Interview with Dallas Willard
(unknown date, but before Dallas got sick)
My work is to teach the teaching of X and live them
We have cultivated a devotional life that leaves life out of it. We don’t have a life of devotion.
We have a (little) prayer life. What we need is a praying life.
We put what Jesus said into practice. Think of your church as a place where people are doing that.
It’s a whole life thing, not just on Sundays. And then you come back together with people who love you.
Guilt is not constructive. People feel guilty about witnessing and giving.
Church is where people form a com’ty of love where all the bad habits gained in world apart from God are broken. we discover we can trust love.
Partly we found that out when things don’t go smoothly in church.
Conviction of sin is not just guilt but also a vision of change.
Confession can be the point where you abandon yourself to God. It’s not just guilt.
Ministry will teach you abandonment to God. We should count on God. It’s not something I just talk about. It’s real presence I can see and know.
Rejection is buying us back from rejecting the supremacy of God in our lives.
We live as people creating good under His power.
God comes to us in history. The story of redemption is the story of Incarnation.
He establishes His place in human history
1 Cor 15: If X is not risen, your faith is in vain
You have to start with Creation (Gen 1.26) if you’re going to make sense of Redemption
Starts with responsibility for fish. By Ps 8, it’s domesticated animals. People have lived on the back of animals for a long time. What do we have dominion over today? What are we responsible for?
The great threat to God’s K in my life is my kingdom.
We learn to trust JX and live in His K by bringing our life into position of dependence on Him.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Dallas Notes: The Divine Conspiracy Group Bible Study (February 2012)
The Divine Conspiracy Group Bible Study
If you want to go to heaven, now is the time to do it
become a student of Jesus; put into action what He said
then you know by experience the reality of God's kingdom
that's why He said 'seek more than anything else the KoG'
seeking is a process and you enter into it by becoming a student/disciple/apprentice
learn a practice from Jesus
trust Him enough to think the things He said to do should be put into practice
then we come to know the KoG
think well enough of Jesus to trust Him
[the 'Gospel' of Sin Management: the real Gospel::
Psychology (focus on illness): Positive Psychology]
If you want to go to heaven, now is the time to do it
become a student of Jesus; put into action what He said
then you know by experience the reality of God's kingdom
that's why He said 'seek more than anything else the KoG'
seeking is a process and you enter into it by becoming a student/disciple/apprentice
learn a practice from Jesus
trust Him enough to think the things He said to do should be put into practice
then we come to know the KoG
think well enough of Jesus to trust Him
[the 'Gospel' of Sin Management: the real Gospel::
Psychology (focus on illness): Positive Psychology]
Dallas Notes: Planning for Spiritual Formation in the local church (Rolling Hills Covenant Church, January 2012?)
Planning for Spiritual Formation in the local church
The Bible is a book of spiritual formation. You won’t find that phrase, but you do find the process.
Great Commission is about world revolution
Jesus did spiritual formation with His disciples
Jesus knew only successful revolution is in character of human beings.
A result of that kind of revolution is going to all kinds of people and not just one group.
Baptize them into (eis) the name. Immerse them in Trinitarian reality.
Teach them not what they should do but to do the things Jesus said.
Disciples are apprentices of Jesus learning to live int he KoG like He did
[FWIW, I don’t agree with Dallas’ translation of ‘oligopistoi’ here at all. I think Eugene Petersen captures it much better: ‘You little-faiths’. It can even be a term of endearment]
The big thing about the community of disciples is what inhabits them.
If you’d like to go to heaven, go now
[And if you don’t want to go now, do you really want to go at all? Will you like it? It’s not your dream for yourself. It’s God’s dream for you.]
D’ship is a status. Spiritual formation happens to people in that status.
We teach people to do what Jesus taught
[Maybe it would be a little better to talk about being: We teach people to become the kinds of people Jesus taught us to be.]
Spiritual formation is not behavior modification. [It’s character development in partnership with God.]
If you teach people to do what Jesus said and word gets out, you won’t have a problem with outreach.
Without the example of changed lives and the ability to replicate it, you might get some people into heaven, but you won’t get heaven into many people.
Why don’t we do it? We pay too much attention to things that don’t matter.
Leith Anderson quote fro RotH
[If you’re trying to be an NT church, shoot for the same emphases as the NT. What is major there? What do Jesus and Paul spend their time doing? At least shoot for a better balance than what we have today. We get so consumed with the business and busy-ness of church.]
If your church is centered around d’ship, everything else will take care of itself.
Spiritual formation is actually spiritual transformation b/c everyone is already spiritually formed.
The phrase isn’t Biblical, but cp. taking on the character of X:
Rom 5.1-5
Col 3.1-17
2 Pet 1.5-10
We can’t do it on our own, but we have work to do. It’s an interactive process in which the Trinity acts with us as we step out toward the transformation of our lives.
If we don’t do something, nothing will happen. If God doesn’t work with us, nothing will happen.
Willpower won’t get you far. Will has to be integrated with learning and training.
The Great Omission from the Great Commission is not having a plan to train disciples in a way that they naturally obey.
If you only try without learning and training, you’ll either become a Pharisee or a ‘miserable sinner’ (it’s hopeless; I can’t change).
Transforming the Whole Person [RotH diagram]
In a fallen world, most of us live in the dominance of social relations and the body.
We’re not talking about perfection, but doing better.
‘Sinners aren’t perfect, just forgiven.’
There’s a long distance between forgiven and perfect
1 Cor 13: Since love does not envy, if you don’t want to envy, fill yourself with love.
The Bible is a book of spiritual formation. You won’t find that phrase, but you do find the process.
Great Commission is about world revolution
Jesus did spiritual formation with His disciples
Jesus knew only successful revolution is in character of human beings.
A result of that kind of revolution is going to all kinds of people and not just one group.
Baptize them into (eis) the name. Immerse them in Trinitarian reality.
Teach them not what they should do but to do the things Jesus said.
Disciples are apprentices of Jesus learning to live int he KoG like He did
[FWIW, I don’t agree with Dallas’ translation of ‘oligopistoi’ here at all. I think Eugene Petersen captures it much better: ‘You little-faiths’. It can even be a term of endearment]
The big thing about the community of disciples is what inhabits them.
If you’d like to go to heaven, go now
[And if you don’t want to go now, do you really want to go at all? Will you like it? It’s not your dream for yourself. It’s God’s dream for you.]
D’ship is a status. Spiritual formation happens to people in that status.
We teach people to do what Jesus taught
[Maybe it would be a little better to talk about being: We teach people to become the kinds of people Jesus taught us to be.]
Spiritual formation is not behavior modification. [It’s character development in partnership with God.]
If you teach people to do what Jesus said and word gets out, you won’t have a problem with outreach.
Without the example of changed lives and the ability to replicate it, you might get some people into heaven, but you won’t get heaven into many people.
Why don’t we do it? We pay too much attention to things that don’t matter.
Leith Anderson quote fro RotH
[If you’re trying to be an NT church, shoot for the same emphases as the NT. What is major there? What do Jesus and Paul spend their time doing? At least shoot for a better balance than what we have today. We get so consumed with the business and busy-ness of church.]
If your church is centered around d’ship, everything else will take care of itself.
Spiritual formation is actually spiritual transformation b/c everyone is already spiritually formed.
The phrase isn’t Biblical, but cp. taking on the character of X:
Rom 5.1-5
Col 3.1-17
2 Pet 1.5-10
We can’t do it on our own, but we have work to do. It’s an interactive process in which the Trinity acts with us as we step out toward the transformation of our lives.
If we don’t do something, nothing will happen. If God doesn’t work with us, nothing will happen.
Willpower won’t get you far. Will has to be integrated with learning and training.
The Great Omission from the Great Commission is not having a plan to train disciples in a way that they naturally obey.
If you only try without learning and training, you’ll either become a Pharisee or a ‘miserable sinner’ (it’s hopeless; I can’t change).
Transforming the Whole Person [RotH diagram]
In a fallen world, most of us live in the dominance of social relations and the body.
We’re not talking about perfection, but doing better.
‘Sinners aren’t perfect, just forgiven.’
There’s a long distance between forgiven and perfect
1 Cor 13: Since love does not envy, if you don’t want to envy, fill yourself with love.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Dallas Notes: Knowledge in the Context of Spiritual Formation (EPS Apologetics Conference, November 11, 2011)
Knowledge in the Context of Spiritual Formation
To Everyone an Answer: 10th Annual EPS Apologetics Conference
[The whoops at the beginning of this talk are so fun to hear. Evangelical philosophy geeks like me ;-) ]
Knowledge that comes from the experience of Xians with God is among the most precious on earth.
Knowledge on the basis of which I live the spiritual life and then knowledge of the spiritual life that is available to others.
Apologetics can be defensive, but I think of it more as laying out answers
Maybe apologetics should be more in answer to sincere questions than defending against attacks.
Why are you hopeful in suffering? What makes you tick?
1 Pet 3.14-15
What if a large part of the job of the apologete was to explain why Xians are so happy and full of righteous deeds and love?
Different ministries to those who want to know and those who don’t
Having real, live people who are good witnesses in their living changes everything.
One part of spiritual knowledge is knowledge of Xian living
To read: The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life
If we don’t have knowledge, we’re just trying to get people to do things.
The lives of the saints are worthy of enquiry. Hypothesis: Such lives are lived based on knowledge gained by engaging with the spiritual realm of God
What does the Bible do to you? You can’t take it like little pills. They’re not entering it a domain of knowledge
you have to seek knowledge to gain it. it won’t come any other way.
spiritual growth is a process of gaining knowledge, so prayer is theological research
If you don’t have to get what you want, you won’t be plagues by disappointment and depression.
Pascal’s Pensees 233
Wager
way of experience can be opened by taking simple steps
abate passions. learn of those who stake all their provisions on God.
the know the way you would follow. they’ve been cured of an ill you want to be cured of. follow the way they began by acting as if they believed.
the way of experience is open to everyone. it is a way of grace.
At each step you will see great certainty of gain over against nothing (by comparison) ventured.
[Why don’t I have more of an effect on those I know? I don’t pray for them much, for starters.]
If you dwell in my teachings, then you really are my apprentices, and you will know the truth, and truth will make you free. Jn 8.31-32
The truth by itself will not make you free. It’s more likely to make you flee. We don’t come to the truth. We come to Jesus. We step into His teaching as best we can.
Apologetics and evangelism would be helped a lot by visible fruit in the lives of Xians.
To Everyone an Answer: 10th Annual EPS Apologetics Conference
[The whoops at the beginning of this talk are so fun to hear. Evangelical philosophy geeks like me ;-) ]
Knowledge that comes from the experience of Xians with God is among the most precious on earth.
Knowledge on the basis of which I live the spiritual life and then knowledge of the spiritual life that is available to others.
Apologetics can be defensive, but I think of it more as laying out answers
Maybe apologetics should be more in answer to sincere questions than defending against attacks.
Why are you hopeful in suffering? What makes you tick?
1 Pet 3.14-15
What if a large part of the job of the apologete was to explain why Xians are so happy and full of righteous deeds and love?
Different ministries to those who want to know and those who don’t
Having real, live people who are good witnesses in their living changes everything.
One part of spiritual knowledge is knowledge of Xian living
To read: The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life
If we don’t have knowledge, we’re just trying to get people to do things.
The lives of the saints are worthy of enquiry. Hypothesis: Such lives are lived based on knowledge gained by engaging with the spiritual realm of God
What does the Bible do to you? You can’t take it like little pills. They’re not entering it a domain of knowledge
you have to seek knowledge to gain it. it won’t come any other way.
spiritual growth is a process of gaining knowledge, so prayer is theological research
If you don’t have to get what you want, you won’t be plagues by disappointment and depression.
Pascal’s Pensees 233
Wager
way of experience can be opened by taking simple steps
abate passions. learn of those who stake all their provisions on God.
the know the way you would follow. they’ve been cured of an ill you want to be cured of. follow the way they began by acting as if they believed.
the way of experience is open to everyone. it is a way of grace.
At each step you will see great certainty of gain over against nothing (by comparison) ventured.
[Why don’t I have more of an effect on those I know? I don’t pray for them much, for starters.]
If you dwell in my teachings, then you really are my apprentices, and you will know the truth, and truth will make you free. Jn 8.31-32
The truth by itself will not make you free. It’s more likely to make you flee. We don’t come to the truth. We come to Jesus. We step into His teaching as best we can.
Apologetics and evangelism would be helped a lot by visible fruit in the lives of Xians.
Dallas Notes: Moral Knowledge (Psychiatry & Spirituality Forum, U. C. Irvine, 2011)
Moral Knowledge (1 of 2)
one reason there can't be any moral knowledge these days is b/c we would have to agree on where it came from, and no one will agree to that.
one reason we can't say others are wrong is that we have been so judgmental and hypocritical. another is that it tends to be the case that not everything in a culture is right or wrong.
Moral Knowledge (2 of 2)
Is our current thinking any better than the old thinking? Wouldn't we just be better off if we went back to old moral thinking?
we were, of course, undermined by those who purported to agree or even propounded morality and didn't live it out, in many cases active hypocrites
but you can still make a pretty good case we'd be better off
one reason there can't be any moral knowledge these days is b/c we would have to agree on where it came from, and no one will agree to that.
one reason we can't say others are wrong is that we have been so judgmental and hypocritical. another is that it tends to be the case that not everything in a culture is right or wrong.
Moral Knowledge (2 of 2)
Is our current thinking any better than the old thinking? Wouldn't we just be better off if we went back to old moral thinking?
we were, of course, undermined by those who purported to agree or even propounded morality and didn't live it out, in many cases active hypocrites
but you can still make a pretty good case we'd be better off
Dallas Notes: Aprentis Institute's 2011 National Conference
Aprentis Institute's 2011 National Conference
Dallas Willard & James Bryan Smith
Work on vision [for yourself and others]. When you have it, you’ll find the intention and means
We should say the church is in the business of character formation and it is achieved by being a student of Jesus
You have to embody it as the leader
[If the leader preaches the vision but doesn’t really live it (embodying it consistently, over time, coming back to it again and again, working it out in administration, etc.), then it won’t make a difference. And it will feel fake.]
Asking questions can get past people’s defenses. Let the question be there. Too much of our is spent answering questions people aren’t asking. They might even need to be asking them.
[That’s certainly how Jesus taught]
How are you doing with your kingdom?
Then people can assess religions/philosophies by how they address our kingdoms (what we’re in charge of) and how to handle them.
But don’t fake it. That’s the path to hypocrisy and Pharisaism: trying to achieve high standards, but faking it when they’re not attained.
Dallas Willard & James Bryan Smith
Work on vision [for yourself and others]. When you have it, you’ll find the intention and means
We should say the church is in the business of character formation and it is achieved by being a student of Jesus
You have to embody it as the leader
[If the leader preaches the vision but doesn’t really live it (embodying it consistently, over time, coming back to it again and again, working it out in administration, etc.), then it won’t make a difference. And it will feel fake.]
Asking questions can get past people’s defenses. Let the question be there. Too much of our is spent answering questions people aren’t asking. They might even need to be asking them.
[That’s certainly how Jesus taught]
How are you doing with your kingdom?
Then people can assess religions/philosophies by how they address our kingdoms (what we’re in charge of) and how to handle them.
But don’t fake it. That’s the path to hypocrisy and Pharisaism: trying to achieve high standards, but faking it when they’re not attained.
Dallas Notes: The Kingdom of God (Christ Church London, 2011)
The Kingdom of God
you don't find sin interesting and you find righteousness powerfully interesting
[this is a main part of what I need: a more compelling vision of the Kingdom. that it is the treasure hidden in a field. that it is the pearl of great price. that it is better than winning the lottery]
If you want to obey Jesus' teaching about seeking first the KoG, you have to find what God is doing and get with it. identify with it. move into it. bless it. approve it. advance it.
4 main areas where God is in action:
1. Nature
bless the first good thing that meets you
Actually bless your food
2. God's Law
Ps 1
if you delight in the Law of the Lord and bring your life up against it and into conformity with it, you will experience the KoG -- God in action
don't try to keep the law but to become the kind of person who keeps it
3. the gifts of the Spirit
outcome is greater than we can humanly explain
the mark of the Spirit is always the incommensurability of the output to the input.
I challenge you to study the 'with God' principle from the beginning of the OT to the end [of the OT?]
4. the fruit of the Spirit
character. common to everyone.
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control
in the same way, the outcome is more than we can humanly produce
love is to will good for
the amazing thing is not that God loves you. it would be amazing if God did not.
the practice of the presence of God
Pr 3.5-6: Don't trust your own abilities, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will smooth your path.
Unless you become like a little child you cannot enter the KoG. What characterizes little children? Receptiveness, even presumptive
we presume upon the Kingdom in everything we do in our lives.
[we couldn't stop if we tried. it's how God set up the world.]
if you do everything with the KoG, the KoG will act with you
you need a little practice. God will help you. and if you intend to do it, you will learn it very quickly, because it's really good.
[Lord! Please let me learn to seek and find and live in Your Kingdom! I want to! I want to learn it quickly! Yes, Lord!]
Take your kingdom and everything that concerns you into the KoG
then when people see you they will say 'God is good'
You are the light of the world
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