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Joyful disciples: A study of a missing link 
in considering spiritual disciplines and 
corporate missional habits

Mike Harrison
Suffragan bishop of Dunwich in the diocese of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich in the 
Church of England. Before this Mike was Director of Mission & Ministry in Leicester 
diocese for 10 years and previously was a parish priest, most of his ministry being 
in South London. His doctoral studies were in the field of doctrine and his interests 
include Christian formation and leadership for Christian formation. 
Email: bishop.mike@cofesuffolk.org

Abstract

This essay takes up some suggestions for Christian formation found in the 
‘Life Model’, a contemporary ecumenical project proposing attachment with 
God, inner healing prayer and healthy interpersonal relationships as key ele-
ments to promote psychological and spiritual change. In particular the sig-
nificance of joyful relationship with God is considered, along with practices to 
cultivate this joyful relationship. Two practices are described which foster joyful 
attachment and thus provide ways in which character is shaped to enable Chris-
tian formation. However it is acknowledged that such formation also depends 



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for its full flourishing on other factors such as healthy ecclesial community and 
relational brain skills. The essay concludes by suggesting that joy-generating 
practices which can be developed as easily pass-on-able habits are a promising 
avenue by which to further enable Christian formation.

Keywords: joy, spiritual disciplines, formation, character, neuroscience

Introduction

Thirty years after he penned Celebration of Discipline (1981) Richard Foster 
wrote that while the task of reviving the conversation about Christian spiritual 
formation had been achieved, a second task of incarnating this reality into the 
daily experience of individual, congregational and cultural life had not been 
realized. The next 30 years, he argued, need to focus on this latter task. Easier 
said than done. Many are dissatisfied with the level of transformation they have 
actualized as a Christian community and as individual Christians. And while 
the glossy publications, the spiritual advice and the papers(!) on following 
Christ more closely keep coming, it seems that for the majority there are at best 
modest results. Nietzsche’s old sneer that “I might believe in the Redeemer if his 
followers looked more redeemed” points to the relevance of this for missionary 
discipleship, as well as the long-term nature of this challenge. How can we grow 
the kind of Christian character that we find in the New Testament? How we can 
stay our mind on God, abide in Christ, set our minds on things above, set our 
minds on the Spirit, bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, glo-
rify God in our bodies, renew our minds, have Christ formed in us and the like?

Research in this area is growing, not least through advances in neurosci-
ence and experimental psychology. Here we will explore the place of Christian 
joy in growing such character, triggered by some suggestions presented by the 
‘Life Model’, a contemporary ecumenical project proposing attachment with 
God, inner healing prayer and healthy interpersonal relationships as key ele-
ments to promote psychological and spiritual change (see for example Wilder 
et al., 2020: 49–64). This approach is rooted in developing Christian character 
through promoting joyful affective-relational experience which is strengthened 
by awareness of God’s presence in daily life and the cultivation of an intentional, 
communicative relationship much like a close supportive adult relationship. 
This approach is not new but finds its place in a long tradition stretching back to 
Wesley, Teresa of Avila, Brother Lawrence and Pierre de Caussade and beyond, 
and we will utilize some of their insights accordingly.



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The significance of joy

Why the privileged place of joy? First, the Christian narrative of creation, incar-
nation and incorporation into the fellowship of Christ’s body tells us that God 
desires us, as if we were God, as if we were that unconditional response to God’s 
giving that God’s self makes in the life of the Trinity. This life of the Trinity is one 
of joy and it is this communion of persons bound together in mutual love, peace 
and gladness that we are invited to share in. We are created to be caught up in 
this, growing into the wholehearted love of God by learning that God loves us 
as God loves God. If joy is God’s life, a life of incomparable beauty, goodness 
and gladness, then to be rooted in this joy and live from it is our calling as God’s 
creatures. Indeed, ecclesiologically Rowan Williams suggests that “the life of the 
Christian community has as its rationale – if not invariably its practical reality – 
the task of teaching us this: so ordering our relations that human beings may see 
themselves as desired, as the occasion of joy” (Williams, 1989: 3).

Moreover, as David Kelsey (2009: Vol. 1) shows, God relates to us in three 
interrelated but distinct ways which all elicit joy; as One who creates, grounding 
our reality, our value and well-being; as One who promises us eschatological 
consummation and draws us to it; as One who reconciles us in our multiple 
estrangements. Giftedness marks God’s engagement with us and gift recognized 
as such, gratefully embraced affectively as joy.

Hopefully it will be clear from this that we are not proposing a Pelagian 
soteriology or elevating human agency as the means of realizing joy, which 
would be to lose sight of God as subject and with it the very relationship in 
which our joy is rooted. When the sister of Thérèse of Lisieux, Pauline, says 
that at the end of her life she will appear before God empty-handed, a prospect 
which saddens her, Thérèse responds:

you are not like me, then, though we are both in the same posi-
tion. Even if I had performed all the deeds of St. Paul, I would 
still consider myself an unprofitable servant; I would find that my 
hands were empty. But that is precisely the cause of my joy; since 
I have nothing, I shall receive everything from the good God. 
(Balthasar, 1992: 255–56)

Thérèse, a Doctor of the Church, gets it right – she is so bowled over by the 
good God’s graciousness as to see being a recipient of this graciousness as her 
joy, her earthly labour being of no account in comparison. And unsurprisingly, 
a by-product is her little way which has been a huge inspiration to countless 
Christians.



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Second, work in neuroscience and interpersonal biology by those such as 
Allan Schore (Schore, 1994) have identified the centrality of joyful attachments 
for healthy individual and group formation and the development of character. 
For the brain, attachment love is central and attachment develops through joy. 
Joy based in the love of God is a more complex affective-relational experience 
than the analogues that have been the focus of secular positive psychology 
research (e.g. subjective well-being or optimism). Schore showed how healthy 
systems involving joyful attachments informally model and teach positive 
interpersonal relational skills which promoted the formation of stable self-
representations. Such skills helped community members handle suffering and 
relational conflict more effectively and tended to be self-propagating in healthy 
families and absent from more dysfunctional families. What is more, missing 
skills could be acquired in adulthood through establishing healthy relationships 
with securely attached individuals.

Third, assumed here is the approach as outlined by Buber, Levinas and oth-
ers, which argues that human persons begin with and in encounter with others 
or in Charles Taylor’s pithy saying that “we are human only in conversation” 
(Carrithers, Collins & Lukes, 1985: 278). It matters greatly then what quality 
and nature that conversation has because the genesis of the human mind is not 
something we accomplish individually but dialogically. Indeed as Susan Grove 
Eastman points out, for a young child “the experience of being imitated com-
municates a sort of recognition of oneself as distinctive and worthy of attention” 
(Eastman, 2017: 74). If a person is primarily constituted in personal exchange, 
such that other-relation mediates and grounds the person’s self-relation, then if 
that relationship is one of joy (in being created, in being redeemed, in eschato-
logical blessing), then one can begin to see how as Christian persons we might 
be transformed pneumatologically by means of intimate relationships created 
by the Spirit with God (Abba), Jesus and fellow believers.

Of course, this joy-fuelled transformation involves deformation as well as 
reformation, and Paul for example demonstrates precisely this reintegration of 
the whole person within a new intersubjectively constituted identity in relation-
ship to Christ when he speaks of Christ’s crucifixion as his crucifixion to the 
cosmos and the world’s crucifixion to him (Gal. 6.14) and when he regards 
his own circumcision and membership of the tribe of Benjamin as excrement 
(Phil. 3.5; 3.8). Close readings of Paul show that this transformation is primar-
ily corporate – it is not a matter of individual ontological change but rather of 
participation in a relational interchange larger than the self; as Eastman puts it 
“the newly constituted person ‘in Christ’ is intersubjective all the way down, in 



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relationship to Christ and in relationship to others” (Eastman, 2017: 173). This 
is the arena in which change happens (e.g. Rom. 12).

Fourth, joy-in-relationship as a focus prevents the divine–human relation-
ship (and associated spiritual disciplines and corporate habits) being reduced 
to means of addressing human failure and correlatively of God being assumed 
to be the One whose utility consists merely of “saving” such beings by making 
them morally worthy. The latter view is inconsistent with the assumption that 
God relates to all that is not God, including human beings, in ways grounded 
in God’s free, wise and generative love and not in human moral qualities. This 
avoids a potentially Manichean view of nature, anthropocentrism and a narrow 
soteriological focus on overcoming sin and making human beings acceptable.

Fifth, joy is intimately connected to mission scripturally. Mission can easily 
be spoken of as an additional burden to an already tired Church. Yet scriptur-
ally missionary discipleship was never a last-gasp desperate measure to prop up 
a dying institution, nor an exhausting corporate effort to keep Jesus’ teaching 
going for future generations, in fact often it’s not the disciples’ work at all really 
– rather it’s the fruit of a curiosity of outsiders provoked by a distinctively joyful 
and peaceful way of being among Jesus’ followers, rooted in lively relationship 
with the God of creation, reconciliation and promised consummation.

What is joy?

If one asks in more detail, just what “joy” is, then one could say joy is a mode 
of being where, contrary to Western dualisms, we appreciate that thinking is 
acting, being is acting and, completing the circle, thinking is also being – which 
is to say that to think differently is to act differently which is to be different. Joy 
is a mode of being which is the result of experiencing and reflecting upon a 
level of goodness that is unmistakeable and irreducible in its unmatched ability 
to transform even our darkest hours. Unlike happiness which is conditional joy 
has the power to rise above and overwhelm any condition. This joy can be seen 
immanently in infants who respond with joy to being held, fed and stroked, as 
well as being experienced ourselves as simply as when welcomed with a smile. 
Joy is all the more deeply realized in relation to the fount of all goodness, that 
community of joy par excellence, the Trinity, in whom we find purpose, mean-
ing and hope; so 1 Pet. 1.8-9, or again Jn 17.13.

Joy is not individualistic; rather, joy is attachment relationship, a good 
illustration being John the Baptist leaping in the womb at the proximity of Jesus 



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in Mary’s womb. In infancy joyful interactions with primary caregivers shape 
the structure, chemistry and function of the brain, profoundly influencing our 
identity and relationships as we grow. Contemporary neurobiological models 
support loving attachment as the mechanism for maturity development and 
healthy interpersonal skills and the emotional energy behind loving attachment 
that develops both the attachment and the nervous system in the infant is joy. 
Few people can control this joy voluntarily and joy is amplified by the intersub-
jective interaction of two minds – relational joy rather than individual happi-
ness builds attachments and emotional capacity. Neurologically, joy activates 
the brain’s relational circuits in the middle of our identity centre, joy which can 
be realized in responding to the God who is with us, for us and glad to be so, 
interacting with our minds. God’s initiating love enables us to receive his grace 
with appreciation and joy, generating a joyful identity. Indeed neurologically, 
the brain’s joy centre – the right orbital prefrontal cortex – is the only section of 
brain which never loses its capacity to grow – so our “joy strength” can continue 
to expand through life.

However, observation suggests that while most Christians agree that God 
is a God of love who loves them, this belief is not reflected in the manifesting 
of relational joy or character transformation. Yet when a baby is loved by the 
mother, and that relationship between mother and baby is healthy, one can see 
the baby’s character taking shape as a joyful, responsive, loving infant. Saints like 
Brother Lawrence echo this infant-like response to the mother in their response 
to God, Lawrence imploring us from his own experience to treasure the pres-
ence of God more than anything else. The consequences of such treasuring, 
treasuring like a baby treasures their mother’s presence, like a lover treasures 
the beloved’s presence are attested by other saints too – St Clare of Assisi for 
example asserting that we become what we love and who we love shapes what 
we become (Wilder, 2020: 74).

The issue then is cultivating the relational loving attachment. There is a 
difference between abstractly understanding God’s love for us, and a conscious 
experience of a relational loving attachment fuelled by joy which shapes and 
re-shapes us. A focus on right belief, right doctrine and right choices, impor-
tant as they all are, will not alone transform character and the rationalizations 
explaining this away (e.g. lack of faith) miss the point – character transforma-
tion depends on joyful attachment relationships of love. When we share joy, we 
become attached.



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Character formation

Before going further let us briefly examine the idea of “character”; a rough 
description might be “the settled way of being and responding that a person 
has developed over time that becomes characteristic of them” (Copan, 2016: 8). 
McGilchrist in his The Master and His Emissary points out how the right hemi-
sphere of the brain operates faster than the left hemisphere and is responsible 
for producing reactions to circumstances before we have a chance to consider 
how to react; thus the right hemisphere is a leading source of our character in 
that our reactions reveal the “natural”, “settled” or “immediate” way of being 
and responding. So, Simon Peter revealed his character in the Garden of Geth-
semane when he cut and ran. Jesus knew he would do this – Simon Peter had 
thought otherwise, or perhaps the left hemisphere of his brain had told him 
otherwise. The left hemisphere gets the details but not whole picture, operating 
like a flashlight, only seeing a bit at a time. Peter saw his virtuous fidelity to 
Jesus, consciously focusing his attention on such comforting possibilities while 
forgetting to monitor the rest of his character. (Inevitably, the hemispheres 
are deeply interrelated and we should not make simplistic assumptions about 
their respective roles – for example both hemispheres generate emotions, but 
analysis suggests the emotions generated primarily by the left hemisphere are 
caused by thoughts and beliefs whereas right hemispheric emotions include 
basic responses to life – thus joy and relationship can (re-)shape the latter while 
truth and action can (re-)shape the former.)

The trouble is that what we are utilizing right now as we think about this 
is by-and-large our left hemisphere, and getting at the right hemisphere by 
analytical thinking is a bit like trying to talk to a French child in Swahili. So 
what is the mechanism for building and changing our character in the highly 
influential right hemisphere? Sullivant suggests that

because the right brain operates at a supra-conscious speed, the 
only way to engage with it and build it up is by relational/expe-
riential/emotional/spiritual means. This is why many of the per-
sonal, physical, and relational practices seem very simple – even 
remedial – to many when they first begin to employ them. (Sul-
livant, 2018: 86–7)

So for example writers such as Brother Lawrence suggest with disarming sim-
plicity the transformational significance of a conversational relationship with 
our Lord:



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the most holy practice, the nearest to daily life, and the most es-
sential for the spiritual life, is the practice of the presence of God, 
that is to find joy in his divine company and to make it a habit 
of life, speaking humbly and conversing lovingly with him at all 
times, without rule or restriction, above all at times of tempta-
tion, distress, dryness, and revulsion and even faithlessness and 
sin. (Lawrence, 2009: 59)

One way of realizing Brother Lawrence’s recommendations concerning practis-
ing the presence of God is, following “neurotheologians” such as Jim Wilder, to 
develop “mutual mind”. Technically these states occur when dyadic resonance 
permits the intercoordination of affective brain states in the context of relation-
ship, awareness and interest. (Note here Eph 2.10 with its description of human 
beings as God’s poiema, where poetry in scripture does not rhyme sounds but 
thoughts – as God’s poetry our thoughts can rhyme with those of our heavenly 
Father.)

More prosaically, consider the experience of knowing what someone is 
thinking. People you know well in your family – you can tell when they are 
amused, irritated, touched or bored stiff – you don’t need them to tell you. Of 
course sometimes they will deny it, but that’s the left hemisphere trying to hide 
what the right hemisphere, always moving at a faster pace, has already disclosed 
by body language and other signals. This experience some call “mindsight”. Now 
when two people tune their mindsight on each other it creates a state of “mutual 
mind” – an intersubjectivity (as Schore describes it) – an example being that 
synchronicity with another’s mind that we can see in a son and daughter as 
they glance at one another across the bed of their dying mother and don’t need 
to say, or even consciously think, anything more at that moment. Experience 
shows that this kind of mind sharing is generally limited to people in a bonded 
relationship when they are face-to-face and open to emotional exchanges. 
(Indeed visual cues and voice tone are much more important than words for 
fostering such mind sharing.) Mutual mind state synchronizes brain activity 
and chemistry in a matter of seconds and runs too rapidly to be controlled 
by conscious thought or choice (which is why trying to hide your irritation 
with your beloved is usually futile). Although mutual mind states are mutually 
produced, the influence of the stronger brain can hold sway. Take the storm on 
the lake – the disciples had a mutual mind state together that they were about 
to be drowned so they woke Jesus. But he was relaxed and over time mutual 
mind with Jesus, a stronger mind, began to have an effect on the disciples. So 



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the next storm story, Peter could (briefly!) walk on the waves when he had his 
eyes on Jesus.

This mutual mind state is reserved only for those with whom we have a 
deep bond – and we cannot always tell in this state if it is our thought or theirs. 
In these states new aspects of our identity can be activated and shaped. It is a 
useful model for explaining how God acts without over-riding our freedom, as 
well as a way of responding to the apostolic injunction “let the same mind be 
in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2.2, 2.5). It is a deeply relational 
state which is reserved for “my people” – the people with whom I identify and 
to whom I am close. This sense of our group identity can be hugely influential 
and identity-forming with the power to change character because it operates in 
the fast track on the right spot in the brain. “My people” could be one’s family, 
church or other group, though given how our face to face interaction has been 
massively reduced in recent decades, the opportunity for mutual mind states 
has also reduced.

Applying this to Christian character transformation, the idea is that we 
are to enter into a mutual mind state with God if we are to realize the kind 
of character transformation we aspire to as disciples. There is a big difference 
between thinking about God and thinking with God about reality – the latter is 
mutual mind state – and thinking with God might just change even our initial 
reactions – thus changing our character.

These mutual mind states are established between us and our beloved, so 
to begin with we need to ensure loving attachments. How do loving relation-
ships grow? Well if we observe how a baby’s loving attachment grows, it does 
so from joyful and thankful, appreciative interactions. (Notice again Brother 
Lawrence wrote of the practice of the presence of God as one that is to “find joy 
in his divine company”.) So if we are serious about character transformation 
in Christ, the place we need to start and strengthen is these high-joy, loving 
relational interactions with Christ. Many of the saints understood this, as in 
Teresa of Avila’s words (Ladinsky, 2002: 76);

Just these two words He spoke
Changed my life,
“Enjoy me”.
What a burden I thought I was to carry –
A crucifix, as did He.
Love once said to me “I know a song,
Would you like to hear it?”
And laughter came from every brick in the street



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And from every pore
In the sky,
After a night of prayer, He
Changed my life when
He sang
“Enjoy me”.

One easy practice that can assist here is interactive gratitude (see Wilder et al. 
2020 for more detail on this and the next practice of Immanuel journalling).

Practice 1: Interactive gratitude

1. Start by recognizing God’s presence at this moment. Find something 
specific for which to give thanks to God, write it down and stay with the 
appreciation for 2 minutes or so, describing it in detail to God. Notice how 
your body responds to thankfulness.

2. Ask God what he would say to you and write this down. Be open to 
thoughts, images and sensing.

3. Read it to a (perhaps weekly) group you consider safe and trustworthy (and 
the number one rule for the group is to treat every weakness tenderly).

The interaction between God and us in this exercise is the defining difference 
between interactive gratitude and what we commonly consider as appreciation 
or giving thanks. It is part of building a mutual mind state with God – think 
of the analogy of taking a ball of yarn, holding one end and throwing it to 
someone who throws it back, repeatedly. As the ball goes back and forth the 
connection grows thicker and stronger. Furthermore, a handy tip to ensure the 
right brain stays involved is to be aware of body sensations and to feel some 
sort of connection with God in one’s memory. Increasing joy through effective 
gratitude practices can actually help us reset our default state more to joy over 
time – for example try repeated exposure to a state of gratitude three times a 
day for five minutes recalling gratitude memories and observe the results.

This practice is purposely simple and modest. And, as with the next prac-
tices, there will be some nervousness about this exercise that we are putting 
words and thoughts in God’s mouth and indeed sometimes we are, and it is 
important to check our impressions against scripture and Jesus’ teaching and 
character, whether it brings good fruit (Mt. 7.20), whether it results in shalom 
and/or gratitude (Col. 3.15). Other checks could be listed and while we are 



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always fallible, the possibility of misunderstandings should not deter us from 
seeking joyful conversational interaction.

Sharing with others is crucial, encouraging others and tutoring one 
another in recognizing God’s voice. Hearing oneself articulating gratitude also 
increases the likelihood of future recognition of gift. Furthermore, articulating 
gratitude completes the process with positive relational interaction and it builds 
memories of God’s goodness that convey a sense of being loved.

Our working assumption here is that our identities are formed primarily 
not by choices but the relational bonds we experience and reflect upon – so that 
who we share mutual mind states with will shape our choices much more than 
the other way round – think for example of anyone in love and how they will 
be ready to change schools, politics, friends, religion – the brain is much more 
concerned with what we love than our freedom of choice. It seems that the right 
hemisphere, the major domain of attachment relationships, can have a much 
more direct control and influence on our identities and character than the left 
hemisphere – and that our identities and emotions are only indirectly influ-
enced by the thoughts and choices generated by the left hemisphere. Rather 
what really shapes character and identity is it seems in the right hemisphere, 
the appreciation, joy and shalom (or lack of them) that grow from attachments 
and relationships, those to whom we are attached shaping our character and 
identity as a result.

The habit of interactive gratitude strengthens our relational bond with 
the divine and this issues in joy and joy builds our loving attachments, which 
attachments arguably influence our character development more than anything 
else.

A second practice here which further strengthens the attachment relation-
ship with God is Immanuel journalling. Critical here is how we are assuming 
God sees us; this approach presumes God is present, is truly good and perse-
veres in seeking good for us, just as for example when God tells Moses that he 
sees, hears, cares and is with his people and will do something for them (Exod. 
3.7-8).

Practice 2: Immanuel journalling

Begin writing as God simply says back to you what God sees and hears from 
your speech and actions (e.g. I hear you crying quietly, unsure about what to 
do, doubting me).



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Continue with God recognizing unspoken words (e.g. I hear you judging 
yourself, your quiet resolution).

Write as God understands how big (hard) this is (e.g. I can see how sad you 
are about this).

Write as God is glad to be with you and treats you tenderly (e.g. I am with 
you, for you and glad to be here in this with you; indeed, we grasp that God is 
“as-glad-as-glad-can-get” to be with us, joy grows).

Write as God saying we can do something together about this (e.g. I am 
with you and know we can move forward in this together).

(This is all about ‘thought rhyming’ with God where God restores our relational 
circuits using the sequence I see you, I hear you, I understand how hard this is, 
I am glad to be with you, I can do something about what you’re going through. 
There is attention, validation, comfort and peace).

The final step is sharing such a journal entry within a small group setting. 
The aspiration is that when we share stories of appreciation and God moments 
in journalling we move into a deeper group identity. By telling others what we 
appreciate about God’s presence we are keeping our relational circuits on, tutor-
ing and being tutored on God’s presence and sharing joy which builds group 
identity. Of course, there needs to be group guidelines to such sharing, the 
number one ground rule being to treat every weakness tenderly, our own and 
that of others.

One way of discerning God at work here is by considering whether the 
fruit is shalom. We have all had stories told us that have drained our joy, failed 
to bless us and not been helpful. One way of weighing a journal entry’s readi-
ness for group sharing is via a shalom check. Testing for peace might include 
looking for (a) a shift in perspective that ‘feels’ closer to God’s reality, (b) what is 
written matches scriptural principles c. consideration of a simple question such 
as “when I think of Jesus in this moment do I feel an authentic sense of his love 
for me and a growing desire to serve others?”

This second practice is about both joy and peace. Along with high-energy 
joy there is joy’s sister, peace. We cannot sustain a high-energy state for long and 
neurologically experiences of joy call for a time of rest to follow – joy followed 
by shalom. Shalom is that powerful rest that comes when we know everything 
“fits”, there is nothing to worry about, shalom in God’s active presence to us in 
Jesus through the Spirit. Neurologically joy is a high energy state that builds our 
strength and stimulates growth, while shalom is a low energy state that quiets 
us when everything is just right and we can rest (Mt. 11.28-30). Joy gets things 
done. Shalom lets us be still and it entails flourishing and wholeness. Shalom 



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is where everything is in right relation, the way things ought to be, and God 
is pleased. Indeed, the sharing in this practice is akin to passing the peace – a 
sharing which ideally involves the three ingredients of gratitude, noticing what 
God wants me to know and describing what’s changed.

This practice suggests we do not come by shalom by believing the right 
things or by solving problems so much as by sharing God’s mindsight. An out-
standing example is the martyr Stephen as he was being killed. When we look at 
Stephen, Paul or a host of other Christian witnesses we find certain elements of 
this approach, not least (a) God is always with us; (b) God actively interacts in 
our lives; (c) connecting with God comes before focusing on upsetting experi-
ences (in our case) or traumatic experiences (in Paul and Stephen’s case such as 
imprisonment or martyrdom); (d) full processing of such experience requires 
upset and relationship with God to be active in mind at same time, the latter 
reshaping the former.

This is of course not easy; to be asked in the middle of our strop, sulk or 
spite to recall God’s presence, closeness and what God had done for you till you 
become thankful – that’s tough. One hint for cultivating shalom here is going 
slow; as Brother Lawrence puts it,

we must do all that we do with thoughtfulness and consideration, 
without impetuosity or haste, both of which show an undisci-
plined spirit; we must work quietly, placidly and lovingly before 
God, and pray him to approve our toil, and by this continual at-
tention to God we shall break the Demon’s head, and make his 
weapons fall from his hands. (Lawrence, 2009: 59)

Peace of course does not mean we will not suffer, only that no suffering will 
separate us from the love of God (Rom 8.35-9).

The wider context

The two modest practices mentioned here are not stand-alone; their effective-
ness depends on considerable maturity among the members of groups in which 
they are practised and healthy ecclesial community. Space does not permit fur-
ther exploration but in environments where people are heavily defended, self-
justifying and wearing masks to protect weaknesses, a low-joy environment 
beckons. Weakness is essential in joyful, ecclesial community because mutual 
joyful bonds require vulnerability. Self-protection is rooted in fear, not joy, and 



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it does not grow joyful community. Character grows when, for example, we 
build joy with one another in weakness. Low-joy communities are usually those 
where weaknesses are hidden, disguised and indeed despised. Furthermore, in 
Christian community it’s not “weakness is bad and with God we can be strong” 
but that God’s power makes it safe to be weak while God is strong. Other roots 
of low-joy include a lack of development around the “big” emotions such as 
fear, anger and shame, unresolved trauma and lack of face-to-face interaction.

Another key element to the effective working of the practices mentioned is 
what might be termed relational brain skills. Again, space does not allow much 
further discussion but take for example the skill of “sharing joy”.

We learn “sharing joy” from people who are glad to be with us, whose eyes 
shine as they look at us – their body language, tone of voice and words all con-
vey “it’s a delight to engage with you”. Relational joy empowers, motivates and 
fuels us. We feel a reward with this joy – the neurotransmitter dopamine play-
ing a part in this. The brain’s reward circuitry releases this dopamine also when 
we eat, exercise, have sex and give generously. And the same dopamine tells us 
we then need a breather, to rest and recover. And after we catch our breath it is 
time for the serotonin to recharge us for joy. You may say this skill is “easy” but 
it’s not that apparent that our Christian communities are filled with this skill 
of sharing joy. Very often when our joy levels drop we don’t employ this skill 
but instead substitute behaviours, experiences, events, people and substances 
that hijack the joy mechanism of the brain and artificially regulate our feelings, 
stimulating the dopamine etc. You can tell the difference because this dopamine 
leaves us restless and empty. We can substitute joy with activities, sports, films, 
laptops, busyness and endless distractions. Surely many of these things aren’t 
bad but good, but we should realise we are missing out in not developing this 
skill.

It is also embarrassingly easy to enhance this skill. One minister decided 
to introduce this skill together with the returning to quiet skill by training wel-
comers to express joy with their face and voice, and also to recognize when 
people felt overwhelmed. So welcomers could provide joy or shalom as needed. 
The results were remarked upon after just a few Sundays, people speaking of 
services being “life-giving” and refreshing (Wilder et al., 2014: 116).

Another skill is “returning to joy”, restoring our desire and ability to be 
with others when things go wrong and we are suffering or in pain. Returning 
to joy comes from strong attachments to others and a deep sense of who we are 
that will not get lost when we are in pain. While we are still distressed and not 
“joyful” there is a sense of quieting distress and being with caring other(s).



Mike Harrison—Joyful disciples

93

Concluding remarks

“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God,” wrote Léon Bloy (1937: 
57), a French Catholic philosopher. Fostering the mode of being that is joy 
through habits of relational attachment is arguably one of the missing pieces 
in enabling our formation as Christ followers. It is not a stand-alone element 
however – shallow relational attachments, weak ecclesial community, lack of 
brain skills and low joy rooted in upbringing and bad habits are all obstacles 
to realizing God’s gracious invitation to joy. The two practices mentioned here 
focused on joyful interactive conversational relationship are stimulated by 
engagement with Wilder et al.’s Life Model and they are suggestions to provoke 
discussion – what joy-generating practices can we shape and communicate as 
easily pass-on-able habits which can be undertaken together in ways which are 
genuinely transformative?

The joy we speak of is not primarily a psychological competency whose 
mastery is a necessary stage in our self-actualising project, neither is it some 
evolving product of a Hegelian historical-cosmic process, or any of a number 
of other modern possibilities rooted in voluntaristic human agency or natural 
dynamics. Rather joy’s possibility is rooted in the God of joy who relates to us 
in creating, redeeming and drawing to eschatological consummation in ways 
which generate joy-in-relationship which can manifest even in situations which 
hold few possibilities for well-being in community, as demonstrated by Paul, 
Francis of Assisi and others.

What is more, this joy suggests participation in the joy of the triune God, 
the shaping of Christian community and character as the New Testament advo-
cates, and promising missiological effectiveness through such a distinctive way 
of being together in God’s presence.

References

Balthasar, H. U. von. 1970. Two Sisters in the Spirit: Thérèse of Lisieux and Elizabeth of the 
Trinity. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

Bloy, L. 1937. Letters to his Fiancée. New York: Sheed and Ward.
Carrithers, M., S. Collins and S. Lukes (eds.). 1985. The Category of the Person: 

Anthropology, Philosophy, History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Copan, V. 2016. Changing your Mind. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press.
Eastman, S. G. 2017. Paul and the Person. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Foster, Richard. 1981. Celebration of Discipline. New York: Harper & Row.



E c c l e s i a l  F u t u r e s :  Vo l u m e  3 ,  I s s u e  1

94

Kelsey, D. H. 2009. Eccentric Existence Vols 1 & 2. Louisville: WJK Press.
Ladinsky, D. J. (ed.). 2002. Love Poems from God. New York: Penguin.
Lawrence (Brother, of the Resurrection). 2009. The Practice of the Presence of God. London, 

Hodder & Stoughton.
McGilchrist, I. 2009. The Master and his Emissary. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Schore, A. N. 1994. Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of 

Emotional Development. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
Sullivant, M. 2018. Thinking Biblically about the Life Model. Indiana, Deeper Walk 

International.
Wilder, E. J. 2020. Renovated: God, Dallas Willard and the Church that Transforms, 

Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.
Wilder, E. J., et al. 2014. Joy Starts Here: The Transformation Zone. Illinois: Shepherd’s 

House.
Wilder E. J., et al. 2015. Joyful Journey: Listening to Immanuel. Los Angeles, CA: Presence 

and Practice.
Wilder, E. J., et al. 2020. “A Christian Multi-Modal Approach to Therapy Utilizing Inner 

Healing Prayer: The Life Model.” Journal of Psychology and Christianity 39 (1): 49–64.
Williams, R. 1989. The Body’s Grace. London: Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.


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	Editorial
	Nigel Rooms

	Problems with “pioneering” mission: Reflections on the term “pioneer” from Germany, South Africa and the UK
	Setting God’s pioneers free? The need to release lay pioneers from the Church of England’s narrative of resourcing and equipping
	James Butler

	Discipleship, mentorship and training which empowers African women for ministry in the diaspora
	Naar M’fundisi-Holloway

	Communal maturation and missional discipleship: A congregational study
	Nick Ladd

	Joyful disciples: A study of a missing link in considering spiritual disciplines and corporate missional habits
	Mike Harrison

	We want the good life now: Insights from lived religion for a whole person and communal approach to salvation in the twenty-first century
	Dejan Aždajić
	BOOK REVIEWS
	Kwiyani, Harvey. 2020.
	Multicultural Kingdom: Ethnic Diversity, Mission and the Church.
	London: SCM Press.


	Reviewed by Sabrina Müller
	Roxburgh, Alan J. 2021.
	Joining God in the Great Unraveling: Where We Are & What I’ve Learned.
	Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books.


	Reviewed by Steen Olson
	Susan Lucas (ed.). 2020.
	God’s Church in The World: The Gift of Catholic Mission.
	Norwich: Canterbury Press.

	Reviewed by Luke Larner
	Olsen, Steen, 2020.
	Jacob’s Ladder: Missional Church in the 1970s.
	St. Marys, Australia: SA & RL Olsen.

	Reviewed by Patrick R. Keifert





