Ever Ancient, Ever New – Week 2
Summary of Sermon: Formation
Introduction
Continuing in Ever Ancient, Ever New, Pastor Torry Sheppard turns to the second pillar of the Church: formation. If confession is what we believe, formation is how we live it out. Through a lighthearted story about his son imitating his every move, Pastor Torry shows that we all become like what we behold. Formation isn’t just for children—it’s the process shaping every person, every day. Whether through culture, relationships, entertainment, or faith, something is always forming us. The question is not if we’re being formed, but by whom.
Formation and Counter-Formation
From Romans 12:2, Pastor Torry teaches that no one drifts toward holiness. The world is always pressing us into its mold—through busyness, distraction, comparison, and the endless chase for success. Formation is not optional; it’s inevitable. But while the world conforms us to its image, the Spirit transforms us into Christ’s likeness. True discipleship, then, is an act of counter-formation—resisting cultural patterns and cooperating with grace. He reminds us that conformity is the natural outcome of passivity. To become like Jesus, we must live differently, practicing intentional rhythms that shape our hearts, habits, and hopes.
The Three Invitations of Discipleship
Drawing from John Mark Comer’s framework, Pastor Torry outlines three invitations that define the way of Jesus:
Be with Jesus – Relationship (Heart): Learning to enjoy His presence through prayer, silence, solitude, and Sabbath.
Become like Jesus – Character (Head): Allowing the Spirit to renew our minds through study, fasting, confession, and obedience.
Do what Jesus did – Mission (Hands): Living out our faith through service, generosity, hospitality, and justice.
Each invitation represents one leg of a three-legged stool. Without balance, we become lopsided—sentimental without obedience, informed without compassion, or active without intimacy. True formation unites all three.
Cooperating with Grace through the Spiritual Disciplines
Transformation doesn’t happen by accident or through willpower alone—it happens when we cooperate with grace. For centuries, believers have ordered their lives around spiritual disciplines—time-tested practices that create space for God’s transforming work. Pastor Torry explains that these disciplines are not religious performance but sacred participation. They are habits of grace that reorient our attention, purify our motives, and counter the formation of the world.
He highlights nine key disciplines that form the believer holistically—heart, head, and hands:
Prayer – The daily conversation with God that trades anxiety for peace.
Silence and Solitude – Withdrawing from noise to hear God’s voice and remember our identity.
Sabbath – Practicing rest and trust, resisting the hurry and striving of modern life.
Study – Meditating on Scripture to renew our minds and anchor us in truth.
Fasting – Denying ourselves to deepen dependence on God and expose misplaced desires.
Confession – Bringing sin into the light so that grace can heal and restore.
Service – Reflecting the humility of Christ by meeting the needs of others.
Generosity – Opening our hands to give freely, trusting God as our provider.
Hospitality – Creating space where others can experience belonging and the warmth of Christ’s love.
Through these rhythms, we cooperate with the Spirit’s work of transformation—what Eugene Peterson called “a long obedience in the same direction.” Formation is not instant; it’s incremental. Each practice becomes a groove of grace shaping us into Christ’s likeness over time.
Formation for the Long Haul
Pastor Torry closes with an image from a centuries-old monastery in Spain, where marble floors bear deep impressions from generations of monks who knelt to pray in the same place. Those grooves weren’t made in a day—they were carved by decades of faithfulness. That’s the picture of spiritual formation: small, steady acts of devotion that leave a lasting mark. Formation isn’t about perfection; it’s about persistence—showing up, practicing the way of Jesus, and trusting that what God begins, He will finish.