Five or six years ago, I was visiting a church in Indiana. While there, I met with a group of folks in the congregation and I spoke on the need for our congregations to develop a deeper theological understanding.

The conversations went well enough, but I really wasn’t sure I was being understood. The next morning I met with a member of the group—a professor at Christian Theological Seminary. As we visited, he asked if I would mind a little advice. He went on to suggest that I drop the word "theological" and use the word "spiritual" instead.

"Folks here aren’t interested in ‘theology,’" he said, "but every one of them wants a deeper ‘spirituality.’ Spirituality is hot."

He was right, of course. Spirituality was hot. And it still is.

It is hot in the media. That is why we have TV shows like "Touched by an Angel," movies like "Meet Joe Black," top-selling CDs with monks doing Gregorian Chant, and newspaper articles about a monastery in California where you can spend a week of vacation.

But it is not just hot in the media. It’s hot on the Web. A quick search found more than 1.6 million sites dealing with spirituality. Interested souls can find sites on spirituality and health, spirituality and the environment, spirituality and religion, spirituality and homosexuality. They can find articles on John Coltrane’s Concept of Spirituality and on how Toni Morrison taps the spirituality of African-Americans. Then there are sites touting business spirituality, alternative spiritualities and the science of spirituality.

Spirituality is hot. And it is hot in the church. Catalogs from Christian bookstores are now offering whole sections on Spirituality or Spiritual Growth. In our denomination, last year’s CWF study focused on spirituality. The Bethany Project continues to strengthen the spiritual lives of regional ministers and others. Of course, our congregation is hot on spirituality. The Emmaus Walk and Renovare Spiritual Formation Groups have emerged to strengthen people’s spirituality.

It’s is definitely hot. Millions of people are exploring their spiritual lives as maybe never before. And I would suppose that is good.

Yet I have to admit that I am not as enamored with this Post-Modern Soul Train, to use a phrase from Leonard Sweet, as I might be. My reason is simple: Spirituality as it is being defined and practiced is often a fuzzy, mish-mash of concepts that have nothing to do with God and everything to do with "me." As theologian David Wells notes, spirituality today is for the most part individualistic and therapeutic. In short, it is self-centered.

Shelley was an active member of our church in Louisville. She was bright, articulate and devoted to spirituality. She read lots of books on the matter. She prayed and meditated and studied scripture. She pursued spirituality with a passion. And yet in conversation after conversation, Shelley revealed the purpose of her pursuit—it was to feel better about herself. She wanted a deeper spirituality because it would give her inner peace, because it would make her life easier, because it would give her self-confidence. Spirituality was therapeutic and individualistic.

I remember another friend who made a regular habit of retreats. When asked why, he said: "They make me feel closer to God." Notice the emphasis. It makes "me" feel better. I read about another advocate of spirituality touting its benefits. "It keeps me centered." Again, notice the emphasis—it is on what spirituality does for the individual’s psyche.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to dismiss this reality. I feel better when I pray regularly. I benefit from reading and studying the Scriptures. I gain new perspectives when I make quiet time for myself. But what I fear is that the focus on spirituality that we see today—this therapeutic, individualistic approach—amounts to nothing more than sin. It is just another attempt to place ourselves at the center of the universe, to become god. And that is not the purpose of the Spirit.

The Spirit that Jesus promised, that Spirit that is at the root of Christian spirituality, is not about us. It is about Jesus. It takes that which Jesus gives and declares it to us so that we might glorify Jesus. It teaches us what we need to know so that our Lord can be praised.

Jesus said so himself.

It was Jesus’ final night with his disciples. They were gathered together for one last time. Of course, the disciples were anxious. They worried about Jesus’ departure and about what would happen to them. But Jesus told them he would send the Holy Spirit. They are not going to be abandoned. They are not going to be left alone. He was going to send the spirit to continue doing exactly what he had done. Empower? Yes. Encourage? Yes. Comfort? Of course. But most of all, the Spirit was to continue speaking for Jesus, continue to enlighten them, lead them into all the truth, so that he might be glorified, might be known in all the world. Their spirituality was so that Christ might be praised.

The disciples and the early church learned that lesson well. In his book The Ancient-Future Faith, Robert Webber says that in the early church viewed spirituality in relationship to the conflict between God and the powers of evil. For the early Christians, spirituality was centered on learning to live like Christ. He was the God-man. He had defeated evil and death. He had established the realm of God. Prayer, worship, study, meditation, fasting and the like were not about making them feel better but about preparing them to live the pattern of life, death and resurrection they witnessed in Jesus. It is what empowered them to make his name known.

That remains true Christian spirituality.

A number of years ago, Earnest Boyer was attending a seminar on the spiritual life. It was a quiet time away from his wife and children--a time to renew his connection with God. Yet as he listened to the speaker recount the importance of the desert in Christian spirituality, he began to wonder: "Is there child care in the desert?" In other words, he began to wonder not how he could get away from his children to nurture his spirituality, but how he could in the day to day of life with them glorify Jesus Christ. He made that all important shift from a spirituality that was about him to a spirituality that honors Christ.

All around us spirituality is hot. Everyone seems interested in it right now, and that presents us with a great opportunity. But for this spiritual renewal to amount to anything, we—the followers of Christ—are going to have to reclaim it. We are going to have to reclaim it from the therapeutic and individualistic, from the fuzzy and the feel good. We are going to need to reclaim it as the gift God has given us so that we can live the life of Christ and given him glory now and forever.