Dallas Willard on Grace, Character, and Spiritual Formation

Blog by the Unhurried Living Team 

Dallas Willard spent decades teaching that spiritual formation is the ongoing shaping of a person's inner life, whether toward Christ or away from him, and that grace is the empowering presence of God that makes real change possible. Christlike character, in Willard's understanding, is not a personality trait but the settled shape of habits formed over years. Together, these three ideas answer the question at the heart of this post.

In a recent conversation on the Unhurried Living podcast, Alan Fadling and his colleague Matt Fogle sat down with theologian Keas Keasler to talk about what it really means to grow in spiritual formation. Keasler, author of the new book Kingdom Apprenticeship, spent years studying Willard's unpublished papers and thousands of hours of his recorded teaching. What he found reframes the conversation: spiritual formation is not about information, it is about who we are becoming.

How Does the Church Become a School of Christian Discipleship?

Keas Keasler told Alan Fadling and Matt Fogle that spiritual formation, first and foremost, is not a uniquely Christian phenomenon. Every person's inner core, what Willard called the spirit or the will, is being shaped in some direction whether they are paying attention or not. Christian discipleship simply names the direction: the process of a person's inner life being formed into the likeness of Christ, for the sake of others and the world.

This is why Willard believed every church should regularly ask itself two questions: what is our plan for making disciples, and how is that plan actually going? Keasler said too many congregations treat spiritual formation as one ministry among many rather than the reason the church exists at all. He described the healthiest churches he has studied as places that function like a school of life, where Christian discipleship touches every part of a person's belief, values, and daily habits rather than staying confined to a Sunday morning class.

One small step you can take today is to ask Willard's second question about your own life: what is your plan for becoming more like Christ, and how is it actually going? Answering honestly, even in a single sentence in a journal, is itself an act of Christian discipleship.

When you are ready to talk through what you are noticing with someone who can walk alongside you, you are welcome to connect here with one of our trained soul care guides.

What Does It Mean to Build Christlike Character?

Keasler offered a simple but weighty definition in his conversation with Alan Fadling: character is habituated will. Christlike character is not a personality trait or a burst of good intentions. It is the cumulative shape of the decisions we make and the habits we repeat, solidified over years into who we actually are when no one is watching.

He illustrated this with a story from his own life. While overwhelmed in the middle of his doctoral dissertation, Keasler sat with his spiritual director, an older Jesuit priest, and poured out his anxiety. The priest drew three simple lines on a piece of paper: the top line represented Keasler's ministry work, the middle line his roles as husband and father, and the bottom line his identity as God's beloved child.

The dissertation, the priest said, was just a small mark on that top line, and it would pass. Christlike character grows from the bottom line up, not the other way around.

A small step you can take today is to draw those same three lines for yourself and notice which one you have been living from this week.

Take one step toward exploring what shapes lasting character in Alan and Gem Fadling's books and teaching, and explore it here.

What Does Grace Empowerment Look Like in Everyday Life?

Alan Fadling asked Keas Keasler to unpack one of Dallas Willard's most challenging ideas: that grace means far more than forgiveness. Willard used to send people back to Scripture with a concordance to trace every instance of the word grace, and what he found was striking. Grace empowerment, not merely pardon, is what the New Testament writers describe again and again.

Keasler pointed to Luke's Gospel, where the grace of God rested on the young Jesus as he grew in wisdom, and to Paul's letter to the Romans, where believers are given different gifts according to grace. Forgiveness alone does not explain either passage. Willard's picture was grace empowerment like a jet engine, with saints needing grace not less than sinners but more, because holy living in every ordinary moment requires God's own power flowing through us.

One small step you can take today is to reread a familiar Bible passage about grace and ask what changes if you read it as empowerment rather than pardon.

Keasler closed the conversation by pointing to Willard's business card, which listed no academic titles at all. It simply read, in Latin, nakedly following the naked Christ, a phrase Willard chose over every credential he had earned.

What Is Kingdom Apprenticeship in Spiritual Formation?

Kingdom apprenticeship is the phrase Keas Keasler uses to describe what happens when spiritual formation and everyday discipleship stop being treated as separate tracks, a vision he traces directly back to Dallas Willard's own life and teaching. An apprentice does not simply admire a master's work from a distance; an apprentice practices alongside the master until the master's way of seeing and doing becomes their own. For Keasler, that is exactly what it means to follow Jesus.

Wherever You Are, You Belong in This Conversation

Many of the leaders who listen to conversations like this one carry a quiet exhaustion: they are doing good and faithful work, yet they wonder whether their own inner life has kept pace with everything they give to others. That weariness does not belong to any single city or region. It shows up in pastors, nonprofit directors, and ministry staff everywhere, whether they are leading a congregation of thousands or a small team of volunteers.

Dallas Willard's own conviction was that this kind of formation belongs to every follower of Jesus, in every place, not to a specialized few. Unhurried Living exists for exactly this reason, and Alan and Gem Fadling built a fully digital ministry so that leaders in any nation, in any time zone, could find companionship for this kind of inner work. Wherever you are listening from today, whether across town or across an ocean, there is a place for you in this conversation.

Becoming Apprentices Together

Keas Keasler left listeners with a simple and humbling image: we are beggars telling other beggars where the bread is. Spiritual formation, grace empowerment, and Christlike character are not achievements to master alone but a shared apprenticeship to Jesus, practiced in community over a lifetime. That is the invitation Dallas Willard modeled and the one Keasler carries forward.

If you want reflections like this one delivered to your inbox each week, you are welcome to sign up here for the Weekly Email. You do not have to figure out this kind of formation alone, and you can get started here with the Unhurried Daily Email, a free forty-day devotional built for exactly this season.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is spiritual formation and why does it matter? A: Spiritual formation is the ongoing process by which a person's inner core, their spirit and will, is shaped in a particular direction. Christian spiritual formation means that inner shaping happens in the likeness of Christ. It matters because character, which Dallas Willard defined as habituated will, determines how a person actually leads and loves over time.

Q: How does grace mean more than just forgiveness? A: Dallas Willard traced the word grace throughout Scripture and found it consistently describes God's empowering activity in a person's life, not only pardon for sin. Passages like Luke 2 and Romans describe grace resting on Jesus and equipping believers with gifts, which forgiveness alone cannot explain. Grace, in this fuller sense, is the power for holy living.

Q: What does it mean to be an apprentice of Jesus? A: An apprentice of Jesus practices alongside him rather than simply admiring him from a distance, gradually taking on his way of seeing and living. Keas Keasler calls this kingdom apprenticeship, and it sits at the center of both spiritual formation and Christian discipleship. It reframes the Christian life as ongoing practice rather than a set of beliefs to affirm once.

Q: How is spiritual formation different from just gaining Bible knowledge? A: Spiritual formation focuses on transformation of character, not accumulation of information. A person can know a great deal about Scripture without the corresponding shift in habits, decisions, and inner posture that marks Christlike character. Willard's work consistently pointed people back toward practice, not just study.

Q: Why does Dallas Willard's teaching still matter for church leaders today? A: Willard's thought bridges spiritual formation and missional living, two movements that often develop separately in church leadership circles. Keas Keasler's research shows that leaders who integrate their inner formation with their leadership philosophy lead from a healthier, more sustainable place. His teaching offers church leaders a framework for discipleship that does not separate the soul from the work.