Form Faith

How is Faith Formed?

In true Lutheran understanding, friends, parents, and teachers can not shape or form faith in others. Only God can. Often, God surprises us, nudging, shaping, freeing, loving, and confronting us. It is God who calls, gathers, and sustains us as we discover God’s love made known through Jesus Christ.

Through effective Christian education we can partner with God to provide the space and the place for the Holy Spirit to inspire maturing disciples to a deeper appreciation and understanding of the faith planted in them. We are not to be passive spectators of God.

Instead, Jesus commands “Go and make disciples. . .” There is an urgency in Jesus’ parting words to his first century disciples that continues to be the guiding mandate of Jesus’ 21st century disciples! Our commission remains keeping Jesus’ last command among the church’s first and primary orders of business!

It is not without significance that the word “disciple” occurs 269 times in the New Testament. The word “member” never appears once. In many of our churches we have it backwards. The task of the church is not to make members, but disciples! The word disciple means a “learner,” but Jesus infused into that word a wealth of profound meaning. When Jesus, and later Paul, used this word it meant a leaner or pupil who accepts the teaching of Christ, not only in belief but also in lifestyle.

By the grace of God, faith is being formed and re-formed throughout our life. Life-long learning has long been one way to talk about Christian education from a Lutheran perspective. Grounded in baptism and nurtured over time, this kind of learning finds its best expression in a balance between the sharing of faith content and the encouragement to live a lifestyle that is Christ’s style.

What does it mean to disciple children, youth and adults in this day and time? For many ELCA congregations it means passing on more than knowledge and content. It means inviting people to live, practice, and share their faith 365 days a year, 7 days a week, and 24 hours a day.