A river with rocks flows through a dense, green forest, the mist adding to the beauty and action of the hills and trees in the background.

I’ve been so grateful for the outpouring of congratulations that I’ve received from you for the recent completion of my Doctor of Ministry program. Gerrit has graciously given me space this month to share with you a little bit about my thesis.


The transcendentals of God declare that God is the ultimate source of three qualities: Truth. Goodness. Beauty. If you had to choose one of those attributes over the other two, which would it be?


While there’s not really a wrong answer here, and we’re blessed that we don’t have to pick, it’s likely that you didn’t choose beauty as your “first among equals” character quality of the Lord. The evangelical side of church has traditionally been champions of declaring that God is objectively true and objectively good, but beauty? Isn’t that simply personal taste?


Actually, no. For most of my pastoral life, I’ve served on ministerial committees for Presbyteries, preparing seminarians for churches, and working with pastors who are under discipline, at loggerheads with their session, or simply burned out. It is my belief that for most of these clergy, something took the place of Jesus Christ in their hearts as more beautiful, more meaningful; and this is a recipe for tragedy. Beauty draws us to action; what we find most compelling is what gives our life meaning and purpose. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the fount of every other glory that we encounter in life. If we let money, sex, power, even career or family take the throne of our ultimate affection and attention, trouble and heartache will eventually follow, for all of those things will eventually disappoint us in some way.


My doctoral thesis lifts up the importance of the beauty of God, and uses a short diagnostic survey, a bit like a spiritual Meyers-Briggs test, to identify the way we are most likely to draw closer to God. Called our “spiritual inclination,” it has been a part of spiritual direction in the Church for centuries. While similar to the enneagram exercise, spiritual inclinations have a firmer biblical basis, which may make it more palatable for the evangelical part of the Body of Christ. Some meet the Lord more easily through the created world; others encounter him as transcending everything our sensory world can show. Some of us are drawn to God first through our emotions, some through our reason. There are fancy terms for all of these, as you might imagine; I’m happy to pass those along if and when you want more.


Once one’s particular spiritual inclination is identified, I move on to four paths to help the participant encounter God’s beauty: meditation on particularly appropriate Scriptures, a sermon by the American Puritan pastor Jonathan Edwards, a volume of C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, and finally, specific spiritual practices as outlined by Dallas Willard in The Spirit of the Disciplines. What I have discovered so far is that either Edwards or Lewis, along with the Scriptures, will fire the individual’s imagination in such a way that they long to spend more time with Jesus Christ, and there is a recognition of the value and joy of doing so. The opportunity for personal revival is sparked.


Perhaps David has it right after all: One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple (Psalm 27:4). I look forward to pursuing the glory of God with you in this great adventure of faith we are on together!