The Deeply Formed Life

Rich Villodas has contributed a timely resource to the arena of spiritual formation and spiritual growth through his book The Deeply Formed Life. He arranges the book into five major sections meant to challenge the believer to resist shallow formation. Villodas contends, “Whether we know it or not, see it or not, or understand it or not, we are always at risk of being shallowly formed. We are formed by our false selves, our families of foreign, the highly manipulated presentations of social media, and the value system of a world that determines worth based on accomplishments, possessions, efficiency, intellectual acumen, and gifts” (xv). To counteract shallow formation, he says we need “to harness a multilayered approach of Christian identity and mission” (xxv). We need:

1. Contemplative rhythms for an exhausted life. 
2. Racial reconciliation for a divided world.
3. Interior examination for a world living on the surface.
4. Sexual wholeness for a culture that splits bodies from souls.
5. Missional presence for distracted and disengaged people.

I found this multilayered approach helpful in understanding the mindset of contemporary culture as it offers a path of formation that runs contrary to the way of Jesus. Often I find myself “discipled” into a path of formation fraught with life-threatening toxins as the gods of this world breathe into my soul. Now more than ever, we need a path of spiritual formation that resists the erratic pace and ideologies of culture and chooses the slow, deeply rooted way of Jesus. Rich helps believers to do exactly that.