Posts Tagged ‘spiritual formation’
Q&A with Ruth About New Book Life Together in Christ
Why are community and spiritual transformation two of the most over-promised and under-delivered aspects of the church today? Ruth Haley Barton: When I hear people speak in glowing terms about their vision for community, I have my doubts. When they tell me about painful things that have happened to them in community, I am never surprised.…
Read MorePentecost: Celebrating the “Spirit” in Spiritual Transformation
Lectionary readings: Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:24-34; I Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23 This week we celebrate Pentecost—the incarnate and risen Christ present to us in a new way through the gift of the Holy Spirit—enlivening, empowering and transforming us to further Christ’s redemptive mission in the world. Pentecost signals the beginning of Ordinary Time—not because it…
Read MoreHow the Spiritual Formation of the Pastor Affects Spiritual Formation in the Congregation
“It you attempt to act and do for others or for the world without deepening your own self-understanding, freedom, integrity and capacity to love, you will not have anything to give others. You will communicate to them nothing but the contagion of your own obsessions, your aggressivity, your ambitions, your delusions and ends and means…”…
Read MoreTransformational Worship: Encountering God in Ways that Change Us
Editor’s Note: Rory Noland is a composer and songwriter who has joined the Transforming Center team to help us continue to cultivate worship experiences that open us to God’s transforming presence. In 2005 he completed the two year Transforming Community experience and articulates in this article some of the basic components of transformational worship that…
Read MoreGratitude for Ordinary People
“And they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” Matthew 1:23 As we emerge from Thanksgiving week and enter into the Advent season, I am aware that gratitude is a powerful source of energy in the spiritual life. It is an inner dynamic that has the potential to be deeply transforming and…
Read More