Decoding Discipleship Myths: Sacred versus Secular
A little note about the series: This article is part of a multi-part series regarding myths relating to discipleship and spiritual growth. While each article will be able to stand alone it will be important to read all in the series. Far too many myths exist within the church about what it means to grow spiritually and how a church facilitates that growth. The goal of these articles is to identify those myths and give thought to how to possibly overcome those myths within your organization.
Sacred versus Secular
Understanding the Myth
We have become a compartmentalized people. We have lost in many the classical educational truth of the interconnectedness of things. We separate the parts of our lives into different areas. Perhaps it is rooted in the Greco-Roman Hellenistic grounding of our society, or the lightning rod belief of separating church and state. Regardless, this is not a political myth, but a deeply personal one. The myth is that there are two spaces in our lives - sacred and secular. These two spaces compete for time in life or are held in strictly separate spheres with no real overlap. Sunday is the day reserved for sacred activity. The rest of the week is secular. Taken further, the sacred part of the week doesn’t impact, or speak to, the secular part of the week. The two end up functioning separately. It becomes a dichotomy of lives. The spiritual activity of the week is held to a small segment of the week and the belief becomes that as long as a person is consistent in practice of the sacred then everything else is kosher in a sense. God didn’t design things to be that way. God’s declaration at the end of His creative efforts that everything is “very good” reveals that there is no divide between sacred and secular. All is sacred. Sin’s entrance into the picture mars everything and twists things away from God’s original creative plan. Therefore, an idea that a separation exists in our daily lives between sacred and secular comes in. Spiritual growth will push a person to recognize that anything sacred impacts everyday life. Growth is seen in applying the sacred principles of God to daily living. Everything from greatest achievements to the basic interaction with the checkout person at the store. All has a sacredness to it. But sin reminds us that all has flaw to it as well.
The Age Old Struggle
This myth is not really new, although the radical individualism that has derived in the midst of western civilization doesn’t help it at all. This myth traces all the way back to the Garden of Eden and the first bite of the fruit that brought sin into the world. It is fundamentally about an ongoing choice between self and trusting God’s story. Sin brought with it a sense of self. Of self-preservation. Of self-preference. Of self-centeredness. Sin drives a wedge between God’s plan and our plan. It creates the idea that there are things not really sacred in the world. Spiritual growth is the lifelong journey of seeing those two worlds merge back together.
Spiritual Growth Stages
A growing disciple of Jesus will see certain stages take place as progress towards maturity happens. It’s a worldview change. Your worldview is the overarching story you use to give purpose, meaning, and reason to the things that happen around you. It is the lens in your glasses for defining existence. This myth wants you to think there are two sets of glasses and the truth is that there is only one pair. There has only ever been one pair. Growing as a disciple is not a simple staircase taking you upward. It is more of an ongoing spiral that slowly moves you closer to the Lord. As you grow spiritually you find that the lens of your worldview, your life filter, becomes more and more God-centric. It becomes a move from self-preservation to self-sacrifice. There are five basic stages in growth.
No Faith - Kind of like it sounds. This stage is the beginning point. A person might believe in a god, or that a higher power exists, but no real followership exists. There is no real salvation, no heart change. This person might even claim to be a Christian but can’t really articulate what that means. Nothing is really sacred and everything is secular. The scary question is how many people sitting in a pew, or chair, every Sunday morning are at this stage of faith without recognizing it?
Narrow Faith - This stage sees the presence of faith in the believer’s life. Salvation is there. However, pretty much all of life is viewed from the viewpoint of self. God is in the picture but stays pretty much a Sunday only thing. In the heart a base conflict begins to emerge of self and God. Suddenly, there is another voice. that voice is the Holy Spirit. Growing here is the introduction to basic spiritual practices and ideas. Far too many believers remain at this stage without moving forward. Peter, Paul, the author of Hebrews all speak to believers needing to move forward in their faith beyond the basic spiritual things.
Growing Faith - Here the lens has flipped. God and His story are taking a more prominent role in defining existence, but self remains to the side. Self isn’t fully in the background, but it’s influence is diminished as the individual trusts more and more in God’s story rather than their own. In this stage everyday life suddenly is viewed differently. The life led each day of the week is seen more and more as a place for sacred to shine through. Everything from how you respond to rude people on the highway to how you interact with the other parents on your kid’s travel ball team. Too often this stage finds itself in conflict with the very church they attend. Probably a different article there on a different day.
Maturing Faith - With this stage faith in the believer is largely focused on God and His story. The beautiful sacredness of everyday life is active daily in the eyes of the believer. Life is defined from a place of trust in God and His incredible story playing out in the world. This stage is where we see things like Paul’s own recognition of his sinfulness and how undeserving he was of grace. This stage sees how great the grace is given and how great God’s love and commitment is to His people. Now there is steadily only sacred in the world. Everything is viewed through the lens of God. The daily interactions, tasks, rest, and everything else is an act of worship, a living expression of praise to God. You are seeing your life as a living sacrifice. That is the move to self-sacrifice over self-preservation.
Crisis Faith - It is difficult to consider this really a stage, but it is a reality in the spiritual growth process. Crisis happens. Struggles come. Believers endure suffering. The manner and attitude with which the difficulties are approached relates directly to the stage of spiritual growth in the person. Ultimately, these things move the believer out of a comfort zone. Crisis can either move the believer forward or pull the believer back. Much is built on the response of the believer.
Moving forward spiritually is a lifelong journey of knowing, understanding, and doing. it is a gloriously difficult and rewarding journey towards Christlikeness. There is nothing like it in life. To see the incredible sacred act of living in trust of God’s story is the call every believer has on life.