WHY IT WORKS (AS BEST AS I CAN TELL)

What I piece together from Richard and Dallas is that spiritual growth happens within. And it happens when we create space for God through spiritual exercises. Any time people engage in practices that allow space for God to interact with them, spiritual growth is apt to happen. And I also learned, mainly through Dallas, that we are shaped primarily by our thoughts, or what is happening in our minds. When Dallas would speak of God as a good and loving and joyful being, I discovered that he was telling me a new story. That is when the role of narratives emerged. Finally, I saw first hand the importance of community, how we are shaped by the people around us, for good or for ill.

What was often missing in formation curriculum was the reality that Christian formation happens only when the Holy Spirit is allowed to reach us through exercises, shape our narratives and speak to us through others. At that point the “Smith Triangle” was complete. But there was one missing piece that came about in my final meeting with Dallas in 2005. Both Dallas and Richard had taught me that the spiritual disciplines did not merit anything with God but were means of “placing ourselves before God so that he could transform us” (Foster). What I had been working on was how God used each discipline to shape us. That is when I came across the idea that the disciplines were “therapeutic.” The disciplines, I was coming to understand, often worked like medicine: certain practices impacted specific areas of our soul.

I ran this by a few people, and the reaction was negative. One person said to me, “That sounds New Age. You cannot talk about the disciplines as therapeutic. No one believes that.” I was deterred, but I still determined to pursue it because I had seen it in the field-testing. I knew that, for example, people who were anxious found healing in prayer, or people who struggled with negativity would benefit from practicing gratitude. So in 2005 I asked Dallas, face to face, what he thought about this. He said, “That is absolutely right.” He then explained that while my thesis was correct, many of the disciplines had a more comprehensive healing effect. Think, for example, of when a person has aches and pains in many parts of their body, and ibuprofen manages to take the pain away from not just the neck but also the back.

The deal was sealed when I told Dallas, “I am having trouble finding a spiritual exercise that is helpful for people who struggle with anger.” Without missing a beat he said, “Sabbath.” He went on to explain how sabbath keeping helps people let go of control—a key to anger—and how it can and should lead to joy—a sure bulwark against anger. Though I’m not certain, I believe this book and the others in the series were the first formation books to connect specific exercises with specific soul maladies.

THE DEEPER MAGIC: WHAT THE
AUTHOR DID NOT KNOW

A reader may be thinking at this point, This author is really proud of how clever he is in creating this book. I understand why. Once when I was in England, not long after this book had come out, a man who is a Christian leader asked me, “So, Jim, what do you expect will happen as a result of this book and the ones that follow?” I said, “I think they will have a big impact on many people and churches, and may even shape the way we teach formation and discipleship.” His jaw dropped with astonishment that I would say such a thing. I quickly remembered that in Britain it is bad form to say anything positive about oneself or one’s work. I suppose that is true everywhere.

But I did not, and do not, apologize for my prediction, precisely because there was no arrogance in my heart. I had seen firsthand how many people had been transformed by engaging in the narratives and practices within a community. I also knew that, as Gamaliel said to his Pharisee friends of the early Christian movement, “if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them” (Acts 5:38-39). I knew that the effect it had on people was most certainly from God and not “of human origin.”

But there was something I did not know or plan—and it is the key to why the books have been helpful to people. It has to do with attachment theory. Attachment theory is built on the idea that all people need to know two things in order to be secure: they need to be seen (as significant for who they are, not what they do), and they need to be safe. At the core of the Apprentice Series are two power narratives: “I am one in whom Christ dwells and delights, and I live in the strong and unshakeable kingdom of God.” Both of those statements came, as it were, out of thin air while I was teaching this material. And both of those statements are filled with power, the power to transform, because they meet both of the attachment needs: to be seen as significant for who I am, not what I do (I am one in whom Christ dwells and delights), and to be safe (I live in the strong and unshakeable kingdom of God).

At the Apprentice Institute we have a program called The Apprentice Experience. It is a two-year adult discipleship certificate program that is built on the teaching and practice of the Apprentice Series. Over one hundred people have been through the program, and it is clear that those two power narratives are central to the transformation of people. Those narratives, coupled with the practice of memorizing Colossians 3:1-17, deepen one’s sense that I am significant and I am safe. Once those are in place, a person is free to quit earning and start living life with a good and beautiful God.

A PERFECT STORY

There is a saying we often use to explain when something extraordinary happens. We call it “the perfect storm.” Many years ago in Wichita, we had a devastating ice storm. It happened because we had slow and steady rainfall over a long period of time, and the temperature dropped just slowly enough to allow ice to form and build on the trees. Around midnight we began hearing what sounded like either thunder or a shot gun being fired. All around the city, tree branches were crashing to the ground under the weight of the ice on their branches. Soon power lines were coming down, and many on our block were left without power for days. None of this would have happened if all of the conditions had not come together in the right way at the right time.

I like to think of this book not as a perfect storm but as a perfect story. God began telling that story long ago in the lives of great men like Richard Foster and Dallas Willard. Then God brought an eager but unknown young man (me) into the story, and over many decades, with lots of trial and error, he combined the elements of narrative, exercises and community—all under the leading of the Holy Spirit—to create a method that, if practiced, could lead to transformation. No one of these elements alone could have accomplished this task. It required a unique coming together, at the right time, in the right way, to create something good and beautiful and true. In short, it had to be something not of human origin but of God.

James Bryan Smith

Friends University

March 2019