Nathan A. Finn - Spirituality for the Sent

Nathan A. Finn and
Keith S. Whitfield

THE IDEA FOR THIS BOOK emerged in the fall of 2013, but its roots stretch back more than a decade. The two of us have been interested in spirituality since before we met at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where Nathan was beginning his MDiv studies at the same time Keith was beginning his work toward the ThM. As we became friends, we had many conversations about the relationship between theology and ministry; most of them inevitably and understandably intersected with spirituality. Fast forward a few years and Nathan was a rookie professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Keith was a pastor enrolled in Southeasterns PhD program. The school was embracing an increasingly missional vision for theological education and we found that our own interests in theology, spirituality, and, increasingly, mission fit nicely with the ethos at Southeastern. By the time Keith joined the faculty, we were ready to collaborate on a project related to our common interests.

In recent years, we have been blessed with the opportunity to test some of our thoughts on missional spirituality. In 2012, Nathan delivered a lecture to the faculty and students of the School of Christian Ministry at California Baptist University on the topic Towards a Missional Spirituality, and in 2014, he designed a new missionally influenced spiritual formation course for Southeastern Seminary. In the 20152016 academic year, Nathan gave a chapel address at Union University titled Spiritual Formation and the Christian University, while at Southeastern Seminary Keith taught a masters elective on The Doctrine of the Christian Life and cotaught a doctoral seminar on the same topic. Until recently, when we took on senior academic leadership roles, we each served as elders in our respective churches and were part of pastoral teams that were substantially like-minded with us when it comes to the relationship between spirituality and mission.

We have also been blessed with a lot of great conversation partners, mostly among faculty colleagues at Southeastern Seminary. We are especially grateful for conversations one or both of us have had along the way with Bruce Ashford, Jamie Dew, Stephen Eccher, Drew Ham, Keith Harper, Scott Hildreth, Chuck Lawless, Mark Liederbach, Tracy McKenzie, Greg Mathias, Chuck Quarles, Benjamin Quinn, Alvin Reid, George Robinson, Walter Strickland, Heath Thomas (now at Oklahoma Baptist University), and Steven Wade. For Keith, Eric Johnson of Southern Seminary has inspired and encouraged his interests and thinking on spiritual formation for more than a decade. Our fellow contributors Chris Morgan and Tony Chute, both of California Baptist University, have proven helpful conversation partners for Nathan in particular, as has his Union University colleague George Guthrie. Our other contributors to this volume have become additional fellow travelers in helping us to think about what it means to cultivate spirituality for the sent.

Southeastern Seminary, where we served on faculty together from 2012 to 2015, is a missional seminary that is also committed to advancing scholarship for the sake of the church. We appreciate the considerable encouragement we have received from Southeasterns leadership, and especially Provost Bruce Ashford, as we worked on this project. Keith continues to benefit from the healthy atmosphere at Southeastern. Nathan relocated to Union University in 2015, where he found an institution congenial to pursuing serious scholarship, promoting missional priorities, and emphasizing spiritual formation. He is thankful to his colleagues in Unions School of Theology and Missions for encouraging their new dean to remain committed to research and writing and is particularly grateful to Provost Ben Mitchell for his support.

We have found the team at IVP Academic to be a joy to work with, especially our editor, David Congdon. David has been a strong supporter of this project from the first conversation Keith had with him at a professional meeting in November 2013. We had a lot of ideas about potential chapters and contributors; we are especially grateful to David for helping us think through how to make this book the strongest work it can be. We also appreciate Davids patience when this project was delayed by about six months due to Nathans relocation and the (fortunately!) short-term stalling effect that transition had on this book. Our contributors were similarly patient with us when the delay struck just a couple of months before the chapters were originally due to us. Thanks, everyoneyou have done great work and we are honored to include it in this book.

In this project, as in all our projects, our biggest supporters have been our wives and children. Nathan is grateful to Leah and the Finnlings for putting up with late nights, early mornings, and the occasional off-the-grid Saturday to work on this project. Keith is grateful to his wife, Amy, and his kids Mary and Drew, as they have been similarly supportive while this book has evolved from idea to finished product. Our families continue to be a key means of sanctifying grace in our lives.

We want to end these acknowledgments where they began: with our student days at Southern Seminary. While we lived in Louisville, both our families were members of Ninth and O Baptist Church. It was a wonderful community of disciples that shaped each of our lives and ministries. To say it another way, the saints of God called by the name Ninth and O were instrumental in our spiritual formation. We are especially grateful for the churchs senior pastor, Bill Cook. Bill was a seminary professor who was widely respected as a gifted classroom teacher, but he especially shone as a pastor. Over the years, he has modeled for us and for hundreds of other seminarian church members what it means to be a man of godly integrity, a devoted husband and father, a faithful preacher, and a loving shepherd. We do not remember if Bill has ever quoted these words to us, but we think his life embodies the Pauline principle, Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ (1 Cor 11:1). It is with great joy and deep gratitude that we dedicate this book to Bill. #9thandOForever