The Discipline of Listening

Discernment involves listening with love and attention to our experiences, to each other, to the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit deep within ourselves ...

Bono on Spiritual Formation

Your nature is a hard thing to change; it takes time…. I have heard of people who have life-changing, miraculous turnarounds, people set free from ...

Christian Life: Getting a Feel for the Game

A common theme in modern Christianity has been that head knowledge is how one becomes more adept at following Christ: the more you know, the better you'll ...

Importance of Spiritual Mentors

Gordon McDonald, at the passing of a lifelong mentor, recalled his loyalty and the crucial counsel he gave in a crisis:

He was there when, many years later, ...

Importance of Church in Spiritual Formation

Spiritual formation is so often couched in more individualistic terms, that it's easy to forget the important role the church community plays in our ...

Boy's Hoax Teaches Valuable Lesson

Ever hear about the dihydrogen monoxide hoax? It's been around for a while, but it got a lot of media attention in 1997 when a 14-year-old student ...

Woman Throws Engagement Ring

One fine day in 1941, Violet Bailey and her fiancé Samuel Booth were strolling through the English countryside, deeply in love and engaged to be ...

World Can't Steal the Ascension

Ascension Day is the perfect church holiday because the world can't steal it. The culture around us has quite ruined Christmas and Easter. Of course, ...

Jesus' Ascension Brings Sigh of Relief

To embrace the Ascension is to heave a sigh of relief, to give up the struggle to be God (and with it the inevitable despair at our constant failure), ...

The Power of Group Solitude

Adie Johnson, who serves on the staff of a small church in Colorado as Pastor of Spiritual Formation, shares a few thoughts about the power of group solitude: ...