Wow, sounds like a fascinating book! I’ll definitely be checking out the rest of this series.

Q: “What helps folks change the most in spiritual formation?”
For me, being involved in Christian community and seeing godly behavior modeled by others.

“What helps folks change the most in spiritual formation?”
Abiding in Him.

It seems to me there is slight contradiction in the description on how spiritual formation truly happens. In one sense, it doesn’t happen by “willpower” or effort, but 3 of the 4 elements that are listed seem to require some sort of “effort”…Am I missing something?

I think the one thing that helps the Christian (already at least minimally attempting to find depth to life in scripture) is to serve others and to specifically serve “the least among” us. Seeing the power of the Kingdom of God heal, restore, revitalize, and redeem is second only to seeing those served by it’s power come to love Jesus.
DJ|AMDG

Samuel (#4) said: ‘it doesn’t happen by “willpower” or effort’.
Hi Samuel. I agree that lasting faith doesn’t result from willpower, but it does require effort. If we don’t really want something, it won’t happen. The Spirit gives Christians the passion to follow Jesus, but that doesn’t negate our human effort.

Samuel,
Yes, 3 of the 4 require some effort or cooperation on our part, but the effort is not toward the specific change of character that are generally sought. Meaning the way to obeying the Jesus Creed more, for instance, isn’t to just make it happen by force of will.
Scot,
Wow. This sounds like a really good book. Looking forward to the series.

And, of course, “really wanting” something means you will it. While we lack the power for true spiritual formation and thus need grace (which is simply to say that we need God himself), any spiritual formation at all requires that we will to be a human who can commune with God and that we exert what effort we can toward that goal, trusting God to bring it to fruition.
You also can’t stand still — or at least I’ve never encountered anyone who did. You are either participating and shaping yourself along the way of life or along the way of death. But we are always in movement somewhere.

I too think Smith’s book will be an important contribution to the many conversations about spiritual formation. I was just at the Renovare conference where Smith presented his book. Two things stood out to me. One, he said he read chapter nine of Willard’s Divine Conspiracy 30 times. Two, he asked Willard many times when he was going to write a practical “curriculum” for the church. Willard kept saying “JIm why don’t you.” Smith’s recent books are his attempt at making chapter nine of Divine Conspiracy understandable. As far as the issue of will power goes I think Smith rightly says it can not change us but he doesn’t say it is irrelevant to the formation process.

The question of what causes us to grow is a bit faceted. Here’s my attempt
1: The first foundation of belief and spirituality comes only from the regeneration from God. Coming from a Calvinistic perspective here, so the movement of grace is the first thing.
2: After regeneration, there seems to be two main ways that begin to complement one another. The first is that we learn something about theology and then we experience the truth of it in life and thus grow to trust it. This is probably the most common, at least in terms of ways to grow correctly and steadily.
3: The second way, still occurring but less reliable at times, is to come to an inductive view of the world and try to gain theological truth from events that occur. While this can be right, it can be difficult to get anything nuanced in its full glory from inductive thought alone.
Someone may say that these views reflect too great an emphasis on knowledge alone. I will say that knowledge does not necessarily result in maturity (i.e., secular biblical scholars), but I would argue that all maturity must come from knowledge. What is faith, but knowing what God has spoken and believing it? The will to believe comes from God, that which we believe comes from theology.

The comments about effort and will power remind me of two things:
1) the recent series on Marriage where one of the things that was brought out was that you first take on the behaviour of a lover and the feelings follow.
and related to that
2) Jesus encouragement that all who seek will find
The basis for both of those actions is desire. The desire may not necessarily be for God, but simply the desire to desire God – we want to want to love God. We know sometimes that we don’t desire him, and that is where the effort comes in – not because we desire God, but because we recognise that we don’t and we need to seek him; which we do through the 4 elements of the new narrative.
That may sound a bit like justification by works, but it’s not – it’s just the practical side of seeking Him. Justification is not what we are looking for – we are looking for Him, knowing that justification is His free gift.

You asked the question of what is the least effective way of bringing about change.
I would say the obsession with more. More prayer, more scripture reading, more church attendance, more devotional reading. Our prescription for creating change is so often to tell someone what they need to add to their life. Adding things to our already busy lives usually ends with frustration and resignation.
What if we found ways to cut things from our lives? Even important things such as church services, committees, and ministries. Maybe the problem isn’t we don’t have enough religious activities in our lives but we have too much or the wrong kind and it is stifling our transformation.
I have set a schedule for my week. I read scripture three times a week for fifteen minutes, I pray three times a week for fifteen minutes, and I try to memorize one scripture for the week. I won’t be making it through the Bible in a year but I will be able to reflect, consider and thoughtfully meditate on what God is doing in my life. I am avoiding the addiction to accomplishment in favor of a method of creating space for the Holy Spirit to work. We will see.