LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Spiritual Formation and Discipleship
Submitted to Dr. Dave Earley
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
DSMN 500 - B04
Discipleship Ministries
by
Bartley Nethery
January 17, 2022
Introduction
In the simple terms of Earley and Dempsey in Spiritual Formation is…, spiritual
formation “is the process of being changed to be more like Jesus.”1 While greater attempts at
defining the spiritual formation of a believer from one degree of glory to the next have been
made, this simple explanation seems to make them all accessible. In order for one to begin to
grasp the concept of spiritual formation, the foundational truth to grasp it means to be a disciple.
Disciple, for the purpose of this work will be defined as follows: A Disciple is a believer in
Christ who is submitted totally and completely to Him, being sanctified daily through His Holy
Spirit’s application of God’s Word and fellowship with like-minded saints and serving Him by
sharing His gospel and ministering to those in need.
Defining a disciple in this way presents three potential areas of that disciple’s life for
spiritual formation to take place in. First, spiritual formation addresses our relationship with God
Himself. True disciples have completely sacrificed control to God. One goal of spiritual
formation is to cultivate and grow that dependence upon the Father. Second, spiritual formation
deals with our relationship to fellow followers of Christ. There are two main avenues through
which the Holy Spirit forms the disciple spiritually. They are God’s Word and God’s people. The
two avenues are harmonious as they each contribute in their own way to the other. Finally,
spiritual formation grows the believer’s desire for relationship with the lost around him/her.
Spiritual formation discontents the follower of Christ with simply existing and joining in weekly
worship. It drives the believer to action, whether it be action in the form of evangelism or action
in the form of ministering to people.
1 Dave Earley and Rod Dempsey, Spiritual Formation Is...: How to Grow in Jesus with Passion and
Confidence (Nashville, TN: B & H Academic, 2018), 4.
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This is what it means to be a disciple. Discipleship is the process by which mature
followers lead new believers to develop biblical, spiritual habits toward the aim of spiritual
formation in their lives. These habits involve Scripture reading and study, prayer, journaling,
meditation, etc. Jesus presents an excellent picture of the spiritually formed disciple in Mark
8:34-35 saying, “And He summoned the crowd together with His disciples, and said to them, ‘If
anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For
whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the
gospel’s will save it.’”2 This description provides the foundation for what it means to be a
disciple, and points to the end goal of spiritual formation. That is, a disciple who is submitted,
sanctified, and serving.
Overview of Three Directional Love
In the introduction, three directional love was hinted at without becoming fully formed.
The goal of this section is to do just that, fully form the philosophy of three directional love. In
order to do that, one must first understand the basic presuppositions of three directional love in
principle. In an interview for Christianity Today, Stephen Lowe hints at these presuppositions
stating that spiritual formation is “a combination of this vertical connection that we have to
Christ and the Spirit and the horizontal connection we have to other members of the body of
Christ. Those all work together to form us individually and corporately into this image of Christ
in all of its fullness and beauty.”3 In other words, three directional love is the presupposition that
the follower of Christ, being spiritually formed, exhibits a love for God (vertical), a love for
brothers/sisters in Christ (horizontal-near), and a love for the lost (horizontal-far).4
2 Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995).
3 Mark Galli and Stephen D. Lowe, “WITH ALL YOUR HEART, SOUL, WI-FI, AND WEBSITES:
Stephen Lowe Offers a Biblical Defense of Online Spiritual Formation,” Christianity Today 63, no. 4 (May 2019):
60.
4 Earley and Dempsey, Spiritual Formation Is..., 100-101.
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These three directions expected of a disciple make up the three areas in which spiritual
formation happens. Earley and Dempsey suggest that these three areas make up “the DNA of a
follower of Jesus.”5 Looking at each individual area helps to clarify the spiritual formation
process in each. Consider, first, the area of vertical love, or the disciple’s love for God. The Bible
is clear from beginning to end that, as a disciple “You shall love the LORD your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Spiritual
formation in this area happens primarily through growing in the knowledge of God and His
goodness through His Word. In their article, “Scripture as Formation,” Maddix and Thompson
suggest that “…formational reading includes opening oneself up to the biblical text to allow it to
intrude into one's lives, to be addressed and encountered by it. Instead of mastering the text
through study, formational reading invites that text as sacred Scripture to master and form its
readers.”6
Second, consider the horizontal love, both near and far. Near is representative of other
believers, and far is representative of unbelievers or the lost. Galli and Lowe point to the
importance of spiritual formation in love for one another by suggesting that “…while we are
gathered physically, there is a spiritual communion of the saints gathering with us.”7 Also,
consider the seriousness with which John speaks of love for fellow followers of Christ. In 1 John
3:14, the apostle writes, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love
the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” John ties the vertical love of God to the
horizontal love of the saints in a qualifying way. Finally, the disciple’s love should be horizontal
in his/her passion for the lost and unbelieving. After all, the Great Commission given to all
disciples is clear in Matthew 28:19-20. The disciple’s business is to work to bring their families,
5 Ibid., 101.
6 Mark A. Maddix and Richard P. Thompson, “Scripture as Formation: The Role of Scripture in Christian
Formation,” Christian Education Journal 9 (Spring 2012): S79–93.
7 Mark Galli and Stephen D. Lowe, “WITH ALL YOUR HEART, SOUL, WI-FI, AND WEBSITES,” 61.
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neighbors, and communities to Christ. In all these things, the disciple exhibits a three directional
love.
Walking in the Spirit
In the introduction, this author took the time to define and overview the picture of a
disciple in Scripture briefly. One major aspect of a disciple, as Jesus mentions in Mark 8:34, is
that he/she sacrifice control (“…deny himself…”) of every aspect of his/her being to Christ. In
this is where one can begin to understand how to walk in the Spirit. Earley and Dempsey suggest
that, “Walking in the Spirit is the result of our conscious decision to surrender control of our
lives to Christ and then to ‘work out our salvation with fear and trembling’ (Phil 2:12).”8
Working out one’s own salvation is the disciple’s work. This work is mainly
accomplished by the spiritual disciplines or habits that have been briefly touched upon above.
There are a multitude of spiritual disciplines that believers participate in, both on their own and
with other believers. Some examples include Scripture reading and memorization, prayer,
fasting, journaling, Sunday School classes or small groups, sharing the gospel, etc. These
spiritual habits are “the human effort we make to press into God’s presence so his life can
transform our lives.”9 That brings us to the Spirit’s part in the process.
In Philippians 2:13, Paul digs deeper after commanding the believer to work out his/her
own salvation writing “…for it is God at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good
pleasure.” As the follower of Christ participates in the spiritual habits in order to position
himself/herself for the Spirit’s transformation, the Spirit is at work. While the believer is active in
the spiritual habits mentioned above, the Holy Spirit is working to apply the truths of Scripture to
his/her desires and ambitions. In this way, the Holy Spirit is transforming the follower of Christ
8 Earley and Dempsey, Spiritual Formation Is..., 53.
9 Ibid. 83.
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from the inside out, in concert with his/her positioning work. Walking in the Spirit is recognizing
that the believer plays his/her part in developing the spiritual disciplines in his/her life, while also
acknowledging that the Spirit is at work to effectuate those disciplines in a deep, transformative
way.
My Personal Growth Assessment
The Personal Growth Assessment essentially reaffirmed the things that have been readily
apparent to me for quite some time as it pertains to strengths and weaknesses. My greatest
strength as a follower of Christ is my love for one another, or inward love. I have felt an
overwhelmingly clear call to ministry in the local church since I was a teenager. My love for the
local church is evidenced in this assessment. It is the spiritual passion of my heart to see the local
church thrive, grow deep and wide, and get serious about the gospel. I knew this about myself
going into this assessment. It is no surprise that I scored thirty points higher in the inward
category than in either of the other two.
Not much different from my strengths, I was mostly aware of my weaknesses. I have
been working specifically on many of them for the last couple of years. The weakest point for me
revolves around my prayer life and witnessing. I pray often. The issue of quantity is not so much
the issue in my prayer life as is the quality. My prayer life, not much different from my business
acumen, is disorganized. I do not keep up with prayer requests, keep lists of lost people to pray
for, or fast at all. My prayer life is kind of a take life in stride approach to praying that I believer
could be more focused and disciplined through a little organization and purpose.
Witnessing is a weak point for me as well, though not as weak as prayer. I have grown a
significant amount in this area over the last year. Despite the pandemic, evangelism has been one
of my chief focuses for growth and improvement over the last year. I spend all day everyday in
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my community members homes doing service work, and I have strived to take as many
opportunities as I can to turn conversations to spiritual matters. While this growth is apparent,
still more is necessary I am afraid. Most of the problems that make this weakness revolve around
social anxieties and introverted issues that I have spent a great deal of energy working through
and overcoming. Overall, the assessment was a good reminder of the areas that need
improvement, as well as those that could use some humility at times.
Personal Growth Plan
Several habits that need to be developed have made themselves known throughout my
work on this project. As the prompt suggests, I will offer one for each area assessed. First, in the
upward category, or love for God, my lowest score was in fasting for spiritual development. This
is something that I have been formulating into a goal for quite some time. In an effort to grow in
this area, I plan to fast at least one day a month for the entirety of 2021. This process began a few
weeks ago before school began. The next fast will take place in a few weeks as I seek the Lord’s
guidance regarding a local church that is courting myself and my wife to lead the church from
the senior pastor position.
Second, in the inward category, or love for one another, my weakest point was in
confessing my faults, sins, and failings to other believers. This is an area that has always been
supremely uncomfortable for me, as I am sure it is for most. When you add to the situation that I
am a pastor, held to a higher standard biblically, it adds anxiety and fear to this process. As I
consider a strategy, friendship is what comes to mind. My goal in this category is born out of a
lack of ministry friends. My goal is, in the next six months, to cultivate 1-3 relationships with
partners in ministry, whether they be local or abroad. The hope is that these relationships would
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become those other believers that I confess my sins and failings to, and hold them accountable to
do the same.
Finally, in the outward category, or love for my neighbors, my weakest area is
being purposeful about meeting with the lost in my community. Most of my evangelism is done
throughout the day as I go from house-to-house servicing appliances. This affords me the
opportunity to have many conversations, but few deeply impactful conversations. The
assessment made a suggestion to me to try to take my evangelism to the next level. My goal for
2021 in this area is to take 1-2 unbelieving friends or neighbors to lunch with purpose. That is, to
have a meaningful conversation about Jesus and the gospel.
Conclusion
What has been clarified and emphasized in this project is the desperate need in the world
today for serious discipleship and spiritual formation. For years the local church, especially in
western cultures, has grown comfortable with allowing pastors and their programs to be enough
in the areas of discipleship and spiritual formation. This neglect and comfortable positioning has
led to several generations of people who see nothing special or important about Christ or His
gospel. This attitude flows from their experience of Christians as men and women who do the
bare minimum, if that, as it pertains to loving upward, inward, and outward. There has never
been a moment in redemption history when spiritual formation, born out of serious discipleship
was more needed and necessary. It is the hope of this author that this work has clearly defined
and given an overview of spiritual formation and what it means to be a disciple. If that goal has
been accomplished, it is vital that Christians shore up these three areas and seek out life lived
walking in the Spirit.
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Bibliography
Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Spiritual Formation Is...: How to Grow in Jesus with Passion
and Confidence. Nashville, TN: B & H Academic, 2018.
Earley, David, and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is...: How to Live the Great Commission with
Passion and Confidence. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishing Group, 2013.
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Galli, Mark, and Stephen D. Lowe. “WITH ALL YOUR HEART, SOUL, WI-FI, AND
WEBSITES: Stephen Lowe Offers a Biblical Defense of Online Spiritual Formation.”
Christianity Today 63, no. 4 (May 2019): 59–62.
Maddix, Mark A., and Richard P. Thompson. “Scripture as Formation: The Role of Scripture in
Christian Formation.” Christian Education Journal 9 (Spring 2012): S79–93.
Putman, Jim, and Bobby Harrington. Discipleshift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make
Disciples Who Make Disciples. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013.
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