Keith Meyer - Whole Life Transformation: Becoming the Change Your Church Needs

T hanks to all those named below who played some part in my life and so, this work and its birth, progress and completion.

My formation familyto Cheri, for tolerating the books scattered everywhere around the house and for your faithful love every day and patient support of me during this and all seasons of life; to son, Kyle, daughter and son-in-law, Cara and Mike Perszyck, for putting up with my obsession with this project, and keeping me centered.

My parents, Dr. Kenneth and Carol Meyer, for your faithful love, leading me to Jesus, his saving grace, for your faithful service to the Crystal and Rockford Evangelical Free churches, and for making a p.k.s home full of fun, for an education at both Wheaton College and your legacy, Trinity International University.

My extended family and in-laws, for your encouragement and, as promised, a nod to my nephew NathanWhen you going to write that book, Uncle Keith?

Dr. Will Larson, psychiatrist, for your healing eyes, ears and life-saving words for me, my marriage, my family and ministry, and now my writing.

Don Cousins, for your years of listening and praying with me, your story and vulnerability and expertise, and for modeling the kind of life that churches needfull of the fruit of the Spirit.

Dallas Willard, for your kingdom example and teaching, and for your gentle but persistent admonition, you should really write down these things that God is teaching you.

Father Jim Deegan, O.M.I., for your directing me in the Ignatian version of the school of PIU (Purgation, Illumination, Union), and the Kings House Retreat Center for all the years of serving my church staff.

Rev. John Ackerman, for helping me and our my church staff to stop, look and listen and notice what God is doing now.

Father Anthony Coniaris and Paul Karos of St. Marys Greek Orthodox Church, for modeling to me Askesis for Theosis by Penthos and Nepsis (Training for God-liness by Repentance and Watchfulness)... what this book is hopefully about.

Janet Hagberg, for guiding me on Gods unsafe way in the dark, and the monthly reminder to keep drinking from water deep down in the well, where its best.

Sr. Pastor David and Bonnie Johnson, the staff and people of Church of the Open Door where I served as executive pastor for seventeen years, as well as Maple Grove, Harper and Fox Lake Evangelical Free Churches where I served as senior pastor, for the schools of formation and service opportunities they provided for me.

Howard and Janice Baker, Mike and Kate Glerup, Keith Matthews, Joel Warne, for your friendship during both difficult and delightful times, and for your partnership.

Bishop Sandy Greene and his wife, Gigi, my priest, Christian Ruch and his wife, Molly, and Church of the Cross (Hopkins, Minnesota), for providing my family and me a new church home, and to the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) and its trinity of the Scriptures, the Sacred and the Spirit.

Ken Nelson, Rockford Guilford High School English Teacher, for teaching me how to journalto write from my heartand for introducing me to people like C. S. Lewis!

Alan and Marilyn Youel, for first asking me to write the story Are you Home Yet? for the Thin Places newsletter (Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis, MN), and for your faithful prayers.

Bob Howey, for your generous support, the Theological and Cultural Thinkers Group, and Alan Andrews and Bill Thrall for asking me to write a chapter for The Kingdom Life: A Practical Theology of Discipleship and Spiritual Formation, writing that led to this IVP book, and also NavPress and Don Simpson for permission to use it.

Denver Seminarys Doctor of Ministry director, Dr. David Osborn, and my students over the years, for the opportunity to learn and teach this material with you.

My IVP Formatio editor, Cindy Bunch, who kept after me as a busy executive pastor to get something to her, and was so supportive and helpful to a timid writers first shot at a book. And many thanks to the whole IVP team, what a privilege to work with you all.

Dad, Will You Ride with Me?

I had the privilege of accompanying my twenty-five-year-old son as he qualified for his golf pro status by completing the Professional Golf Association players ability test. To become a golf pro he had to play two rounds of eighteen holes on one day and score within a certain number of strokes. He played well and passed, a feat few accomplish the first time. Most have to try again and again.

None of the other pros at the event had a partner like me, and certainly not their dads! I asked Kyle why he asked me to ride along. He said something I will never forget: Dad, you calm me down.

Immediately my mind flashed to that day so many years before when Kyles questionDad, are you home yet? stopped me in my tracks and called me away from preoccupation with ministry success, which was pulling me out of his life. He helped me on my way home to a different kind of life with God, my family and othersa kind of life that others want because it leads to home, to God and to each other. The whole life transformation in Christ I modeled to Kyle touched him and caused him to want my influence.

It has been quite some time now since Kyle asked me if I was home yet. It seems like a lifetime ago. And it really was just that, another life. In coming home to my own transformation, inviting God into every aspect of my life, I lost the life I once was leading to find my real life, the one God was waiting to give me.

Regarding these life-changing moments Paul Tournier says,

In every life are a few special moments that count for more than all the rest because they meant the taking of a stand, a self-commitment, a decisive choice.... They may have been slow, almost unconscious, gradually brought to fruition through extended crisis, or they may have been like the flash of lightning, a sudden burst into consciousness of a process worked through in the subconscious.

Tournier explains what his own turn to Jesus has meant for his life as he faces old age: Ever since, Jesus Christ has become my unseen companion of every day, the witness of all my successes and all my failure.... All I can hope, when my time for action will be over, is that I may yet go further in the riches of this knowledge.

Through most of the writing of this book, I was executive pastor of Church of the Open Door. However, now I am entering a new ministry of equipping pastors who want to pursue whole life transformation for themselves and their congregations, becoming the change they are praying for God to bring to their churches, the change their church needs.

In a strange twist to the story of the prodigal son, God called me through Kyle to make a decisive choice for my life, from being lost in a far country of ministry distraction to life with him and others. What a surprise it was to find the Father calling me home, through the words of a child, to a banquet of family and friends. Its a journey in which we ride along with the triune God. Enjoying his calming company in the midst of lifes trials and tests, we know the results are going to be better than we can imagine, as we wait and hasten for his kingdom to fully come.

Formatio books from InterVarsity Press follow the rich tradition of the church in the journey of spiritual formation. These books are not merely about being informed, but about being transformed by Christ and conformed to his image. Formatio stands in InterVarsity Presss evangelical publishing tradition by integrating Gods Word with spiritual practice and by prompting readers to move from inward change to outward witness. InterVarsity Press uses the chambered nautilus for Formatio, a symbol of spiritual formation because of its continual spiral journey outward as it moves from its center. We believe that each of us is made with a deep desire to be in Gods presence. Formatio books help us to fulfill our deepest desires and to become our true selves in light of Gods grace.