Parts of the Holistic

Sofas replaced pews and Monday night means yoga class, not board meetings. For worshipers at Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, it’s part of their passion for a new kind of spiritual formation. Founding pastor Doug Pagitt guides readers through a typical week with his experimental congregation in his new book Reimagining Spiritual Formation (Zondervan, 2004). Pagitt describes the soul-shaping experiences of conversation, exercise, hospitality, public service, creativity, and worship. We talked with Doug about the passion behind Solomon’s Porch and how other leaders can begin to re-imagine ministry.

How is “spiritual formation” defined at Solomon’s Porch?

We are trying to have a more holistic understanding of what it means. Many churches think of your spiritual life as being separate from your physical, social, or work life. They believe if you just give people the right information about God they will live good lives. We’ve been asking, “How are people shaped by what they already do?” and then “How can they live out the dreams of God in their world?”

How do you carry out holistic formation in a busy culture that competes with the church for people’s time?

It is a challenge, but we’ve tried to make the regular doings of our lives count in spiritual formation. People have to eat, so we eat meals together. People exercise, so we make exercise part of formation. Rather than adding programs about God to someone’s life, we try to incorporate God into what people already do.

Solomon’s Porch emphasizes hospitality at its gatherings. How is this different from being seeker sensitive?

When a guest comes to our gathering, we are not worried about making them uncomfortable; we focus on making sure they really feel a part of us. We want to treat them like a member of the family, not an outsider. There is an expectation that new people participate. There are a lot of people who don’t care for that level of expectation. It’s enough to give someone with intimacy issues a panic attack.

As the pastor of this experimental community, what have you found most challenging for you?

It’s very difficult to convince people to engage in their own spiritual formation. People seem happy to let the pastor be their religious service provider. It’s easy to have someone else preach a good sermon, sing a good song, or write a good book while they are a passive recipient.

I have to convince people that it’s valuable to do the messy work of spiritual formation in their own lives and in community with others.

How might we apply this to an existing congregation, perhaps more rooted in traditional spiritual formation?

I don’t know if that’s possible. I’ve never tried it. But we need to begin by asking some important questions. Why are students transformed by one mission trip? Why does one week with Habitat for Humanity impact an adult’s soul in a way 50 sermons never do? Every experience counts for spiritual formation, not just the ones we have in the church building.

My advice is to pick a few of these practices that change people and just do them. Don’t argue over the philosophy or meaning behind them. Just let the practices happen for a while and see what the outcome is.

What caution would you give to church leaders who are rethinking their formation practices?

I could see this becoming very fad oriented. We shouldn’t focus on community or a conversational form of preaching because it’s new or trendy, but because we really believe these are better ways to learn and be transformed. We are only a five-year-old church. I think it’s too early to say if there’s any real spiritual formation happening.

Yes, I think it works, but only over time can you tell such things.