March 4, 2002

Community forms character, CLC says
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___SAN ANTONIO--Christian character forms in community, not in isolation, speakers at the annual Texas Baptist Christian Life Conference said.
___"Christian Character" was the focus of the annual statewide conference at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio. The Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission sponsored the event.
___The church at its best reveals the character of Christ. And through the church, the Holy Spirit shapes followers of Christ into his image, said Charles Johnson, pastor of the host church.
___"The church of Jesus is the presence of Christ in the world," he explained. "In some ways, the church may be as much of Jesus as we will ever know."
___God builds character in the lives of his people through the disciple-making work of the church, he said, refuting the "false notion" that discipleship is "up to us as individuals." Rather, he said, "the church is the entity that shapes us into the form and character of Jesus Christ. We are made disciples by other disciples."
___Johnson maintained that "99 percent of what we call discipleship in the church today is nothing but self-help and self-improvement." True discipleship, in contrast, builds up the church as the body of Christ.
___Salvation in the full sense--not only conversion, but also growth into the image of Christ--requires the support and nurture of a faith community, Johnson said.
___The church shapes Christian character, he said,through worship, prayer, Scripture, baptism and ministry.
___Rather than allowing Christians to become "Bible study junkies" who spend all their time accumulating knowledge, the church should involve believers in doing the kinds of things Jesus did, he advocated. "If we took Christian character formation as seriously as the military takes character formation, the world would be changed."
___Instead of just imparting information, the church must focus on character formation, said Phil Kenneson, associate professor of theology and philosophy at Milligan College in east Tennessee.
___The role of the church is to "embody the gospel" rather than just teach propositional truth, Kenneson said. "In following Jesus, the church is called to bear embodied witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ."
___Christians develop healing virtues of love and wisdom--as opposed to deadly vices such as pride and lust--as they grow in spiritual maturity, according to Don Murdock, executive director of Laity Lodge near Kerrville. And believers learn to recognize these virtues in life together.
___"What does well-formed Christian maturity look like? We learn the most about the Christ life from one another. Becoming well-formed in Christ is relational," Murdock said.
___Christian formation is "more about apprenticeship than about information," added Michael Cartwright, chairman of the philosophy and religion department at the University of Indianapolis.
___Cartwright derided a "McDonald's" approach to discipleship that promises quick and easy shortcuts to character formation.
___"People are not formed in faith apart from the congregation and the community of faith," he said.
___Families also have a vital role in shaping character, but no family can do it alone, said Charles Pinches, professor of theology at the University of Scranton.
___He declared families need a community of faith to keep their focus from turning inward.
___"Affection for our children is killing both them and us," he said. "When we come to believe our children are the most important things in our lives, that is idolatry. Proper love points children to something beyond themselves."
___Jonathan Wilson, professor of religious studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., echoed that theme. He explored character formation in the Old Testament wisdom books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job.
___"The home is set within the larger context of Yahweh's people--the community and the people of God," Wilson said. "We cannot expect the home to do it all."
___By the same token, Christians should not expect public schools to take full responsibility for forming character, said Derek Davis, director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University. "Public schools are a repository for common values, not Christian values," he said.
___Families and churches, not state-sponsored schools, should impart religious values, he added. "Character formation is very much a shared project."
___

Get printer-friendly version of this story


Send this story to a friend

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook