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Tuesday, October 20, 2015

The 5 Purposes of CBCGL


Convert them – Missions 宣教[1]
 Build them up –  Discipleship 门训[2]
 Commission them – Ministry 服事[3]
 Glorify God – Worship 敬拜[4]
 Love one another – Fellowship 团契[5]


[1] Convert people through evangelism and missions: to extend the Kingdom of God by advancing the gospel through evangelism in our communities and through missionary endeavors throughout the world. (Ac 1:8; 2Co 5:20; Mt 28:18-20; 2Pe 3:9)
[2] Build the church through spiritual formation: to grow in the knowledge and application of God’s Word in order to develop God’s people toward full Christian maturity and to train them for effective ministry. (Eph 4:11-13; 2Ti 2:2; 1Ti 3:15)
[3] Commission members through ministry and service: to demonstrate the love of Christ to those in our church, in our communities, and in the world. (Mt 25:34-40; Gal 5:13; 2Co 9:11-12; Ro 12:4-8; Eph 4:12)
[4] Glorify God through worship and prayer: to participate in worship as a corporate expression of our passion for the supremacy of God in all things to the joy of all peoples; and to seek that God’s will be done, through prayer. (Jn 4:24; Rev 4:8-11; Eph 2:21; Mk 11:17) 

[5] Love one another through community fellowship: to love and care for one another as the family of God by encouraging, supporting and praying for each other. (Ac 2:44-47; Heb 10:23-25; Jn 13:34-35; Eph 3:15)

Examining Richard Lovelace’s Model of Continuous Renewal in Dallas Willard’s Corpus on Spiritual Transformation


Chow 63B
SF623 Research Paper (This is one of my last papers for the M.Div. program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminar, submitted to Dr. Garth M. Rosell in partial fulfillment of the course on Movements of Spiritual Awakening. Sola Dei Gloria.)





Introduction of Lovelace’s Model of Continuous Renewal
In Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal, Dr. Richard Lovelace identifies two biblical models of renewals that follow the pattern of the Old and New Testaments. Under the Old Covenant, the cyclical renewal is an act of sovereign mercy and a divine response to the inarticulate heart cry of defeated Israel as the seven cycles in Judges shown, “Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.” (Judges 2:18). Under the New Covenant, the continuous renewal is conceivable because Christians are now under the leadership of a king who is immortal and invincible as Paul wrote, “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.” (2 Corinthians 2:14) Lovelace points out that the two models of revival are in reality only one, “the expanding of God’s kingdom in a liberating warfare against the forces of darkness in which the most important battleground is the hearts of men.”[1]
 Lovelace believes that a careful examination of the bases for the cyclical and continuous patterns will uncover the elements of renewal which “sustain the church during its periods of constant growth and which help restore it when it has fallen indo decline”.[2] In other words, he has found the “common denominators,” the distinguishing marks that seem to be present every time the Holy Spirit brings dramatic spiritual revival within the church. In his outline of the essential elements of renewal[3], he first discusses the Preconditions of Renewal: Preparation for the Gospel (an awareness of the holiness of God and an awareness of the depths of sin). He then develops the Primary Elements of Renewal: Depth Presentation of the Gospel (Justification, Sanctification, The Indwelling Spirit, and Authority in Spiritual Conflict in Christ). Lastly, he suggests the Secondary Elements of Renewal: Outworking of the Gospel in the Church’s Life (Mission, Prayer, Community, Disenculturation, and Theological Integration). With these essential elements of renewal in mind, the rest of this paper will examine Lovelace’s model of continuous renewal in Dallas Willard’s corpus on spiritual transformation.
Background of Dallas Willard’s Corpus
When Dallas Willard finished writing The Divine Conspiracy, he considers that as a completion of a trilogy on the spiritual life of Christians. He said in his first book, “In Search of Guidance, I attempted to make real and clear the intimate quality of life with him as ‘a conversational relationship with God’.”[4] He continued the quest because “that relationship is not something that automatically happens, and we do not receive it by passive infusion. So the second book, The Spirit of the Disciplines, explains how disciples or students of Jesus can effectively interact with the grace and spirit of God to access fully the provisions and character intended for us in the gift of eternal life.”[5] But later on he added two more books to his corpus to make his twenty-five year research project of spiritual transformation into five books, roughly 1,500 pages.
Willard’s View on the Preconditions of Continuous Renewal: Awareness of God’s Holiness and Human’s Depth of Sin
            According to Lovelace, “The various elements of renewal are dimensions of our union with Christ. But our first coming to Christ and the strength of our expression of new life in him are dependent on our accurate apprehension of our own need and of the character of the true God.”[6] To him, acceptance of Christ and appropriation of every element in redemption is conditional on awareness of the holiness of God and the conviction of the depth of our sin. Steve Porter acknowledges that Willard has demonstrated strong awareness of God’s holiness in his writings, and he saw him as a revival figure in the evangelical cycle that J. I. Packer was looking for,  
In the twentieth century, most of the best evangelical brains have been put to work in other fields. The result is that much of our best modern theology (there are exceptions) is superficial about holiness, while modern treatments of holiness often lack the biblical insight, theological depth, and human understanding that are needed in order to do the subject justice. The most distinguished evangelical theologians have not always been the most ardent exponents of holiness, and the most ardent evangelical exponents of holiness have not always been the most reliable or judicious theologians.”[7]  
Willard understands God’s justice in light of his love found in Christ that justice without love will always fall short of what needs to be done as it will never be as good as it should be because “Justice without love will never do justice to justice, nor will ‘love’ without justice ever do justice to love. Indeed, it will not be love at all; for love wills the good of what is loved, and that must include justice where justice is lacking.”[8] 
            Willard has written extensively on love in his later books, the best description is found in the Renovation of the Heart where he says,
“God’s love is what enables ours, through four movements of redemptive love.  This is the first ‘move’ of love … ‘He first loved us’ (1 John 4: 19) …When we receive what is thus clearly given, the revelation of God’s love in Christ, that in turn makes it possible for us to love. Love is awakened in us by him. We feel its call— and first to love Jesus himself, and then God. … This is the second movement in the return to love: ‘We love, because He first loved us.’ But the second movement is inseparable from the third movement: our love of others who love God … love of neighbor as oneself… The fellowship of Christ’s apprentices in kingdom living is a community of love (John 13: 34-35). This is the fourth movement in the process of redeeming love. Here, then, is the full account of the movements of love in our lives: We are loved by God who is love, and in turn we love him, and others through him, who in turn love us through him.[9] 
The second precondition of renewal is an awareness of the depth of sin in one’s own life and community. Willard discusses the nature and effects of sin in Hearing God and it is more fully developed in Renovation of the Heart and The Spirits of the Disciplines. Willard presents sin as the disconnection of human life from the life of God that results in a “pervasive distortion and disruption of human existence from the top down… The evil that we do in our present condition is a reflection of a weakness caused by spiritual starvation”.[10] Willard picks up later and says that the body, or flesh, is not inherently evil but becomes bent away from dependence on God and “serves as primary host for sin… In this condition the flesh opposes the spirit, does that which is evil, and must be crucified to restrain it (Gal. 5:16, 19f)”.[11] Thus he aware the depth of sin as embodied selves, humans become habituated in “automatic tendencies” to live life on their own, apart from the empowering, interactive relationship with God. In terms of dealing with sin in the community Willard teaches, “Confession is a discipline that functions within fellowship. In it we let trusted others know our deepest weaknesses and failures… we let some friends in Christ know who we really are, not holding back anything important but, ideally, allowing complete transparency. We lay down the burden of hiding and pretending, which normally takes up such a dreadful amount of human energy.”[12] It is true that without confession of sin no deep relationship is possible, and the lack of it in our churches today explains that our fellowship is superficial and shallow because there is an essential reciprocity between the two disciplines.
Willard’s View on the Primary Elements of Continuous Renewal: Justification, Sanctification, the Indwelling Spirit, and Authority in Spiritual Conflict
            Lovelace argues that the substitutionary atonement is the heart of the gospel[13] because it addresses the heart of the problem of guilt, bondage, and alienation from God.
He said people may come to Christ from loneliness, suffering, purposelessness, but the eventual motivation is to turn from sin and turn to God. He commends that in the New Testament portrayal, justification (the acceptance of believers as righteous in the sight of God through the righteousness of Jesus accounted to them) and sanctification (progress in actual holiness expressed in their lives) are often closely intertwined as if two concepts were identical[14], but in reality they are quite distinct: Justification as perfect righteousness of Christ reckoned to us covering our imperfections like a robe of stainless holiness; Sanctification as the process of removing those imperfections as we are enabled more and more to put off the bondages of sin and put on new life in Christ. He explains that the biblical writers conjoined the two elements not because they were identical but because they are inseparable in our experience and rooted in our union with Christ.[15]
Similarly Willard stresses on the gospel of the kingdom that does not disconnect Christian conversion and justification from sanctification and discipleship. He would say one’s entrance into the rule of God through confidence in Jesus is what happens at conversion (justification) and is precisely what persons grow up into through the sanctifying process of the Spirit (sanctification). Willard believes, “(Jesus’) basic message, ‘Rethink your life in the light of the fact that the kingdom of heavens is now open to all’ (Matt. 4:17 par.), presents the resources needed to live human life as we all automatically sense it should be and naturally leads one to become his student, or apprentice in kingdom living”.[16] Like Bonhoeffer, Willard develops an integration of justification and sanctification under the single rubric of kingdom living, in other word discipleship. It reminds that Jesus’ last command to “make disciples” (Matt. 28:19) is the core mission of the church, while the commitment to teach them to obey all things that Christ commanded is the primary method. Willard illustrates it with a simple example, “The steamship whose machinery is broken may be brought into port and made fast to the dock. She is safe, but not sound. Repairs may last a long time. Christ designs to make us both safe and sound. Justification gives the first—safety; sanctification gives the second—soundness.”[17]
Lovelace is cognizant with the fact that the polarization of either justification or sanctification will lead to its drawbacks, the former into cheap grace and the latter into works merit, legalism, moralism, and Augustinian manner- drawing assurance of acceptable with God based upon one’s sincerity, one’s past experience of conversion, recent religious performance or relative infrequency of breach of conscience through disobedience.[18]
Willard’s specificity on the nature of the person in Renovation of the Heart is a unique integration of sanctification and the theology of anthropology.
“Sanctification in this life will always be a matter of degree, to be sure, but there is a point in genuine spiritual growth before which the term “sanctification” simply does not apply— just as “hot” when applied to a cup of coffee is a matter of degree, but there is a point before which it is not hot, even if in the process of being heated. … So what shall we say about sanctification in summary? It is a consciously chosen and sustained relationship of interaction between the Lord and his apprentice, in which the apprentice is able to do, and routinely does, what he or she knows to be right before God because all aspects of his or her person have been substantially transformed. Sanctification applies primarily to the moral and religious life, but extends in some measure to the prudential and practical life (acting wisely) as well.”[19]
Porter notes, “In many accounts, anthropological terms such as “soul,” “mind,” “flesh,” “image of God,” “spirit,” “will,” “heart,” “character,” etc. are used without settled definitions or distinctions, let alone an account of how the different aspects are interrelated in the transformation process.”[20] With his theological and psychological perspective, Willard sees the delineation of human nature as central to understanding spiritual formation in Christ. To him, Jesus’ revolution of the human person “proceeds by changing people from the inside through ongoing personal relationship to God in Christ and to one another. It is one that changes their ideas, beliefs, feelings, and habits of choice, as well as their bodily tendencies and social relations. It penetrates to the deepest layers of their soul”[21]
Willard affirms sanctification applies primarily to the moral and religious life, but then it must extend to the prudential and practical life, which is acting wisely. He argues that sanctifying is not an experience, though it may be involved; it is not a status, though a status is maintained; it is not an outward form and has no essential connection with outward forms. Instead sanctifying becomes a “track record” and a system of habits, “It comes about through the process of spiritual formation, through which the heart (spirit, will) of the individual and the whole inner life take on the character of Jesus’ inner life.”[22]    Therefore in Willard’s view of sanctification, the transforming dimension of the person has three aspects: the heart, spirit, and will. The “will” refers to the core dimension’s “power to initiate, to create, to bring about what did not exist before”[23]. This is the unforced “yes” or “no” that decides the eventual character of the human person. The “spirit” refers to the core dimension’s “fundamental nature as distinct and independent from physical reality”[24]. The human spirit, like all spirit, is “unbodily, personal power”[25]. And “heart” refers to the core dimension’s “center or core to which every other component of the self owes its proper functioning”[26]. This is due to the fact that the will (heart or spirit) possesses “the power to select what we think on and how intently we will focus on it”[27]. Thus in Willard’s view, the heart/ will/ spirit governs every other aspect of the human self and activity, and as the primary dimension of the person that must be properly aligned with God’s rule. However, it is very important to keep Lovelace’s counsel in mind that the condition of sanctification is not faith plus repentance, but repentant faith. This will guard Christians against the “formidable holiness”[28] that comes through exertion of the will alone as Willard remarks, “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.”[29]
The third primary element of continuous renewal is the indwelling Spirit as shown at the Pentecost and the Great Awakenings. Lovelace affirms supernatural gifts of the Spirit are available in this present era so “the graces and fruits of the Spirit are to be sought more earnestly than spectacular gifts.”[30] However he said, “The typical relationship of believers and the Holy Spirit in today’s church is too often like husband and wife in bad marriage. They live under the same roof, and the husband makes constant use of his wife’s services, but he fails to communicate with her, recognize her presence and celebrate their relationship with her.”[31]
In contrast, Willard’s analysis of the divine-human relationship is the core element of his understanding of Christian transformation. For Willard, the indwelling Spirit and disciples’ relationship is “grounded in the ontology of the person in the sense that the human person was designed or structured by God to exist within a certain kind of relatedness to the Trinity as well as other persons”[32]. In Hearing God, this indwelling relationship is often seen as a conversational relationship, which Willard describes as: “intimate friendship”, “close personal relationship”, “constant divine companionship”, “richly interactive relationship”, “hand- in-hand, conversational walk with God”, “God’s indwelling his people through personal presence and fellowship”, “personal communion”, “loving fellowship with the King”, “a direct and fully self-conscious personal relationship”, and so on[33]. Willard observes the divine-human relationship as encompassing more than conversation, “in the progress of God’s redemptive work communication advances into communion and communion into union. When the progression is complete we can truly say, ‘It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me’ (Gal 2:20)”.[34] For Willard, the indwelling Spirit with disciples is experiential in at least two senses. First, the relationship is experiential in the sense that one can be consciously aware of the communication, communion, and union. And second, the relationship is experiential in that it has a personal impact on the person’s emotional, cognitive, volitional, and embodied existence. Willard says, “God is able to penetrate and intertwine himself within the fibers of the human self in such a way that those who are enveloped in his loving companionship will never be alone”[35].  This picks up Lovelace’s point of the indwelling Spirit and “you are not alone”. The Holy Spirit is a gift from God to all who believe so disciples of Jesus can look to him daily as sanctifier, teacher, guide, giver of assurance, helper in prayer, and as one who directs and empowers. Therefore, growth in holiness is not just an exercise of faith, but a dependent relationship, communion, and union with the indwelling Spirit.
            The last primary element of continuous renewal is Authority in spiritual conflict. In this, Lovelace informs the Christians especially in America that we are engaging in spiritual warfare, and we should know the strategies of Satan just as C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. He points out the tactics of the devil: 1. Temptation– particularly temptation directed toward larger ends that involve whole ways of behaving, which are subchristian (i.e. Ananias and Sapphira), 2. Deception – a liar who “deceived the world” (Rev 12:9), 3. Accusation– the word devil (diabolos) means slanderer who accuses believers continually in the presence of God (Rev 12:10), 4. Possession– a condition in which human victims come almost helplessly under control of alien personalities (Lk 8:26-33), 5. Physical attack– Jesus says of Satan, “a murderer from the beginning” (Jn 8:44), and the devil is called the destroyer (Rev 9:11). Christians who are fighting against these with authority in spiritual conflict promised by Christ in the New Testament will have less anxiety in ourselves and more of a hearing from the world if we believe in and preach the awesome, dangerous, but solid realities taught in Scripture.
            Willard discusses the Authority in spiritual conflict in light of Christians’ growth in knowledge and relationship with God, and that is where we can find the source of authority in Christ’s ministry models, resurrection, and gift of the Spirit,
“How do such Bible stories [about transformation] help? Upon a realistic, critical, adult reading, by those prepared to be honest with their experience, the Bible incisively lays bare the depths and obscurities of the human heart … [I] t is fitted to be the perpetual instrument of the Spirit of God for human transformation…  But the Bible also informs us that there are certain practices— solitude, prayer, fasting, celebration, and so forth— we can undertake, in cooperation with grace, to raise the level of our lives toward godliness.”[36]   
He also teaches that Christians will be spiritually safe in our use of the Bible if we follow a simple rule: “Read with a submissive attitude… Subordinate your desire to find the truth to your desire to do it, to act it out!”[37] However Porter notices, “the problem remains that many Christians do not know these realities and only profess belief in them that leaves them with only willpower or feelings as the means to sustain their spiritual lives.”[38] In his later work Knowing Christ Today, Willard sees knowledge as “essential to faith and to our relationship with God in the spiritual life”[39]. He then describes faith as a “commitment to action, often beyond our natural abilities, based upon knowledge of God and God’s ways[40].  “So here,” Porter continues, “as before, understanding is the basis of care. Willard attempts to show forth the requisite understanding of human knowledge in order to help persons come to have spiritual knowledge.”[41] In this Willard holds that three sources of knowledge: authority, reason, and experience, supplementing each other in providing the appropriate basis on which to know Jesus’ example of life and to come to experience Jesus himself as the ultimate authority in spiritual conflict.
Willard’s View on the Secondary Elements of Continuous Renewal: Mission, Prayer, Community, Disenculturation, and Theological Integration
            The last part here will look at the secondary elements of continuous renewal, which is an outworking of the gospel in the Church’s life and in the world. First of all, continuous renewal brings forth Mission that Christians are following Christ into the world presenting the gospel in proclamation and in social demonstration. Comparing to spiritual transformation and spiritual disciplines, Willard has less to say about the mission of Christians except in Divine Conspiracy, The Great Omission and Renovation of the Hear he sees that making disciples in the kingdom of God is the great commission itself. Willard suggests, “If Jesus were to come today as he did then, he could carry out his mission through most any decent and useful occupation… In other words, if he were come today he could very well do what you do.”[42] In Bill Hull’s article, he entitles a section to recognize Willard as: He Believes that a True Spirituality Begins on the Inside and Cannot Stay Private. He writes,
“What will Christians become? This again strengthens the argument that the secret to fulfillment of the Great Commission is not strategy as much as depth. But God does have a strategy, and it is quite simple. When we become disciples, apprentices--when we take on Christlikeness as a habit—it makes the strategy work. The reason it is not working now is the lack of spiritual animation of the army. It is as if the soldiers are in place, but are distracted by other, mundane matters, so the mission has been for- gotten. The soldiers now think that the important work is to return to head- quarters for very stimulating training and speeches about the mission. It seems all the praise, honor, and money go to the large rallies and speeches, but their leaders do not go to the field. If you want to see them, you will have to go to headquarters. The leaders have not led the troops into the field to activate the mission.”[43]
            Secondly, the continuous renewal needs to be empowered by Prayer that is expressing dependence on the power of his Spirit both individually and corporately. Willard defines prayer as “God's arrangement for a safe power sharing with us in his intention to bless the world through us. In response to prayer we see good accomplished far beyond what we are capable of and in a form suited to the wisdom of God— not just to what we think we know about the situation we are praying for.”[44] Porter notes that the discipline of keeping watch in prayer taught by Willard would have brought about “habitual reliance upon God” which makes “sin dispensable, even uninteresting and revolting . . . Our desires and delights are changed because our actions and attitude are based upon the reality of God’s Kingdom”[45] One of the biblical lessons of prayer Willard expounded is Jesus’ invitation to Peter, James, and John to “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation” (Matt. 24:41). Willard reflects:
The plain meaning of this advice to his sleepy and worried friends was that by engaging in a certain type of action—keeping of vigil combined with prayer—they would be able to attain a level of spiritual responsiveness and power in their lives that would be impossible without it. In this simple but profound episode we find the whole nature and principle of the kind of activity that is a spiritual discipline. Such an activity implants in us, in the embodied personality that is the carrier of our abilities (and disabilities!) a readiness and an ability to interact with God and our surroundings in a way not directly under our control.”[46]
Willard knows that the disciplines themselves do not change believers. Rather, the disciplines make the disciples of Jesus more available to the gracious operation of God by his Spirit and his kingdom that is transformational. Willard explains, “the disciplines have no value in themselves. The aim and substance of spiritual life is not fasting, prayer, hymn singing, frugal living, and so forth. Rather, it is the effective and full enjoyment of active love of God and humankind in all the daily rounds of normal existence where we are placed”[47].   
The third secondary element of continuous renewal is when the community of believers is being in union with his body in Christ. Lovelace says unlike most modern congregations the early Christian church was an integrated community centered around the worship of God and the advancement of his kingdom. It was a commonwealth, devoting everything they were and owned, they worshipped, ate, and were together in constant communication. Their fellowship was continually reinforced by apostolic teaching, corporate prayer, and sacramental worship. Willard sees Christian community very locally because he believes that transformed disciples in the harvest field where we live, work, and play can create communities of justice and peace. The church thinks of community as internal to the church, but he espouses transformed disciples to live in community with the people in real community.  Willard also sees Christian community in an eternal perspective which he describes, “The purpose of God with human history is nothing less than to bring out of it . . . an eternal community of those who were once thought to be just “ordinary human beings.” Because of God’s purposes for it, this community will, in its way, pervade the entire created realm and share in government of it. God’s precreation intention to have that community as a special dwelling place or home will be realized. He will be its prime sustainer and glorious inhabitant.”[48]
            The fourth secondary element of continuous renewal is Disenculturation that helps the church to be freed from cultural blinds. In order word, the church is called to come out to worship a holy God as a holy nation. Destructive enculturation leads the people of God to saturate with godless culture of the surrounding world as we have seen in Judges 2:11-13 while only fullness of Christ’s life and the transformation of our minds by the Spirit can effectively prevent us from conformity to the world (Rom 12:2). Willard affirms that God calls the church to be holy because holiness is a quality of likeness to God just as holy things are consecrated or set apart as resembling God, being inherently sacred or intended for sacred use, or both. In the introduction of Holiness, Elane O'Rourke quotes from the apostle Peter’s saying, “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do… purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other…" (1 Pet 1: 14-15, 22) She commends, “Obedience requires use of the body, mind, and will. These must be set apart to be used in a sacred manner in order for holiness to manifest fully in the condition of the person. By being obedient to the truth, disciples do not conform to their habitual (or worldly) evil desires but, through their intentional activities, purify themselves. Their bodies become ready to do good, with their minds set on truth and their wills able to respond appropriately. This in turn develops sincere love, which itself resembles God and enables holy activity.”[49]  
            The last secondary element of continuous renewal is Theological Integration of having the mind of Christ toward revealed truth and toward your culture. As Lovelace emphasizes it demands “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) which is the whole of God’s written revelation constantly search out for its current implications concerning the church and the world in order that “the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:17). He further explains that the content of truth needed for the full development and maintenance of spiritual renewal in the church cannot be reduced to only the four element of the atonement involved in depth proclamation of the gospel.
David Bebbington famously proposed that evangelicals have four defining characteristics: Bible-centered, Cross-centered, conversion-minded, and activist in their desire to do evangelism and good works. In Gary Black’s The Theology of Dallas Willard: Discovering Protoevangelical Faith, he examines Willard's beliefs through the lens of these four core commitments. He argues how Willard's theology is framed around the conviction that the overarching goal of God's plan is to conform his people to the image of Christ.[50] Scot McKnight writes,
“This conviction shapes Willard's view of Scripture, which moves beyond so many of the issues, like biblical infallibility, that evangelicals tend to fight about. Black sketches Willard's view of the divine Logos, which is "present in the Scriptures, in history, in nature, and also discovered in the lives of individuals." The Scriptures are an objective presence of the Logos in the world, but they do not represent the Logos in its fullness. The living Logos transcends language. In addition, Willard believes in the possibility of "conversational revelation," whereby God still communicates to his people.”[51]
Conclusion  
Lovelace concludes the secondary elements of continuous renewal by saying that these constitute the cutting edge of spiritual renewal, and where they are not present the church is weakened spiritually, but they are not sufficient in themselves to complete the Holy Spirit’s work in shaping the mind of the church. In this paper, I have examined how Willard followed Lovelace’s model of continuous renewal. Willard’s corpus does not just match all the elements that Lovelace proposed, but goes beyond them and leaves a legacy to many people including contemporary scholars and spiritual writers: Richard J. Foster, J. P. Moreland, John Ortberg, Bryan Smith, and so on. He spent his life making eternal living concrete for people around him. The wide breadth of his spiritual renewal impact inspired friends, family, colleagues, students and leaders of the church to gather their reflections on this celebrated yet humble theologian and philosopher[52].






































Appendix:






Bibliography
Hull, Bill. “A Reluctant Prophet: How Does Professor Williard Propose to Take Over the World.” Journal Of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 3, no. 2 (2010): 283–95.
Jr, Gary Black. The Theology of Dallas Willard: Discovering Protoevangelical Faith. Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2013.
Lovelace, Richard F. Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic, 1979.
O’Rourke, Elane. A Dallas Willard Dictionary, n.d.
Porter, Steve L. “THE WILLARDIAN CORPUS.” Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 3, no. 2 (2010).
“The Difference Dallas Willard Makes.” ChristianityToday.com. Accessed May 4, 2015. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/may-web-only/difference-dallas-willard-makes.html.
Willard, Dallas. Eternal Living: Reflections on Dallas Willard’s Teaching on Faith and Formation. IVP Books, 2014.
———. Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God. Updated and Expanded edition. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books, 2012.
———. Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge. Reprint edition. New York: HarperOne, 2014.
———. Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ. 10 Anv edition. Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2012.
———. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God. 1 edition. San Francisco: Harper, 1998.
———. The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship. Reprint edition. HarperOne, 2014.
———. The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives. Reprint edition. San Francisco: HarperOne, 1999.




[1] Richard F. Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal (Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic, 1979), 69.
[2] Ibid., 62.
[3] See Figure 1. from Dynamics of Spiritual Life
[4] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God, 1 edition (San Francisco: Harper, 1998), XVII.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 81.
[7] Steve L. Porter, “THE WILLARDIAN CORPUS.” Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 3, no. 2 (2010): 240.
[8] Dallas Willard, Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge, Reprint edition (New York: HarperOne, 2014), 83.
[9] Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ, 10 edition (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2012), 132.
[10] Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, Reprint edition (San Francisco: HarperOne, 1999), 63.
[11] Ibid., 90.
[12] Ibid., 187–189.
[13] Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 97.
[14] Rom 5:1-11, Col. 2:10-15
[15] Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 98.
[16] Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 274.
[17] Willard, Renovation of the Heart, 225.
[18] Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 101.
[19] Willard, Renovation of the Heart, 226.
[20] Porter, 262.
[21] Willard, Renovation of the Heart, 15.
[22] Ibid., 226.
[23] Ibid., 29.
[24] Willard, Renovation of the Heart, 29.
[25] Ibid., 34.
[26] Ibid., 29.
[27] Ibid., 144.
[28] Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 104.
[29] Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship, Reprint edition (HarperOne, 2014), 61.
[30] Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 127.
[31] Ibid., 131.
[32] Porter, “THE WILLARDIAN CORPUS.,” 246.
[33] Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God, Updated and Expanded edition (Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books, 2012), 10, 11, 18, 22, 33, 46.
[34] Ibid., 155.
[35] Ibid., 43.
[36] Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, 69.
[37] Willard, Hearing God, 161.
[38] Porter, “THE WILLARDIAN CORPUS.,” 265.
[39] Willard, Knowing Christ Today, 10.
[40] Ibid., 20.
[41] Porter, “THE WILLARDIAN CORPUS.,” 265.
[42] Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 14.
[43] Bill Hull, “A Reluctant Prophet: How Does Professor Williard Propose to Take Over the World,” Journal Of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 3, no. 2 (2010): 288.
[44] Willard, Knowing Christ Today, 160.
[45] Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, 118.
[46] Ibid., 151.
[47] Ibid., 138.
[48] Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 385–386.
[49] Elane O’Rourke, A Dallas Willard Dictionary, n.d., 129.
[50] Gary Black Jr, The Theology of Dallas Willard: Discovering Protoevangelical Faith (Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2013).
[51] “The Difference Dallas Willard Makes,” ChristianityToday.com, accessed May 4, 2015, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/may-web-only/difference-dallas-willard-makes.html.
[52] Dallas Willard, Eternal Living: Reflections on Dallas Willard’s Teaching on Faith and Formation (IVP Books, 2014).