TOXIC SPIRITUALITY (Cultivating Your Inner Life, Edmund Chan, pages 46-53)

Opening Activity: Drawing Charade (Different Attitude/character)

Ask: What kind of attitude or character did we portray in the game?
Introduction:
Our topic this afternoon is about toxic spirituality. Often times, we are complacent that we
are already Christians, spirituality is attach to us. Basta Christian, spiritual din.
Toxic means- poisonous. One of the defining marks of toxic spirituality is zeal (passion/love-
dakong tinguha) without knowledge. We falsely assume that because we have the zeal, knowledge
is unimportant. All kinds of truth claims are considered valid as long as they declared with great
zeal. This is the nature of toxic spirituality.
Five evidences of toxic spirituality
1. Service without Joy: Psalm 100:2 “Serve the Lord with gladness”
However, there are many who serve without joy. They may well have started serving with
joy but subsequently, they got hurt and resentful(offended). They began to feel taken for
granted, neglected and unappreciated, the blame game started, and their inner life went into a
tailspin(fall). They felt used and abused. Discouraged and disillusioned (disheartened), they left
the church-only to discover that the new church was no better. They had bought their
emotional baggage along them. And this vicious cycle continues.
The heart of this problem is people. (We don’t have church problems; we have people
problems) Serving God is the easy part; the harder part is serving people. A large part of
serving God is serving people. All kinds of people. Difficult people are not only found in the
pews; they are often found in the pulpits as well. And when beloved trusted leaders hurt us,
the hurt runs deep.
Is this the real reason for service without joy? No, because the real reason comes from our
inner life. Lack of joy simply reveals the lack of composure (calmness, steadiness) in our inner
life. We allow our compulsion (pressure) to take over. Our ego gets in the way.
A fundamental mistake of the church is that it aims to get people into heaven rather than
to get heaven into people. And heaven only comes when the presence of God is there. Without
God’s presence, there is no joy. But with it, there is joy even in trying circumstances. For in
God’s presence, we see things from His perspective. And that makes all the difference.
Insight: We can only serve with joy when Gods presence is there, thus, we see things
from His perspective.
2. Performance without Rest
The second feature of toxic spirituality is performance without rest. This is not physical rest
but a rested-ness of spirit. It is the quietness of the soul. Rested-ness is freedom from anxiety.
When we are caught in a performance trap, we can easily become insecure. We are
restless with inner anxieties like, “how am I doing?”, or “is it being well received?”, are the
people applauding?”, etc. This is performance without rest.
Giving our best, is simply to give God what we can offer. We can give more in proportion to
our growth. Ministry is an outflow of life. The more we grow, the more we can give.
The best expression of excellence is obedience and faithfulness. For excellence is not static
(fixed) but dynamic (something you keep growing towards). And when we keep growing, we
work with dynamic excellence by giving our best and resting in God.
3. Work without Worship
Christian service can be a self-serving, ego-stroking exercise. But God should be our focus.
American Pastor, James Kennedy once said: “Most people think of the church as a drama, with
the Minister as the Chief Actor, God as the promoter, and the laity (congregation) as the critic.
What actually the case is that the congregation is the chief actor, the minister is the prompter
(someone who assist the performer), and God is the critic.”
To work without worship is a contradiction in terms. For the motivation to work for God
stems from our grateful worship of God. This love relationship with God is central to our
spiritual journey.
This is at the heart of worship. And it is this worship that defines our work.
4. Devotion without Discipleship
Devotion - faithfulness, loyalty
Discipleship – the process of making someone become like Christ. It is the process of leading
others by example to follow Jesus Christ through obedience to God’s word and the leading of His
Holy Spirit.

True devotion is expressed in discipleship to Christ. Otherwise, it is merely the feeling

without the doing. Lip-service without the life to show for it.
It can be said that discipleship without devotion is blind; and devotion without discipleship
is lame. Devotion and discipleship must come together.
Christian devotion is tied to biblical discipleship; and biblical discipleship is tied to the
spiritual disciplines.

Thomas Mortan once said:

 “There are no shortcuts in the spiritual life. Those who imagine that they can discover
spiritual gimmicks and work for them usually ignore God’s will and grace. There are neither
shortcuts nor gimmicks. It is devotion and discipleship, devotion and discipline coming
together. And that is why we do not have spiritual growth-because while we have the desire,
we do not have the discipline.”
May we cultivate that devotion and discipleship in our spiritual formation.
5. Ritual without Reality
It means that we focus on the outward form and merely go through the motions.
Rituals are important. We should not miss the importance of rituals. The sacraments of baptism and
communion are profoundly significant. We need it, but the question is, hanggang doon lang ba? What’s the
reality that we should not miss also? Is it enough that we were baptized, partake the communion, join
worship services and prayer meeting? Wala na ba tay himuon?

A person can be involved in church, faithfully attending and fully participating in worship services,
and yet not walking with the Lord. The Lord calls us to do what is right … to seek righteousness and justice
that reflect the reality of Christ in our lives.
God is against profession without practice. He is against hearing without doing. He opposes ritual
without reality.
The point to remember is that God calls us to walk not merely in the rituals but in the reality.
Otherwise the rituals, no matter how beautiful, become empty after a while.

Conclusion:
Moving from toxic spirituality to true spirituality is challenging. But it’s possible when we
begin to live from the inside out. It’s time we went for the real thing.
The spiritual life is a life. It is not just something to be read. It is to be lived.
Summary:
1. Serve with joy
2. Giving our best while resting in God
3. Our work should be an outflow of our worship.
4. Devotion and discipleship must come together.
5. Walk your talk
Opening Activity:
Drawing Charade:

Group 1

PROUD/HAMBOG
SELFISH/DALO
BULLY/TIGDAOG-DAOG
TSISMOSA
Group 2

ABUSIVE/ABUSADO
STUBBORN/GAHI’G ULO
GREEDY/HAKOG
DISRESPECTFUL/ WALAY
PAGTAHOD
Superlatives
Arrange yourselves according to
1. Age- youngest to oldest
2. Haircut-shortest to longest
3. Height –shortest to highest
4. Weight- least to ---
5. Number of kids/children –zero to many
6. Birthday- first month of the year
7. Size of shoes- small to large
8. Waist measurement
9. Number of siblings – least to most number of brother & sisters
10. First letter of your name –A-Z

Scavenger Hunt
1. Divide the group into two teams of five.
2. In five minutes, they will look for items in their bags. Each items will represent one alphabet letter.
One item per letter.
For example:
A- Alcohol
B- bracelet
C-Charger
D-Debit Card
E- earphone
F- face mask
G- Gurgle
H-handkerchief
T- Tissue
L – Lipstick
3. The teams that finds the most items wins.