Spirituality & Discipleship
This page is my storehouse for both my research about spirituality and discipleship AND the resources I’ve created to help leaders and seekers to grow spiritually.
Missional Spiritual Formation leaders are called to cultivate growing disciples of Jesus who are equipped to discern God’s action in the world and empowered to participate in it.
CLICK HERE for a curated list of other spiritual formation sites that I recommend
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Spiritual Formation Posts
Why Are We Doing a Community Mural?
Why would a church be interested in a giant paint-by-number project? Imagine an 18’ x 10’ canvas, divided into twelve 3’ x 5’ panels. Now imagine that each of these canvas panels is covered with random shapes, drawn in sharpie marker. Each shape has a number written...
Finding Our Way Through Lent
Today is Ash Wednesday. This is the official beginning of Lent. Many of us will attend a worship service today where someone will smear black ashes mixed with oil on our forehead and say, "Remember that from dust you came and to dust you will return." What is this all...
Should A Pastor Be An Artist?
Should a pastor be an artist? Can a pastor be a cartoonist (is cartooning even art)? Isn’t a pastor’s job to focus on the people and the business of a congregation? There are hurting people to visit in the hospital, a neighborhood to engage, meetings and staff to...
Painting to Meditate
Part of A Deep Life is finding ways to meditate. I find painting a very helpful way to slow down, focus my mind, and release my spirit to listen to God. I really love painting in Procreate on the iPad Pro. The cool thing about this app is that you can export the video...
Would You Like to Take The Journey With Me?
I am very pleased to announce that we will offer The Journey at Easter Lutheran Church this year. I will lead a large group/small group meeting at Easter by the Lake on the third Tuesday of each month for anyone who would like to experience the journey with me....
Taking a Step in the Deep Life
This week we focus on the fact that the Deep Life is like a Journey. Everyone is somewhere on their spiritual journey. Our key text for this week is Colossians 2:6-7. (see more on Colossians here). We looked at this text during the summer. Here it is annotated: Do you...
Recommended Reading
Journeying in the Wilderness by Terri Elton
The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr
Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster
Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard
Belonging by Karoline Lewis
The Corner of Fourth and Nondual by Cynthia Bourgeault
The Critical Journey by Janet O. Hagberg
Renew Your Life by Kai Nilsen
Invitation to a Journey by M. Robert Mullholland Jr.
Acts of Faith: Meditations For People of Color by Iyanla Vanzant
Earth Crammed with Heaven: A Spirituality of Everyday Life by Elizabeth Dreyer
Thirsty for God by Bradley Holt
Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices by Brian McLaren
We Make the Road by Walking by Brian McLaren
Cultivating Sent Communities edited by Dwight Zscheile
Power Surge by Michael Foss
I have two favorite metaphors to discuss spiritual formation.
The first is a journey. Jesus called to his first disciples, “Follow me!” and they traveled with him as he demonstrated what it looks like to live in fellowship with God.
The first disciples in John 1:38 asked Jesus, “Where do you dwell?”
Jesus replied, “Come and See,” so they followed him.
To be a disciple of Jesus is to move, to explore, to grow.
But what is the destination?
That leads me to my second favorite metaphor. The Vine and the Branches.
Jesus said in John 15:1-5, “I am the vine and you are the branches…remain/dwell in me and I will remain in you, and you will bear much fruit.”
The destination of this journey is not a physical time or place. The destination is the love of God.
God’s love is infinite, therefore we will never arrive. We simply keep growing.
We go and grow in two directions.
First, we grow deeper roots to be grounded in the love of God.
Second, we grow taller and wider branches to spread the fruit of God’s love wider.
Cultivating A Spiritual Formation Plan for the Local Congregation
The local church is the ideal place to grow spiritually. However, it is often difficult to do so. One of my ongoing projects is to experiment with how to cultivate spaces for people to grow spiritually. This article gives some basic outlines for how to think about this.
Check Out My Spiritual Formation Resources
Mindful Sketching
Learn how to connect your breath to your body and use the process of mark-making to become present with God.
Other Spiritual Formation Sites
Journeying in the Wilderness
