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.

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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.

Unpack the Statement

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Spiritual Formation Posts

Great Video on Practicing the Ways of Jesus

Ordinary Time

One of the things I love about following the church calendar is that it recognizes the rhythms of life. From Advent to Easter we are caught up in the drama of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. These seasons coincide with our school year and the hustle and...

Questions from the Basket…

At Youth Group on Sunday we looked at the story of Thomas in John 20, when he was skeptical about Jesus’ resurrection. Instead of berating him for doubt, we actually related to him and felt comfort in the fact that even the disciples doubted. The thrust of the lesson...

Of Confirmation and Contemplation

May is a transitional month. As the trees and flowers stretch their leaves to the warming sun we all stretch the kinks out of our winter weary bodies and start thinking about being outside in the warm summer air…finally! School winds down, sports seasons end, final...

Promo Video for Grace Children and Youth Ministry Fair

Here's what I've been working on for the past day and a half...

Stations of the Cross

On Good Friday we had a Stations of the Cross Experience. The following images were produced live in about 3 minutes each. I drew the charcoal and then Ethan and Charlotte smeared red acrylic paint on it. The images were ripped off the easel and taped to the wall...

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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.

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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.

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