From the Inside Out
A free six-session online course for groups and individuals seeking a deeper, more transformative life with God.
About this Online Course
This six-part course from Renovaré presents big questions to help you on the journey of Christian Spiritual Formation — the process of growing in freedom and wholeness and becoming more like Jesus from the inside out.
For those new to the ideas of spiritual formation — or those looking for helpful language to share formational ideas with others — this course is a good place to start.
Free For Individuals and Groups
Thanks to generous donors, this online course is completely free. You are welcome to go through the course on your own. Or, gather a group to watch, discuss, share, and practice together. After all, community is where spiritual growth happens best.
A facilitator guide and participant handouts are included. They’re designed to be easy to use and easy on ink and toner — feel free to print as many as you need.
There are no special requirements to facilitate this course — just a desire to go deeper with God and an open heart to listen to others. Our hope is that the course helps people move beyond information and into a richer, more transformative friendship with Jesus.
Main Sessions
Six 15-minute videos presented by Carolyn Arends cover the following big questions in a down-to-earth way:
- What is Spiritual Formation?
- What is My Picture of God?
- What is My Picture of Myself?
- What is My Picture of the Gospel?
- How Do People Change?
- How Do I Follow Jesus?
Podcast Conversations
In addition to the main session videos, this course includes podcast conversations about each of the six big questions with different Renovaré Ministry Team members, including Richard Foster, Mimi Dixon, Ted Harro, Juanita Rasmus, and others.
Learning Objectives
From the Inside Out is intended to help people…
- Develop an understanding of Christian Spiritual Formation, the lifelong process by which Christlikeness is established in the depths of our being.
- Learn how our picture of God, self, and the gospel shape how we think and live.
- Grow in friendship with God through simple formational practices.
Meet the Instructor
Carolyn Arends oversees the Renovaré Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation, as well as several other Renovaré initiatives, including the Book Club. She is also a recording artist, speaker, author, and college instructor. She lives near Vancouver, BC, with her husband Mark and their two children.
Thanks to the generosity of donors, the self-guided course is completely free for any individual or group to use as they see fit.
(Note that we occasionally run online, facilitated cohorts of the course for a fee. But the self-facilitated version of the course will always be free.)
The course is organized as six sessions. Each session includes:
- Main Teaching Video (15−18 minutes) and Transcript
- Participant Handout (which includes discussion prompts and suggested practices)
- Supporting Podcast Conversation (a 30-minute chat with two guests; available as video and audio)
- Devotional Journals (each session is supported with five short readings and prompts for reflective journaling as an optional way to dig deeper)
There is also a Facilitator’s Guide for anyone who wishes to lead a group through the course.
For those new to the ideas of Christian spiritual formation — or those looking for helpful language to share formational ideas with others — this course is a good place to start.
You are welcome to go through the course on your own. Or, gather a group to watch, discuss, share, and practice together. After all, community is where spiritual growth happens best.
Yes, please do!
Yes. Please feel free to make as many copies as you need.
For individuals, the course could take as little as a few days or as long as you like.
For groups, some options are:
- Six Week Version (most common) — Convene your group for six 90-minute sessions.
- Twelve Week Version — Convene your group for twelve 90-minute sessions.
- You could also stretch sessions out over a longer period, compress them into a weekend retreat, or anything in between!
Feel free to discern the best design for your group.
The Facilitator Guide (available in the course) has more about ways to time the course and suggestions for the flow of a meeting.
To begin a group, you simply need to sign up to access the materials, decide with your group who will facilitate, and choose the meeting schedule that works best for your group.
All that is required is your willingness to convene a group and to guide discussion and practice using the provided resources. You can find an overview of the Facilitator role and other suggestions in the Facilitator Guide (available in the course).
Absolutely. Your creativity is encouraged!
We recommend 90 minutes, but length and format can be adapted to your context.
The videos can be streamed directly from the course page, or you may download them for playback on the device of your choice.