Learning to Hear Is a Gradual Process

Theologians use a phrase to talk about how Christ-followers are already redeemed but will not experience the fullness of redemption until they live with ...

Spiritual Transformation Is a Joint Effort

Pastor John Ortberg writes in Leadership journal:

Significant human transformation always involves training, not just trying.

Spiritual transformation is ...

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 ...

Spiritual Enlightenment Through Profound Darkness

Can you imagine what it would be like to lose three generations of your family in one blinding moment? How would you survive? That happened in 1991 to ...

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 ...

Being Afraid of the Light

If there is a terror about darkness because we cannot see, there is also a terror about light because we can see. There is a terror about light because ...

Biker Covers Up Dirty Tattoo

Parishioners of a conservative, small-town church in rural Indiana were surprised one Sunday when a biker came to visit. He stuck out like a sore thumb—pony-tailed, ...

Ascetic Koinonia

Pachomius was an Egyptian soldier won to Christ by the kindness of Christians in Thebes. After his release from the military around A.D. 315, he was baptized. ...