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How Spiritual Disciplines Work: Repetition and Witnessing

A Review of the Nature of Spiritual Disciplines

In part one of this series, I clarified the nature of a spiritual discipline and explained how spiritual disciplines, construed as training exercises analogous to the process of getting good at golf, help to facilitate growth in the good life. I defined a Christian spiritual discipline in this way:

A Christian spiritual discipline is a repeated bodily practice, done over and over again, in dependence on the Holy Spirit and under the direction of Jesus and other wise teachers in His Way, to enable one to get good at certain things in life that one cannot learn to do by direct effort.

The sad thing is that we know what it takes to excel at golf or some other specific activity, but we don't know that repeated bodily practice leads to being good at life, as a whole.

Long ago, Plato (circa 428-348 BC) wisely noted: "There is no question which a man of any sense could take more seriously than … what kind of life one should live" (Gorgias 500 c). Elsewhere Plato observed that it would be a tragedy if a person was merely satisfied with a life of good health, wealth, great looks, and a lot of ease and pleasure while, at the same time, ignoring the importance of cultivating virtue and character.¹

Along similar lines and with characteristic insight, Jesus of Nazareth asked, "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?" (Matthew 16:26, NASB). In other words, what's the point of excelling at basketball, accounting or anything else if we fail to become the flourishing people we were made to be, both now and forever.

A Menu of Spiritual Disciplines

But the renewed interest in spiritual disciplines is changing all this. People are coming to see that repeated bodily practice in the form of spiritual exercises/disciplines is at the heart of spiritual transformation. Just as poor golfing habits reside in specific body parts — for example, the wrists — so sinful habits often reside in specific body parts — for example, anxiety in the chest or shoulders, gossip in the tongue, and lust in the eyes and other areas. A spiritual discipline is a repetitive practice that targets one of these areas in order to replace bad habits with good ones while being dependent on the Spirit of the living God.

Some spiritual disciplines, for example, the practice of journaling (the habit of writing down one's prayers to God, one's daily experiences of answered prayer, good and bad events, and so forth), are mere means to an end (learning to remember answers to prayer, learning to concentrate on incidental daily events as occasions that have spiritual significance, learning to talk deliberately and with emotion to God).

Other disciplines are both a means to an end and intrinsically valuable. For example, when one develops the habit of expressing kindness to others, one can learn to be less self-centered. Not only is this a means to an end (i.e., spiritual growth), but this habit has intrinsic value as well.

Dallas Willard points out that there are two categories of spiritual disciplines: those of abstinence/detachment and those of engagement.² This list is not exhaustive, but it does contain most of the classical disciplines:

Disciplines of Abstinence: solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, sacrifice (doing good deeds without letting others know you have done them)

Disciplines of Engagement: study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, submission

In disciplines of abstinence, we unhook, detach, abstain for a period of time and to varying degrees from the satisfaction of normal, appropriate desires — food, sleep, companionship, sex, music, comfort, financial security, recognition, and so forth. These disciplines help us address sins of commission. In general, it is not a good idea to detach from something without filling the resulting void with an attachment to something positive. Thus, disciplines of engagement go hand in hand with those of detachment, helping us to address sins of omission.

It is crucial to understand that in the biblical and, more generally, the classical understanding of becoming a virtuous person, the formation of a good character essentially requires repeated employment of bodily practices relevant to the development of character.

The Practice of Witnessing

In addition to classic examples of disciplines such as those listed above, any repeated practice that is fruitful for becoming Christ-like is legitimately called a spiritual discipline and, thus, the list of such disciplines is endless. The repeated practice of evangelistic witnessing is a good example of a "non-classic" discipline.

Several years ago, I debated one of the world's leading intellectual atheists in front of a packed auditorium at a university campus. The courage to do this came not only from depending on Christ in that moment, but also from the spiritual discipline of witnessing.

Years earlier, I was scared to death to share my faith with anyone. What was I to do to become a calm, courageous witness for Christ? Of course, I read books on evangelism and tried to stay motivated through good music, worship and fellowship with other nurturing Christians. But if the thesis of this article is correct, then that would never have been enough. Transformation as a confident, skillful evangelist could come only if I practiced the discipline of witnessing over and over again.

I began with learning the contents of an evangelistic booklet. I also memorized a brief personal testimony, as well as a way to introduce myself to others and a way to excuse myself from conversation if needed.

I repeatedly practiced using the booklet and giving my testimony in front of the mirror. Then I practiced my delivery over and over again with a Christian friend. Subsequently, I went witnessing about fifty times with someone more experienced and, gradually, I began to do most of the talking. Finally, I started taking novices with me and, eventually, repeated a similar process for giving an evangelistic talk to crowds.

By the time I debated the atheist in that auditorium, I had shared my faith hundreds of times. In all, I have done about twenty debates on different subjects, and while my ministry is now taking a different direction, I learned to evangelize by the spiritual discipline of repeated witnessing and testifying to my experience with Christ.

If you want to make it your aim to grow in the courage to stand up for your faith in intimidating situations — including sharing the gospel with unbelievers — you need to learn why you believe what you believe (see 1 Peter 3:15). This is why most of my previous articles have focused on apologetical topics. But this is not enough.

You need to practice taking a stand and sharing your faith in increasingly more daunting situations. Just as one moves from simple golf swings to difficult golf swings, so one should develop courage in the same way.

Start with situations that are mildly intimidating, for example, by simply identifying yourself as a Christian to someone who is not. And once you learn to be comfortable with that, move on to practicing slightly more difficult tasks.

Be patient with yourself — don't force yourself to do something that is so far outside your safety zone where you'll get discouraged and stop making progress.

On the other hand, continue to stretch yourself. As you do, remember that you are approaching this area of life as a spiritual discipline. This means that, at each level of courageousness, you should practice it over and over again until it becomes a habit. Once it does, move on to the next level and repeat.

C O F F E E  S H O P

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How has repetition helped you in achieving spiritual discipline?

Join the discussion!

Finally, remember that Jesus is our coach and He said that He would be with us always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).³

What's Next

Because Americans tend to move at breakneck speed, which often involves a great amount of noise, I will spend my next article discussing the importance of solitude and silence as spiritual disciplines.