第十三单元 ：地方教会的灵命塑造
教会最关键的角色和事奉
i。就是光明儿女的灵命塑造（心灵的重塑）
Church around us, what would they do better to omit, and what do they need more of ?
A reasonable response might be that these local congregations would be entirely devoted to the spiritual formation of those in attendance - to the “renovation of the heart”, as we have explained it here.. （355页、1-2段）
ii。这是圣经和历世历代属基督子民的样式，是可行的、也曾经做到过。
It has been done and can be done now, if we turn our efforts under God in the right direction. and that direction would be one that makes spiritual formation in Christlikeness the exclusive primary goal of the local congregation. This is what one would naturally expect after having read what Paul says - and indeed, after having read what Jesus sent his world revolutionaries out to do (Matthew 28:18-20). （337页、4段）
2. 现今地方教会未能成为世界之光的一个原因 ：分心 （distraction) ／“瓦器”的陷阱
Cause of current situation : The Distraction ／Author called “Vessel Trap”
i。分心
What characterises most of our local congregations, whether big or little in size, is simple distraction. The oft-noted “failures” of many kinds that show up within them and around them are not the fundamental problem of church life today. They are much more a result than a cause. （338页、4段）
ii。圣经对于许多教会里次要的事情是带着沉默无言（的态度）
“While the New Testament speaks often about churches, it is surprisingly silent about many matters that we associate with church structure and life. … Those who strive to be New Testament churches must seek to live its principles and absolutes, not reproduce the details. - Leith Anderson. （338页、6段）
iii。我们只要恰当照顾到主要事项，非主要的事项就能迎刃而解了。
Those matters are not primary and will take care of themselves with little attention whenever what is primary is appropriately cared for. Pay attention to the “Principles and absolutes” of the New Testament church and , one might suppose, everything else will fall into place. （339页、2段）
iv。不要把“瓦器”当着“宝贝” Not mistaken the vessel for the treasure.
如传统、宗派、组织等的“瓦器”
“Vessel” and “Treasure” apply to our local congregations, their traditions, and their higher level groupings called “denominations” （340页、4段）
v。这些“瓦器”性质的问题都不会使人活得像基督的样式
I am not saying that such things are of no importance, though for some of them it is a close call. I am saying two things: One is that they are not the starting points of the essential and foundational matters. Secondly, if you make them out to be essential or even very important - even if you do so only practically, in the sense of spending most of your time on them - the local congregation will make little or no progress in terms of the spiritual formation of those in regular attendance. …（341页，3段）
vi。太看重“瓦器”，反而产生出“刻薄和愤怒” 的基督徒
Standing on these things (vessel) as essential is what produces mean and angry Christians.（342页，2段） Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right (always in terms of their beloved vessel, or traditions) than it is to be Christlike. In fact, being right licenses you to be mean, and indeed, requires you to be mean - righteously mean, of course. … They deserve nothing better. （343页、3段）
vii。另一个问题，就是我们专注预备人死后上天堂，而不是把天堂带到人中间
Much of the Western church, is that it takes as its basic goal to get as many people as possible ready to die and go to heaven. It aims to get people into heaven rather than to get heaven not people. （344页、1段） ..
It creates groups of people who may be ready to die, but clearly are not ready to live. （344页、2段）
The way to get as many people into heaven as you can is to get heaven into as many people as you can - that is, to follow the path of genuine spiritual transformation of full-throttle discipleship to Jesus Christ. （344页、3段）
3. 如何避免“瓦器”的陷阱 Avoid Vessel Trap
i。我们不能没有瓦器，但是可以避免瓦器的陷阱
Certainly we can’t avoid having vessels. And we must be tender to them, for that is a part of what it is to be human and finite. Even Jesus had his vessel. … and so we can avoid making the vessel the treasure. We can identify the treasure without reference to any vessel, though the treasure will always have a vessel. （345页、1-2段）
ii。活出大使命：神为教会定下的属灵塑造计划：
Focus upon application of Matthew 28:18-20. This is God’s plan for the growth and prospering of local congregations as well as of the church at large. It is his plan for spiritual formation in the local congregation.
A. Making disciples - that is, apprentices, of Jesus.
B. Immersing the apprentices at all levels of growth in the Trinitarian presence.
C. Transforming disciples inwardly, in such a way that doing the words and deeds of Christ is not the focus but is the natural outcome or side effect. （346页、2-5段）
A. Stage 1 : Making Disciples
i. 学习信靠和与主同在
Most fundamental, of course, is to be clear on what an apprentice of Jesus is. It is to be one of those who have trusted Jesus with their whole life, so far as they understand it. Because they have done so they want to learn everything he has to teach them about life in the kingdom of God now and forever, and they are constantly with him to learn this. （347页、2段）
ii。在生活里做主门徒的两个面向：“宗教”和“非宗教”层面
Two different though inseparable aspects of discipleship need to be singled out.
The first is what we might, in misleading language, describe as the specifically religious aspect. Here we are learning to understand and do the things Jesus gave us in specific commandments and teachings.（347页、4段）
The second aspect of discipleship concerns all the details of what, for lack of a better term, we call our “secular.” our “non-churchy” life. How do we run a business ? ..raise a family ? .. get along with neighbours, participate in government,.. engage in cultural life of your society ? （348页、2段）
iii。生命的所有向度都转化
The process of spiritual formation in Christlikeness is a process through which all the dimensions of our life are transformed as they increasingly take on the character of our Teacher. That process is the natural condition of the disciple of Jesus, and the natural outcome is that we will increasingly do what he says. （349页、3段）
iv。做主门徒关系到舍弃生命。
Becoming a disciple is a matter of giving up your life as you have understood it to that point. Jesus made this starkly clear in Luke 14 and elsewhere. And without that “giving up”, you cannot be his disciple, because you will still think you are in charge and just in need of a little help from Jesus for your project of a successful life. But our idea of a “successful life” is precisely our problem. （350页、4段）
v。从教会里现有的人开始－內展
primary candidates for discipleship are the people who are already there.
I gently suggest, a serious error to make “outreach” a primary goal of the local congregation, and especially so when those who are already”with us” have not become clear-headed and devoted apprentices of Jesus, and are not, for the most part, solidly progressing along the path. （352页、2-3段）
B. Stage 2 : Growth in Knowledge
i。三位一体神的教导
Single major component of a local congregation’s prospering in spiritual formation : the teaching God - Father, Son , and Holy Spirit - in the midst. It is not human work, though it constantly is in interaction with the human work of stage three. The presence of God in the midst is the only sure mark of the true eccelsia. （354页、2段）
ii。成为神生命和能力大大彰显的地方
a place where divine life and power is manifestly present to glorify God and meet the needs of repentant human beings. This would imply an atmosphere of honesty, openness, indiscriminate acceptance of all, supernatural caring, with utter admiration for and confidence in Jesus. （355页、3段）
iii。不以表现来衡量 Eliminating performance
Performance is where we try to make an impression rather than just be what we are. The element of performance would be absent in the Trinitarian gathering. （355页、4段）
C. Stage 3 : Transform Inwardly
i。促进信徒在内在生命的转化确立意向，安排进程
Third stage in God’s plan for the growth and prospering of local congregations, as well as of the church at large, is intending and arranging for the inner transformation of disciples. … They are means to be implemented by human action. This is what Jesus described as teaching the disciplines to do all he commanded... the doing of what he commanded is not the focus of our activities at this point. Rather, it is the “natural” outcome or side effect. （357页、3段）
ii。这是地方教会一直专注的目标
The third stage of the divine plan, and it should be the local congregation’s constant preoccupation.
iii。为什么专注“属灵塑造”？因为我们不能凭立志来选择相信 和选择不一样的感觉
Belief and feeling cannot be changed by choice.
We can choose to take in the Word of God, and when we do that, beliefs and feelings will be steadily pulled in a godly direction. One of the worst mistakes that can be made in practical ministry is to think that people can choose to believe and feel differently. Following that, we will mistakenly try to generate faith by going through the will - possibly trying to move the will by playing on emotion. （358页、2-3段）
iv。正确的次序是：心灵的重塑
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. （358页、3段）
We never choose to believe, and we must not try to get ourselves or others to choose to choose to believe. That is God’s work. We can try to understand and try to help others to understand. And beyond that - God must work. （359页、3段）
4. 教会和信徒可以做的一些改变
i。生活里抽出时间操练属灵生命的必要性
Intensive training away from “ordinary life” is exactly what Jesus did in the spiritual formation （360页、3段）
ii。单单开正常教会崇拜和集会，是不足够的。
One of the greatest contemporary barriers to meaningful spiritual formation in Christlikeness is overconfidence in the spiritual efficacy of “regular church services,” of whatever kind they may be. Though they are vital, they are not enough. It is that simple. （360页、4段）
iii。给教会的挑战
Two steps to “teach other to do everything Jesus said in church“ :
Openly expect the apprentices to learn to do the various things that Jesus taught us to do.
Announce that you teach people to do the things that Jesus said to do.
Publicise and run training programs designed to develop specific points of the character of Christ as given in the New Testament. Put the whole weight of the staff and the congregation back of this. (361-361页）
Can this be our motto : － “We teach people in such a way they do everything Jesus said to do” －
跋 Postlude
总结如下：
心灵重生的中心：耶稣基督
In this book I have tried to clearly present the path of spiritual formation, the authentic formation of the human person, as seen in the people of Jesus Christ through the ages. I have tried to gently ignore the many vessels of spiritual formation that littler the historical and contemporary landscapes and concentrate on the treasure; Jesus Christ himself. （367页、2段）
心灵重塑的过程：
The path of renovation of the heart is therefore one in which the revitalised will takes grace - provided measures to change the content of the thought life, the dominant feeling tones, what the body is ready to do, the prevailing social atmosphere, and the deep currents of the soul. These all are to be progressively transformed toward the character they each have in Jesus Christ. This is what we call “putting on the character of Chirst” - or in Paul’s language, “putting off the old man and putting on the new man.” and as it transpires, the individual or group more and more effectively acts for the good things they intend; and the will itself evermore broadens and deepens its devotion to good and the God of the good. （367页、4段）
心灵重塑的态度：
We must take the particular things that slow us down and the sins that entangle us, and put them aside in a sensible, methodical way…We remove their roots from our minds, feelings, and so forth. We are neither hysterical nor hopeless about them. We find out what needs to be done and how to do it, and then we act. We know God will help us with every problem as we take appropriate steps. …We take the long view of the race that is set before us. We don’t try to accomplish everything at once, and we don’t force things. If we don’t immediately succeed in removing a weight or a sin, we just keep running - steadily, patiently - while we find out how it can be removed in God’s way. （368页、3段－367页、1段）
