In Part 1 of “Christian Spiritual Formation in the Local Church,” we reflected on some of Dallas’s final words about spiritual formation in the local congregation. Dallas believed that we were coming into a time “when many churches and Christians who are in leadership positions will be able to say it’s all about discipleship and transformation into Christlikeness.”
In Part 2 of this series, we posed two questions to five Christian leaders who have thought deeply about formation in the local congregation. We heard from Ruth Haley Barton (The Transforming Center), Diane J. Chandler (Regent Divinity School), Siang Yang Tan (Fuller Theological Seminary), Judy Ten Elshof (Talbot School of Theology), and James C. Wilhoit (Wheaton College).
For Part 3, we posed two more questions to these leaders: (1) What is your sense of how the local church is doing when it comes to facilitating spiritual formation? And (2) What do you think are the biggest obstacles to spiritual formation in the local church?
Read their insightful responses here.