Matthew Bingham’s book A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation was introduced to our church leadership team by our lead pastor at our annual leadership retreat last fall, who encouraged all of us to read it. It has since become a very influential book in our church, with many reading and discussing it, including our officer candidates. You can read my review of the book here, and I highly commend the book to  you.
But what is spiritual formation? Like me,  you may have heard the term, but aren’t’ sure exactly what it is. You may  have heard about friends getting degrees in spiritual formation from a Bible college or seminary. Bingham helpfully tells us that the term spiritual formation has arisen to describe the biblical process of molding the mind, heart, and life of a Christian into conformity to Christ.
In his book, Bingham introduces what he refers to as the “Reformation Triangle” of scripture, meditation, and prayer which is at the heart of historic Protestant spiritual formation.  Taken together, these three can be conceived as a conversation between the believer and God: we hear from God through his word, we reflect on what we’ve heard in meditation, and we then respond to God in prayer. Continue reading →