grace …………………………………………………………………………….35 Means of Grace or Spiritual Forming Practices …………..……………..36 Important Means of Grace ………………………………………………39 Getting Beyond Ourselves ……………………………............................42 Means of Grace in the Church Today …………………..……………….44 iii Covenant Groups ……………………………………………………..................47 Spiritual Formation and Service ………………………………………………...49 Bringing Wesley to Nanaimo ……………………………………………………51 Chapter 3: Research Design …………………………………………………………...56 Context of the Study …………………………………………………………….56 The Community …………………………………………………………56 The Congregation ……………………………………….……………….58 Discipleship Patterns and Challenges …………………………………...59 Discipleship Practices …………………………………..……………….61 Project Design …………………………………………………….……………..64 Introducing the Theme of Covenant ……………………….……………64 Recruiting Participants ………………………………………..…………67 Consent …………………………………...…………………………….69 A Safe Place ……………………………………………….. ……………70 Covenant Expectations …………………………………………………..71 Baseline for Evaluation: Spiritual Well-Being Scale ………....................71 Building Community ……………………………………………………74 Resource Book …………………………………………………………..74 Group Meetings …………………………………………………………76 Concluding the Project ………………………………………………….78 Projected Outcomes of the Covenant Group Experience ……………………….79 Chapter 4: Research Data and Results ……………………………………………….82 The Sermons ………………………………………………………….…………82 iv Recruiting ………………………………………………………………………..83 The Covenant Agreement ……………………………………………………….85 Introducing Expectations ………………………………………………..85 Sample Covenants ……………………………………………………….86 The Agreed on Covenant ………………………………………………..87 The Participants …………………………………………………………………91 The Weekly Sessions ……………………………………………………………93 Spiritual Well-Being Inventory ………………………………………………….97 Attendance ……………………………………………………....……………..102 Post Project Survey …………………………………………………………….103 Responses Outside the Covenant Group ………………………………………108 Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusions …………………………………….……….110 Summary ……………………………………………………………………….110 Evaluation ……………………………………………………………………...111 Implications of the Study for the Nanaimo Church of the Nazarene ………….117 Limitations of the Study ……………………………………………………….123 Surprises Along the Way ………………………………………………………128 Further Studies …………………………………………………………………130 Concluding Remarks …………………………………………...........................132 Appendices Index ………………………………………………………………………136 Appendix I: Sermons ……………………………………………………..........137 Covenant Forms Community: Hebrews 8:6-13 ………………………..137 Covenant Means Commitment: Hebrews 9:1-10 ………………………142 v Covenant Means Consistency: Hebrews 8:1-7 …………………...........147 Appendix II: Invitation to Join Covenant Group ………………………............152 Appendix III: Introduction to Covenant Groups ……………………………….156 Appendix IV: Spiritual Well-Being Scale …………………………………….160 Appendix V: Covenant Group Agreements ……………………………............161 Appendix VI: Chapter Work Sheets for Reflecting God …………....................162 Appendix VII: Post Project Survey …………………………………………….176 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………...178 vi List of Figures Figure 1. Overview of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale 72 by Craig W. Ellison and Raymond P. Paloutzian Figure 2. Chart indicating how long each participant professed to be a Christian 92 Figure 3. Spiritual Well-Being scores plotted on a graph 98 Figure 4. Religious Well-Being scores for each participant plotted on a graph 100 Figure 5. Existential Well-Being scores of each participant 101 plotted on a graph Figure 6. Table of attendance for each participant in the group 102 over the twenty-six week project. vii Chapter One Overview of the Study The purpose of this project is to explore the benefits of a covenant group for spiritual formation through its accountability, support and communal practice of Christian spiritual disciplines. The covenant group provides a place where participants are encouraged to listen and respond to what God wants for their lives. Through support and accountability the participants are able to live out what God is doing in them. Since the covenant group emerges from deep historical roots the challenge that surfaces is to determine if it is effective for spiritual growth in today’s spiritual and social climate. For twenty-eight years I have pastored in Western Canada, and have observed some issues in the church that concern me. First, despite all the activity and programs in the church today many Christians desire more in their spiritual walk. “Programs can’t muffle the cry of innumerable hearts longing for a meaningful relationship with the Almighty and a sense of community with the people of God.” 1 The cry is for a deep, life- transforming relationship with God. When the covenant group idea was presented at our local Church of the Nazarene in Nanaimo, B.C. many responded as one participant would write: “I want a closer walk with the Lord and [I want to be] able to express that love to others.” But the nagging question remains: “What must a person do to experience this deeper walk?” To satisfy this hunger for a deeper spirituality many outside the church, and some within, are charting their own paths, combining elements from various traditions to form their own 1 Wes Tracy, Gary Cockerill, Donald Demaray and Steve Harper. Reflecting God (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2000), 27. 1 gods. Still it has not satisfied the cry of the searching heart. “In these days of confused and frantic longing for God, gods, some god, any god, despair rises like a dark tide.” 2 Second, there is a large body of people within the community that used to attend the church but do so no longer. Some have drifted to other churches, but alarming amounts of people are not connected to any church. Many will continue to see themselves as part of the church they left despite non-attendance, and they are not actively looking for a new church to attend. 3 Many of those people left the church after age fifteen and sixty-one percent of people in their twenties who were once active in church are now disengaged. 4 Though there are many reasons for a person to stop attending a local church, a good reason to stay would be a strong, vibrant discipleship program that allows the participants to draw closer to God and each other, building a greater sense of community which elicits greater commitment to that fellowship. Thirdly, within the local fellowship there is a deficit in leaders. Most pastors bemoan the fact that there are not enough leaders to run the children’s programs, or the youth program, or the worship team. Some of those leaders may be in the statistics of those who left the church, while others may be waiting to be enlisted and trained. However, too many of those who attend are satisfied to come to the weekly worship service on Sunday and then not participate in any ministry beyond that. In fact the posture of too many Christians is that of a consumer, one who comes to the church 2 Tracy et al., Reflecting God, 16. 3 Reginald W. Bibby, A New Day: The Resilience and Restructuring of Religion in Canada (Lethbridge: Project Canada Books, 2012), 52. 4 Amy McMillan, citing Barna research in “Are Christian Teens Leaving the Church Because of Unfulfilling Youth Groups?” Christianity Today (October 24, 2013) under “Church,” http://www.christiantoday.com/article/are.christian.teens.leaving.the.church.because.of.unfulfilling.yout h.groups/34475.htm (accessed February 10, 2014). 2 asking, “Will this church meet my needs?” rather than “What can I do to help?” “It rarely crosses our minds anymore to wonder whether or not we can contribute something or be used to meet the needs of the kingdom in the context of the local church.” 5 Many Christians do not realize they are to live out their faith in their daily lives, taking the grace of God to the community through missional living. Many Christians believe that justification is the end of the journey, unaware that there is more, and that Christians are saved to serve.6 John Wesley
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