Archive for 2016
Mary, Did You Know? Entering into the Mystery
Christmas Eve marks the end of Advent and the beginning of the Christmas season. In candlelight services and intimate family gatherings around the world, we enter into a season of celebrating one of the great mysteries of our faith—a God who comes to us as a tiny, fragile human being, making it possible for him…
Read MoreWhat does transforming leadership look like for Pastor Noah Filipiak?
Noah Filipiak, founding pastor at Crossroads Church in downtown Lansing, MI, shares how his Transforming Community® experience has impacted his ministry. I love seminary. I have one seminary degree and look forward to going back for more. With that said, my experience in a Transforming Community® has been the most important ministry leadership training I…
Read MoreTransforming leaders — may their tribe increase!
Dear Friend, It is hard to remember a time when the topic of leadership and character has been more pressing on our minds and hearts. The most oft-repeated sentiment I heard during the recent presidential election was some version of “Since I can’t vouch for either candidate’s character I am going to vote for their…
Read MoreCan You Hear God Now? Your Most Important Leadership Role
Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Those who are spiritual discern all things… 1 Corinthians 2:14-15a A pastor told me that his church had outgrown their facility, so they were asking,…
Read MoreAdvent 1: The Importance of Waking Up
Lectionary readings for November 27, 2016: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Rom 13:11-14; Matt 24:36-44 Click for complete Advent calendar (Cycle A) and guidance on using the lectionary. “God comes to us like the sun in the morning—when it is time.”—Carlo Carretto, The God Who Comes My favorite time of any day is the pre-dawn moments before the…
Read MoreAdvent 2016: Enlarged in the Waiting
“Of all types of waiting, the waiting of pregnancy is most like the waiting that we do during Advent. The waiting of pregnancy is like the waiting we do for God.” – Wendy Wright For four years my wife and I were eager to have a baby. At first, naturally, we tried like everyone else. After…
Read MoreElection Day 2016: Lord, Teach Us to Pray…Today
“Lord, teach us to pray…” ~ Jesus’ disciples in Luke 11 Ok, I admit it. I’ve been discouraged, grumpy and even a bit depressed this election season, as I’m sure many of you have been. Perhaps the most accurate way to describe my state of mind and heart is that I have experienced desolation, in…
Read MoreCiri Situs Agen judi online dominoqq Terunggul Serta Dapat dipercaya
Ciri Situs Agen judi online dominoqq Terunggul Serta Dapat dipercaya! Kenal lebih dalam mengenai ciri situs agen judi online dominoqq terpercaya serta terbaik seharusnya Anda tahu dari saat ini. Buat membuat jadi lebih mudah jalannya permainan judi online yang Anda mainkan. Lantaran Anda mesti sanggup bermain lebih trampil serta sedikit kalah dalam permainan kedepannya. Serta…
Read MoreFrom Decision-Making to Discernment: One Leader’s Experience
“If we are not pursuing the will of God together in fairly intentional ways, what are we doing? Our own will? What seems best according to our own thinking and planning? That which is merely strategic or expedient or good for the ego?” —Ruth Haley Barton Years ago I remember watching the doctor who invented…
Read MoreFirst Things First: Practicing What We Preach
“A leader is a person who must take special responsibility for what’s going on inside him/herself, inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership do more harm than good.” –Parker Palmer By the time you get this, I will have begun an eight-day silent retreat. During this time, I will not have access…
Read MoreThe Prayer of Lament: What To Do When We Don’t Know What To Do
“Our only hope is to march ourselves to the throne of God and in loud lament cry out the pain that lives in our souls.” Ann Weems Our hearts are heavy this day and tears are close to the surface as we watch the unwatchable, think about (and try not to think about) the unthinkable,…
Read MoreThe Deeper Journey for Leaders: From the False Self to the True Self
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul in Colossians 3 Once I asked the pastor of a large, vigorous, dynamic, growing church with a strong emphasis on the deeper life in Christ—a church that confirmed fifty to seventy-five new members each week—where these people were coming from. His…
Read MoreA Roadmap for Spiritual Formation
“The way to spiritual wholeness lies in an increasingly faithful response to the One whose purpose shapes our path, whose grace redeems our detours, whose power liberates us from crippling bondages of the prior journey and whose transforming presence meets us at each turn in the road.” – M. Robert Mulholland Spiritual formation has become one of the major movements…
Read MoreAlumni Survey: Is the Transforming Community experience transforming leaders?
We surveyed those who have completed the Transforming Community since 2001 and 85.5% indicated that the Transforming Community experience was very valuable and changed them in profound ways! No one indicated that the experience was neutral or not valuable. We received an excellent response rate to this alumni survey and are excited to share the results with you. The…
Read MoreSweet Hours of Prayer: How Fixed-Hour Prayer Nourishes the Soul
“At last I believe life itself is a prayer, and the prayers we say shape the lives we live, just as the lives we live shape the prayers we say.” –Ted Loder The first time I participated in fixed-hour prayer, I felt like I had come home to a place I had never been…
Read MoreTransforming Center and IVP Partner to Carry on Legacy of M. Robert Mulholland Jr.
The Transforming Center is honored to steward the work of Dr. M. Robert Mulholland, Jr (1936-2015) by offering two of his most important works to a new generation of pastors and leaders as Transforming Resources®. In partnership with InterVarsity Press we will be re-releasing expanded editions of Invitation to a Journey and The Deeper Journey as Transforming Resources this spring! Based…
Read MoreThe M. Robert Mulholland Scholarship Fund
April 2016 We are pleased to announce that the board of the Transforming Center has created a scholarship fund for pastors and leaders in honor of Dr. M. Robert Mulholland, Jr. This fund provides financial support for clergy and non-profit leaders to participate in the Transforming Community®, a two-year experience of spiritual formation for leaders. “The establishment…
Read MoreChoosing to Walk Together: Encountering the Risen Christ on the Road of Life
“The Lord is risen! He is risen, indeed!” Luke’s account of Resurrection Sunday includes the story of two dazed and distraught disciples traveling along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It was Sunday, the third day of the most traumatic weekend of their lives, and they were on a roller coaster of emotion. On Friday…
Read MoreHoly Week: An Invitation to Walk with Christ
Guidance on using the lectionary. Lectionary readings for the Liturgy of the Palms: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-20; Luke 19:28-40 Lectionary readings for the Liturgy of the Passion: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 22:14-23:56 or Luke 23:1-49 “Could you not stay awake with me one hour?” Matthew 26:40 Holy Week is a bizarre juxtaposition of…
Read MoreA Cruciform Journey into the Cruciform God
Guidance on using the lectionary. Lectionary readings for March 13, 2016: Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 A journey into God may be the best way to describe Lent and Holy Week. Of course, it…
Read MoreRemembering Bob Mulholland
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear, the saying goes, and that is certainly what happened to me with Bob Mulholland. When I first encountered his book, Invitation to a Journey, I was in my early thirties and experiencing the limits of what typical “evangelical” discipleship models had to offer. I had already begun seeking…
Read MoreLent: Help us Find Our Confession
Guidance on using the lectionary. Lectionary readings for March 6, 2016: Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 God, help us find our confession; The truth within us which is hidden from our mind; The beauty or ugliness we see elsewhere But never in ourselves; The stowaway which has been smuggled Into the dark…
Read MoreAsh Wednesday: Crossing the Threshold into Lent
Guidance on using the lectionary. Lectionary readings for February 10, 2016: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12; Psalm 51:1-17; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 “‘And yet even now,’ says the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart…’” –Joel 2:12 Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Church’s observance of the Lenten season—six weeks…
Read MoreLent 2016: Ready or Not—Here it Comes!
Oh God, let something essential happen to me, something more than interesting or entertaining or thoughtful. Oh God, let something essential happen to me, something awesome, something real. Speak to my condition, Lord and change me somewhere inside where it matters. Let something happen which is my real self, Oh God. —Ted Loder This year,…
Read MoreTransformed Nonconformist: A Sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2 The Transforming Center will be closed today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his courageous leadership in championing racial justice and equality through the use of non-violent resistance. In particular, we celebrate the fact that…
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