Discipleship As Fitness
This is Part 4 in a multi-part blog series laying out a philosophy for spiritual formation. You can read the earlier installments here: Part 1: Everything is Spiritual, Part 2: Everything is Worship, and Part 3, Grace Takes Practice.
_____________________________________________________________________
In Part 2 I said that a good way to subvert the modern spiritual prejudice of dualism, while also overcoming the false-dichotomy between grace and work, is to take advantage of the biblical correlations between the principles of spiritual formation and physical fitness training.
What, then, can we observe about physical fitness that biblically correlates? We’ll begin with a definition. Crossfit, a grassroots fitness training organization, defines physical fitness in this way:
“There are ten recognized general physical skills [...] you are as fit as you are competent in each of these ten skills [...] The essence of this model is the view that fitness is the ability to perform at any and every task imaginable.” (Glassman 2002:2, emphasis added).
In other words, physical fitness is no single function. This is a paradigm-shifting claim, so let me use an example: Let’s say a person excels at bench press – they are able to push hundreds of pounds – but that’s all they’re really good at. Are they truly “fit?”
According to Crossfit, the answer is “no.”
If a person excels at only one or a few areas of physical strength or endurance, then they’re not truly fit because true fitness is the ability to perform well at the broadest possible set of physical tasks. The truly fit person is strong in all areas.
This comprehensively-oriented definition returns us to the holistic purpose of physical fitness. For example, the bench press alone is an inadequate indicator of fitness because the purpose of physical fitness is not to be able to push weight away from our chests, or to have large pectoral muscles, or to look good without a shirt on (that might be someone’s purpose, of course, but that would make them foolish); rather, the purpose of fitness is to live well (i.e. physically healthy, strong, and capable of dealing with life’s physical challenges and emergencies). Crossfit understands this, and states,
“Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.” (Crossfit Journal 2002:2, emphasis added).
In other words, fit people are equipped overall to live better, precisely because they ready to respond well to the physical demands of life’s circumstances. Jesus indicates the very same purpose for spiritual formation, saying, “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10). The purpose of spiritual formation is to live life well (i.e. spiritually healthy, strong, and capable of dealing with life’s spiritual challenges and emergencies). Spiritually fit people are equipped to live better because they are ready to respond to any circumstance from a heart of genuine goodness or “righteousness.”
This is what it means for people to fulfill their vocation as the eikons of God, resembling and reflecting his image, and becoming a dwelling in which He lives by his spirit (Eph 2:21-22).
For example, I have a friend who was a competitive weight lifter. He was 6′ 4″ 335 lbs, able bench press over 600 lbs and dead lift over 800 lbs. That is a truly world-class level of performance in those exercises; there are only a handful of people in the world who can do that. However, one day he and I and some other friends were boating when we decided to stop in the middle of the lake for a swim. We all jumped in and enjoyed the water. But my weight-lifter friend had a tough time swimming. His body just wasn’t well-formed for swimming, so after a few minutes he said, “I’ve got to get back in the boat.” Not wanting him to feel awkward about it, we all climbed back in. Now, the boat didn’t have a ladder, so we all had to grab the top bar and pull ourselves up over the rail from the water below. Anybody who has ever done this knows it isn’t easy, but we all managed.
All of us, that is, except my Herculean friend. Even though he could bench press over 600 lbs, he wasn’t able to pull his own body back into the boat. It took four of us pulling from inside to get him back in. I thought to myself, What’s the point of all that training if you’re not even able to keep yourself from drowning?
Have you ever met people who were like that spiritually? Maybe they could rattle off bible verses for any occasion, or pray beautiful and elaborately sincere prayers, or preach with incredible power and charisma…but their actual lives turn out to be a mess (often these are our leaders!). It’s like they can’t even pull themselves back into the boat.
What’s the point of that?
(There are those who will object at this point and say that the gospel is all about “not being able to ever pull yourself back into the boat.” In fact, there are entire denominations who cling to this. But they’re wrong. They’ve confused the call to repentance with the life of wisdom and maturity. It’s true that the latter always depends on the former, but the former doesn’t exclude the cultivation of strength and virtue – it empowers it. Saying that we’ll always be miserable sinners is like telling an alcoholic they’ll not only always be an alcoholic, but they’ll always be drunk too. The difference is significant.)
Jesus embraces this same kind of broad, generalized definition of spiritual fitness in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7) where he describes a total life of goodness across a broad variety of circumstances. For Jesus, the people of the Kingdom are not just honest, or kind. They’re honest, kind, perseverant, tolerant, humble, gracious, merciful, etc. They turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, bless those who curse them and show generosity even to their enemies. In fact, they’re such comprehensively good people that they are “the light of the world.” As such, they are literally a blessing to the earth, which make them the fulfillment of the original Abrahamic covenant (Gen 12) and the eschatological hope of Judaism (Isa 2:1-5) as well as the Sermon on the Mount and all the teachings of Jesus’ earliest followers.
Hence, the only way to know if someone is physically fit is to observe as many indicators as possible and infer fitness. One cannot know if someone possesses true physical fitness without observing their performance amid a variety of exercises; running, swimming, climbing, pull-ups, etc. The better one performs in all exercises, the more fit that person is. Poor performance in any area is an indicator of weakness and an opportunity for growth.
The same is true for spiritual fitness. One can only observe as many traits as possible and infer good spiritual formation. Strength in any one area – such as church attendance, faithful giving, volunteerism, etc. – doesn’t indicate good, mature character. Only the demonstration of ethical strength in as many areas as possible is a good test of character. This is why Jesus and Paul both teach us to observe the overall fruit of people’s lives in oder to determine authenticity and maturity (Matt 7:18; Gal 5:22; 1 Tim 3:1-13).
The implications of these observations are critical for spiritual training: a broad definition of spiritual character requires both a broad assessment and a broad training regimen. It is simply inadequate to limit spiritual training to a few religious activities such as reading the bible, petitionary prayer, tithing, and congregational singing. This would be akin limiting an athlete to only three or four exercises and expecting them to become comprehensively fit. Our physiology just doesn’t work that way.
Neither does our spirituality.
Moreover, limiting spiritual formation to a sequestered set of religious practices simply perpetuates the false dualism of spirit vs. body and the fragmented modern worldview of the sacred vs. the secular. As we’ve observed, all of life is worship – therefore, all realms of life must be seen as the training ground of the spirit. In fact, the broader the training the better the overall fitness.
Advantages of the Fitness Model
There are several advantages understanding the Christian life in terms of the physical training metaphor. First and foremost, it’s thoroughly Biblical. Jesus and Paul both taught a spirituality that is deeply rooted in tangibly observable character development, and Paul directly correlates this character development by analogy to physical training. Moreover, there appear to be several correlations between the dynamics of spiritual training and physical training, including method and purpose.
Second, this model is conducive to a lifelong perspective. Everybody understands that remaining physically fit requires ongoing, lifelong training. One of the weaknesses of the modern church approach is that discipleship programs are often short-term, classroom-oriented, and event-focused – leading to a course-completion attitude toward discipleship: that is, once the class has been completed, the discipleship training is done. By contrast, genuine spiritual training requires a lifelong commitment to self-discipline, one of the significant points Paul is making in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Research, too, indicates that a posture of lifelong learning is critical for leaders to minister successfully through the end of their lives (Clinton 1994). Certainly the same must be true not just of leaders, but of all believers.
Third, “discipleship as fitness” is conducive to creating a community of radical commitment. Everyone understands that the kind of training which leads to physical fitness is intensive and costly – which is why most people never try, and those that do mostly don’t. Christian discipleship is no less costly. As G.K. Chesterton pointed out,
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.”
A church built on the principle of lifelong spiritual training would likely attract the highly motivated and quickly eliminate the unmotivated. If, as I’ve claimed, one of the problems in Church today is the masses of people who are uncommitted to discipleship, yet consume most of the resources (i.e. the 80%), then a truly “missional” church based on the great commission must be willing to regularly eliminate of the unmotivated.
Jesus did this all the time: he eliminated the unmotivated by teaching in parables (Mk 4:12), by having radically high expectations (Lk 9:57-62), and by teaching very hard truths that he knew would drive away those who were following only to have their immediate needs met – which turned out to be the majority (John 6:25-71).
Fourth, this approach also helps dismiss the false dichotomy between belief and behavior, faith and work. Certainly belief is primary: one wouldn’t train rigorously day-after-day without believing that such training was profitable. Indeed, without some measure of belief one won’t even begin. As Dallas Willard asserts,
“The will must be moved by insight into truth and reality. Such insight will evoke emotion appropriate to a new set of the will. That is the order of real inward change” (Willard 2002:248).
In other words, one must genuinely believe in any course of action – at least to some extent – before one will act. Accordingly, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he sent” (John 6:29).
On the other hand, it would be absurd for an unhealthy, sedentary person to proclaim, “All I have to do is believe, and I am an athlete!” Obviously that’s not all they must do, for, although belief is primary it is not fulfilled without the body. As Glen Stassen points out, “Every successful athlete knows it takes major sacrifice and serious discipline to achieve success” (Stassen 2006: 187). One must follow through on beliefs by taking intentional action in order to realize the ideas, dreams, and goals to which one aspires. Everyone in the world, in every vocation, sport, or field of study seems to understand this truth except certain branches of Christianity who continue to insist that God will do all our work for us if we only profess the right belief.
Finally, utilizing a training metaphor creates an opportunity to embrace external measures of progress. Again, with fitness training one would naturally expect effective training methods to yield observable increases in performance. Likewise, Paul testified to King Agrippa,
“First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20).
No wonder throughout his epistles Paul – like Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount – explicitly identifies the characteristics of righteous and sinful behavior (Romans Ch 1 & 12-15; 1 Cor 5-12; Gal 5-6; Eph 4-6; Col 3-4; 1 Thess 4; 1 Tim 5; 2 Tim 2-3; Tit 2-3). Athlete’s in training need performance benchmarks in order to be sure their training is effective. This is part of “praxis” – action with reflection, or “learning by doing.” Likewise, disciples of Jesus are grateful for the indicators that help them assess the effectiveness of their own training in Godliness.
