What is Spiritual Formation?
Spiritual Formation and the Emerging Church
Each event in our lives, everything we experience, provides a point of change. For good or bad, our spirits transform each and every day. A paraphrase of C.S. Lewis: "Each day we are becoming either a creature of splendid glory or one of unthinkable horror."
A part of the conversation now taking place on the fringes of the established church centers on spiritual formation. For decades if not centuries, spiritual formation has been neglected by most of the Protestant wing of the Church. An unhealthy focus on a bad interpretation of "faith without works" has caused much of the problem.
Spiritual formation is not something to be shunned by falsely depicting it as a means to work for salvation. To the contrary, discplines involved in the pursuit of positive spiritual formation are means of grace. Without God, they would be meaningless, but by grace, we partner with God in the transformation of our very selves.
Spiritual Formation Resources
In order to assist you in your quest for spiritual formation, we have provided links to a few key articles related to spiritual formation on THEOOZE. In addition, we have highlighted key discussions from our message boards on the topic, suggested several books dealing with spiritual disciplines and the broader topic of spiritual formation, and provided links to some outside resources (articles, spiritual formation websites, and the like).
Peace,
Alan Hartung
General Editor, THEOOZE
Spiritual Formation Resources from Other Sites:
Spiritual Formation - Practice the Faith
Spiritual Formation Groups - Renovare
Spiritual Formation in Christ: A Perspective on What it is and How it Might be Done by Dallas Willard
Spiritual Formation: What it is, and How it is Done by Dallas Willard
A CONTEXT FOR SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION by Todd Hunter
Spiritual Formation - Vanguard Church
Shalem News Online
The Book of Common Prayer HTML Edition
Spiritual Formation Articles on THEOOZE:
SPIRITUAL FORMATION: A Pastoral Letter
by Richard J. Foster
By now enough water has gone under the Christian Spiritual Formation bridge that we can give some assessment of where we have come and what yet needs to be done. When I first began writing in the field in the late 70s and early 80s the term “Spiritual Formation” was hardly known, except for highly specialized references in relation to the Catholic orders. Today it is a rare person who has not heard the term. More...
WHEN YOU FAIL, AGAIN: Realizing the need for spiritual disciplines
by Alan Hartung
Often illustrations are nice and humorous and add flavor to a message. Then there are times when the power of story and illustration cuts right to the soul. During a “Kingdom Living” conference in Phoenix, Arizona, Dallas Willard offered up an illustration that not only cut through to my soul, but More...
THE INCARNATIONAL LIFE
by Jason Zahariades
What Is Incarnation?
Incarnation simply means to embody or personify something. Let me use a real life illustration:
When you think of Michael Jordan what do you think of? Baseball? Not really. Golf? Probably not. You think of basketball, of course. Think about it though. Michael Jordan gave baseball a try. Why don’t you think of baseball when you think of him? He also plays a lot of golf, but why don’t we associate him with golf? We associate him with basketball because Michael Jordan embodies basketball. He doesn’t just play basketball, he is basketball. Michael Jordan could probably accomplish more at basketball in his sleep than I could with conscious effort. More...
|
