Spiritual Formation
Page: 8
On a recent trip to Cincinnati I was enjoying a good cup of coffee and a good conversation with Vic Gordon, a good friend who pastors Kenwood Baptist Church. We were discussing how hard it is at times to gain trust, and how rewarding a relationship can become on the other side of the things […]
This morning I was reminded again of Soren Kierkegaard’s phrase “to need God is man’s highest perfection.” First time I heard these words I was sitting in a summer class up at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. Somewhere midway through a morning lecture, Dr. James Houston got off his notes and began to reflect more personally […]
So we are six months away from a unique retreat we host in Banff, Alberta. From Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2011 we will join together for this leadership development & spiritual formation retreat in the beautiful Canadian Rockies. Always a highlight of our VP3 calendar, The Enriching Retreat is a time of shared reflection and discussion, pause and prayer in […]
On the walls and columns of a grey stoned sanctuary hung twelve to fifteen prints of Rembrandt’s painting Return of the Prodigal Son. The audience was a mix of parents and grandparents and nuns and pastors and students. We were all gathered in a Beverly Hills’ Anglican church to hear writer/speaker Henri Nouwen speak on […]
After Randy and I hosted our webinar yesterday on “Igniting Adult Believers: A Life Story Approach” I was reminded, yet again, of a high school math experience that has become a sort of parable for me. One of the blessings of 10th grade geometry was that the answers to the odd numbered questions could be […]
Over the past couple weeks I have been in both the Calgary area and the Chicago area hosting Facilitator Training Retreats for Emerging Journey facilitators. They are now half-way through facilitating the eight month spiritual formation & discipleship process in their church and have lots to share about how their groups are going and what they […]
From time to time, we will be hosting webinars to provide church leaders a place to prayerfully reflect upon how they are investing in the growth and maturity of their adult believers. There are so many challenges today within our local church culture that frustrate our efforts to help people “grow up… into Christ” (Ephesians […]
As the New Year begins I find myself returning to certain thoughts that have lingered with me over the past year. Jesus’ personal way with others has dominated much of my wonderings. His way of life always offers an alternative to our culture’s dominant ways of relating. Jesus lived out his mission by forming and […]
“Is it possible for people to miss their lives in the same way one misses a plane?” Walker Percy asks this question in his novel The Second Coming. With his character Will Barrett–a lonely widower, recently retired from a very successful business career—Percy confronts us with a person who has confused all the activity of […]
I came across a question today from a few weeks back: “Where is there breathing space in your life?” And my mind ended up thinking about Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s little book Gift from the Sea. Amidst the seemingly endless distractions of our lives, she asks, how do we remain attentive to that which matters most? […]
We can live so unreflectively nowadays, always hoping to “get by” with what we already know. Yet if life experience teaches us anything along the way, it is that we still have so much more to learn if we are to flourish as people. We will not be able to “get by” without a good […]