In this contribution to the topic of grief and grieving, the opportunity for spiritual transformation and the restoration of your soul is suggested.

It is an intended offering to share the road with every human being who will also find themselves on the same journey.

• To suffer what mourners suffer,
• to comfort those that mourn, and
• to suggest, when the time is right, that grief may offer a pathway to the restoration of your soul.

That is the hope that inspires every disciple to grieve differently than the world – to grieve with transformational hope.

I gathered with a small group of women who have been harmed by some of the interpretations of Jesus' encounters with women and together we reimagined new liberating interpretations.

This project was written in light of those gatherings and includes:

• theological exegesis,
• cultural critique,
• information on the latest research on embedded trauma,
• personal narrative, and
• poetry.

The book is meant to examine how everyone is being spiritually formed in the workplace.

The opportunities for growth, the challenges, and the real-world practices that might help us take control of the process.

Using examples from my own life in the rough and tumble world of Hollywood, I examine different areas where we might invite God in more actively to engage life as it is actually lived in and around our jobs.

The project was birthed out of a realization that God can be directly encountered and intuited.

I used Tozer's "Pursuit of God" as and "outline".

My idea was to take Pursuit of God by Tozer and bring more insight and practical application out of it, with the overarching theme being encounter.

A aphoristic travel log that explores the spiritual discipline of celebrating a Sabbath Year in the form of international travel.

I Formed is not a call to abandon the digital world but to raise awareness that the benefits and unintended consequences of our technologies are a spiritual formation.

As we have been formed around the values inherent in our technologies and lost something of what it means to be fully alive and fully human, we can be re-awakened by intentionally pursuing and cultivating a life with God as an apprentice of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This project explores what it means to love God with your mind, some practical disciplines that help us love God with our minds, and then provides vision for how our lives are fruitful when we do.

I prepared a book proposal for Intervarsity Press on the discipline of prayer.

Since prayer is the heart of the Christian experience of life with God, it seemed appropriate to capture what was experienced in my prayer life through the Renovaré experience.

Taking inspiration from Matthew 13.31-33, Richard Foster’s Streams of Living Water, and my own life events, I am enamored with the idea of gathering around a table or stove and sharing discussions about the truest parts of ourselves.

Sharing the most unadulterated—albeit sometimes confusing—bits of our faith in order to seek commonality with and encouragement from others is the goal of all the exercises found in this cookbook.

I have written a proposal for a book of spiritual formation children's sermons.

For faith communities that include this sort of teaching format, in worship or children's church, it offers another tool to support spiritual formation.

• This both introduces spiritual formation concepts when children are absorbing so much
• and presents concepts in alternate formats to help families weave practices into daily life.

Many of us have an interest in our own spiritual formation, but we don't know where to start or we just randomly take a stab at some spiritual practices. This book shows you a plan and walks you through each step.

You may be dealing with:

• addictions
• difficult relationships
• anger
• resentments
• guilt

Or maybe you just know in your heart that something is missing from your life. Maybe you just crave a deeper, more personal relationship with God. This book can put you on a well-traveled path that will awaken your spirit, change your life, and allow you to experience a sense of peace, joy, and love that you have been missing. The best part is that the journey can be fun, exhilarating, and fulfilling.

Here is a link to purchase the book on Amazon

From the Inside-Out proposes, “The love of God is revealed in the world when intentional followers of Jesus joyfully discover together how to love God, love others, and make disciples, and - coupled with increasing self-knowledge - begin to experience the personal transformation to a new self-identity: beloved child of God.”

This project is the manuscript of the first two books of four, intended to walk micro-groups (just 2 or 3 people) through a transformational, relational process of discipleship and disciple-making.

Like three strands of a braided rope, Integrated Discipleship entwines:

• Interpersonal small-group relationships;
• Individual spiritual formation through intentional disciplines; and
• Intentional self-knowledge.

Throughout my time in the Renovaré Institute I shared my experiences and education with the congregation to whom I serve as pastor through sermons, liturgies, and essays.

For my final project I curated these resources and compiled them into a book. I included an introduction which explained how I wound up in Renovaré as well as a conclusion in which I offered an evaluation of the resources presented.

View this project.

In Out of Zion, I invite my reader to journey with me deep into the culture and theology through my story. Set in narrative, my reader gains wisdom about the importance of understanding culture when sharing the Gospel.

In addition, through my search of the Bible and eventual conversion to historical biblical Christianity, the reader gains a vivid understanding of the biblical and Mormon plans of salvation, equipping him/her to engage compassionately and successfully with Mormons.

Find my book on Amazon: Out of Zion

This resource manual is a compilation of over fifty individual prayer exercises.

• Each exercise has two pages: a guide to the coordinator that gives directions on setup, supplies needed and ideas for debrief/journalling questions, and the printable Guide Page that leads the participant through the exercise, providing dialogue for prayer conversation with God.
• Great resource for any size group!
• You can include prayer exercises in a small group, church service, retreat, or special event.

My project discusses how to be in relationship with God, self and other.

It encompasses:

• the practice of presence with God,
• relationship with self and community.

It discusses the integration of all three aspects.

It addresses the disciplines as we were taught in the Institute.

The book resources much from Dallas Willard on the subject of work and answers the questions:

• "What is the purpose of work as God intended it?"
• "How can you remain strong in the Lord as you perform your job?"

Find at Amazon.

As I implement my learning at RI, I see Christian growth or discipleship not as much as the traditional, performance-based program, but relationship-based with Jesus' "Love God, Love Others" as the goal and develop from the heart level to the whole personal transformation.

I have since developed:

• a series of Chinese sermons in my local church and other churches
• a full-blown book in the Chinese language

They are available only through bookstores that sell Chinese Christian books. The Chinese sermons can only be assessed through my church website.

An 8 week course for small groups modelled on the Alpha course structure.

• Each week consists of food, a talk, a series of exercises, and an outline for group interaction.
• It is based on the Sermon on the Mount and introduces rhythms of silence, blessing, examen, lectio divina, and scripture memorisation.
• The course culminates in a day-long silent retreat (which follows the rhythm of baking bread for eucharist).

The book is to be published in July 2017. An accompanying DVD series and interactive app are slated for production and release in 2018.

Translating the Good and Beautiful God, life, and Community books to the Arabic language.

• Note: The books were translated to Arabic and published by someone else before I finished translation.

A Beautiful Disaster: Finding Hope in the Midst of Brokenness examines how God uses suffering to form us into the image of Christ. It was voted the 'Best Book on Spiritual Formation by a First-time Author' by Hearts and Minds books in 2014.

• Find the book on Amazon.

A man dying of cancer answers some tough questions about his relationships with:

• God,
• himself,
• his wife and his son-in-law,
• and his adult daughter.

The book describes human nature in the Kingdom of the World and the psychospiritual states that are problematic or less than ideal...

• then describes what life with God means
• and how it affects those same problematic or less than ideal issues.

Each person is fearfully and wonderfully made. A staggering feature of God’s design for us is that we are capable of hosting God’s Spirit and expressing the Spirit’s life and love in our everyday existence.

It is important that we not only celebrate the great traditions of Christian Faith in Jesus’ ministry and through the history of the church, but also intentionally embody and participate in these Streams as apprentices of Jesus today.

This resource explores how the various parts of our person can be aligned and animated by God’s Spirit so that the wisdom, grace, presence and compassion of God can flow through us in greater measure.

• our heart
• mind
• face
• gut
• hands
• soul

https://www.lightstream.institute/#resources

A one-month, 31 day prayer book/devotional resource focussing on the central goal of God's desire for human beings - transformation into Christlikeness - summed up in George Macdonald's prayer "Take me and make a little Christ of me".

Each day follows the same format, containing:

• An opening prayer of intention
• A Psalm
• A Gospel passage
• A formation-focussed passage or 'Jesus-focus' passage
• A reflection or quotation on transformation and/or the "with-God" life.
• A prayer of intentional formation
• A suggested spiritual practise (most days)
• A song/hymn suggestion (most days)
• An optional suggestion for readings which take you through the Psalms and the Gospels in 31 days

Additional Note: I would be delighted if any who use this resource would be willing to send me quotations/reflections on spiritual formation which they have found impacting on them which may be included in further 'editions'/expansions of this project. Also a sense of what, if anything, they found most helpful in the resource.

I developed an online program for spiritual direction with an emphasis on listening for the Kingdom of God in conversations.

Find out more here.

• Note: I've yet to implement the online portion of my program but am considering starting it this fall.

This course seeks to cultivate a holistic understanding of Christian discipleship and spirituality as it explores a wide range of topics related to personal and social transformation, spiritual practices and life in the Kingdom of God.

The biblical, theological, and practical dimensions of Christian spiritual formation will be examined. This will include an exploration of how the Church has practiced its faith in various contexts and centuries.

This course will focus on the task of Christian spiritual formation into the image of Christ; making ourselves available for ongoing growth and learning as we live out our understanding of the implications of the imago dei (Genesis 1:27) as followers of Jesus.

Christian spiritual formation is not a formula that can be taught; it is a process that is completely qualitative and dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit and takes place only in the context of an ongoing relationship with the Holy Spirit.

For these reasons, this course will focus on equipping the learner with an understanding of and practices with the tools that help one to be available to and cooperative with the presence and work of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit promotes in us Christ-like character.

• This class is for junior's, non-departmental majors only.

This project was an adaptation of L. Dee Fink's taxonomy of significant learning for Christian higher education. It is based on Dallas Willard's position that everyone receives a spiritual formation and Gordon T. Smith's corresponding statement that everything that happens in theological education is formative, not just the inclusion of "spiritual formation courses".

Since the goal of Christian education is transformation into Christ-likeness, what seems to be lacking in Christian higher education is an integrative taxonomy for learning objectives that guides course design in discovering and maximizing the formative potential for all aspects of learning with the goal of producing transformative learning.

TST meets one full Saturday a month with triad contacts between during the month.

The first year introduces basic elements of formation, focused on prayer, spiritual disciplines and tracing through the Bible with a focus on the Covenants.

The second year focuses on the teachings and mentorship of authors such as Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, Richard and Nathan Foster, and St. Benedict and Ignatius.

Year three focuses on how to live in the culture as disciples of Christ.

The program is intentionally limited to no more than 20 and is ecumenical in nature—not affiliated with any specific church or denomination.

• It has completed 3 three year cycles, plus a special years program dedicated exclusively to Willard teachings,
• a year long program on the Exercises of St. Ignatius,
• and in the fall of 2017 a special program titled "Another Kind of Life," focused on how to live as a disciple in a culture experiencing dismantling of structures previously taken for granted.

A six week video series using Psalm 23 as the structure for understanding and growing in spiritual formation. It includes a 12-15 minute video each week with a weekly spiritual health challenge.

Weekly topics include:

• "Who is God"
• "who am I"
• "what is the gospel"
• "Is it possible to hear from God"
• "Is it actually possible to become more like Jesus"

This video series was made for those who are new to spiritual formation and language. Original video series was aired live on Wednesday evenings online with a host who answered questions followed by me (Sun) who came on after the video to answer any further questions.

https://www.churchoftherock.ca/watch-online/series/wellness-wed-spiritual-health/?message=ww-spiritual-health-03

This is a 4 session course teaching disciples of Jesus how to pray.

• Session 1- Life with God through Prayerful Disicpleship.
• Session 2- Being with Jesus in Prayer.
• Session 3 - Becoming like Jesus in Prayer.
• Session 4 - Working with Jesus in Prayer.

Each session combines teaching with a prayer practice for homework.

This project used twelve in person sessions incorporating teaching and praying the rosary to build a bridge between the traditional Rosary, as prayed by Roman Catholics, and the teaching on spiritual formation of Dallas Willard and Richard Foster.

Framing the Rosary as a spiritual formation practice enabled a largely Catholic audience to encounter Willard's and Foster's teachings in an accessible way. It deepened their experience with the rosary.

The non-Catholics were able to see the rosary as a spiritual practice in a way that was easier to understand.

The series was designed to be done in a quarter.

• Spiritual Formation 1 and 2
• Solitude
• Lectio Divina
• Prayer
• Fasting
• Living Daily
• Hurry
• Suffering
• Rhythm of Life
• Specific Change
• Wrap up

From my prospectus: In 2003, Dallas Willard was the first keynote speaker for the 53rd ACSI Annual Teachers' Convention in Anaheim. During that speech, Dallas said, "We have to have Christian schools because Christians have a body of knowledge that no one else has...it is not a defensive act...[Christian schools are] trying to address real issues of life..."

I (D. Lang) believe there is value in bringing into the private Christian school K-12 classroom the teachings of Christian spiritual formation and disciplines and how to become like Jesus as taught throughout the International Renovaré Institute. These students spiritually formed in Christ-likeness will then go on into their respective vocations, bringing the good news of "the kingdom of God within contemporary society" and "closing the sacred-secular divide" (Willard, DVC xvii).

• The original project is being revised to either a book format
• or to teach at a workshop at a teacher convention.

I created and led a workshop, Befriending Sorrow, to explore biblical lament and how it can be a doorway to closeness to God and others. This included personal stories of my journey through grief, how it formed my understanding of God, and how I understand lament as vital in developing honesty before God.

The workshop concludes with teaching participants how to write a personal psalm of lament (inspired by Psalm 13), and giving participants time to explore lament as a doorway to intimacy with God.

I then created a liturgy for our community’s first The Longest Night service. Part of the liturgy included the psalms of lament written by participants in the Befriending Sorrow workshops.

• YouTube Link: The Longest Night - 2020

The study of Colossians is similar to bible studies currently in use in that participants study the book of Colossians for 10 weeks.

However, some of the differences involve the use of lectio divina, questions such as:

• "What is God highlighting for you in this passage?"
• "How is Jesus drawing you near?"
• "How are you sensing God's presence?"

A variety of spiritual formation practices and opportunities to pray and learn with one's body, with one's art, etc.

Interviews were conducted with youth ages 11-15 years old, to explore their connection with God. Responses were summarized and evaluated.

• Lessons were created to address how to grow in one's friendship with God at this age, which could be used in a retreat setting or as individual activities.
• In addition, the lessons and activities were used with a group of twelve girls (ages 12-15) in a retreat setting, where they had the opportunity to explore their relationship with God.

Swimming in the Streams is a series of spiritual formation study guides targeted towards local Adult Christian/Spiritual Formation programs within local churches and prayerfully beyond who are seeking ways to invite members into serious, deeper apprenticeship with Christ.

The first study---the book itself, Streams of Living Water---gives an overall introduction to and explanation of each Stream and how all six Streams flow together as means of modeling Jesus Christ. Then follow six individual book studies, one book representing each Stream. Each book study is broken into weekly meetings or into overall themes within the book.

The model presented here for classes and groups around these rich books is just that—a model:

• Worship (Scripture, meditation, and song)
• Lesson Presentation and Discussion
• Breakout Rooms and Reflection
• Closing Prayer

The studies here are designed to be taught over Zoom but could easily be adapted for in-person teaching.

U2raDaughter is designed to be an ongoing group for women (easily be adapted for men) based on the model of Fellowship of the Burning Heart. The purpose is to develop a relationship with Jesus by engaging in Gospel passages Lectio Divina style for each gathering, and by developing fellowship with each other through deep sharing.

The opening passage is from Matthew 11:28-30, followed by scripted Opening Words, Who We Are, Our Mission Statement, and twelve Core Values. The leader for the week chooses the Gospel passage and leads the group through the hour gathering, including having the above components read aloud. Times for journaling, reflection, and discussion are scheduled. The hour is closed with a blessing from the leader. This group works well in person, on Zoom, or (as we're now experiencing) as a hybrid gathering. Through a closed WhatsApp group the women stay connected through the week as prayer concerns, thoughts, and written prayers are shared.

Special notes: The adaptability of this experience has surprised me. We were able to have three meetings before closing down for COVID19. Growth continued through those times, and in the process we've created a vibrant Women's Ministry Group through the leadership team.

Since I found the books written by Dr. Dan Allender (Healing the Wounded Heart) and Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk (The Body Keeps The Score) so provocative, I decided to interact with these books (and others) as they pertained to my own experience of physical and sexual abuse as a child.

Much of my writing pivots around these two understandings:

• the role of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and how they become damaged by abuse, and how an abused person can repair that damage;
• how and why the recollection of abuse experiences bring back the same trauma as the event itself, and how an abused person can learn to tell their abuse history while remaining in the present.

This journal was written and used over the course of a 9-month "ministry year" in my local church setting. It operated in sync with Sunday morning teaching (at key points) and was available to all who attended worship but was used intentionally as a workbook and conversation starter and curriculum in all of our small groups.

It begins with a season of reading a Gospel for what we see about Jesus, using that focused "study" as a catalyst for vision...

• What about Jesus do I want more of in my life?

After stating vision and working a bit with declaring intention to grow and change, the final major piece is a book study of Nathan Foster's Making of an Ordinary Saint, used as an exposure to and discernment around which means of growth would be most helpful to me in my stated vision and intention.

Spiritual formation is a lifelong journey of walking with God. What we believe about God and how His kingdom functions in our lives is critical to how we live in harmony within our families and communities.

With this project, parents are given opportunity to examine some principles and practices of spiritual formation and how they can be influential in the relationships they have with their grown children. The culmination project includes a two-page proposal that can be provided to church leaders to describe this as a workshop for parents of adult children.

Marj notes:

• Living out the implications of this project with my own grown children will take the rest of my life,
• but I will do this in His strength and by His mercy and for His glory.

The curriculum cultivates building a transformative relationship with Christ.

The lessons introduce God’s invitation to participate in the Kingdom of God here and now, explores the characteristics of kingdom living, and invites the student, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, to participate in training tools that develop Christ’s character in them.

Teaching, training tools and community sharing of training experiences are integral pieces of the process.

• The curriculum is 23 weeks in length
• With a separate training tool accompanying each teaching component.

My project has been unfolding over about 10 years and has to do with what developing a 'curriculum in Christ-likeness' looks like when it is integrated into every aspect of church family life. We use the language of 'Apprenticeship Training' as a means of trying to capture this heart and mind orientation.

Note: My project is not very concrete as it relates to people seeing what I've done and simply implementing it. I essentially took the 12 themes of Renovaré and sought to demonstrate how we have been addressing those 12 areas through various means. So our 'curriculum' includes many 'curriculums', strategies, Sunday morning teaching, relational environments, etc. It would not be possible to simply make the project available to other alumni in some kind of tangible, concrete form. A conversation really would be the only real way to bring benefit to other students at this point.

My project involves the passing on a theology and practice of spiritual formation to the younger generation of Christian leaders that are emerging from our universities.

The project contained:

• a spiritual formation curriculum of five sessions to be done in small groups
• three large group teachings
• what training our staff in spiritual formation would look like

This project is designed for a leader to walk alongside a small group of people to help them cultivate the 10 Healthy Missional Markers in their faith journey. The 10 Healthy Missional Markers come from a church health ministry developed by the Evangelical Covenant Church.

Each month, participants are asked to:

• memorize a scripture passage,
• practice a spiritual exercise,
• read a book, and
• meet together.

The material can be easily adapted by changing any of the elements to make them more relevant to their context. The outline also proposes the group spend two of their monthly meetings in a retreat setting.

I would be happy to share the basic spreadsheet with anyone who is interested in reviewing it.

This is curriculum for high commitment groups. It is a scope and sequence approach, and is not conducive to new members entering once the group gets started. It is spiritual formation/discipleship based.

• Resource books are "Celebration of Discipline," "The Life You Always Wanted" (Ortberg), and "Choose the Life (Bill Hull).
• It is in Word so easy to edit for the specifics of your denominational distinctives.
• There are separate member books and leader books.
• It can be broken down into smaller duration groups, but designed for about a 20 month group.
• Strong emphasis on members going and doing something with it when they complete the study.

Introduction to the spiritual life through a multi-week, multi-media format. Together in weekly one and one half hour sessions we immerse ourselves in the wonderful engagement of our spirit and God's Spirit from birth to life eternal.

Using the author's personal journey, as shared in written reflections, music, and still pictures, participants are given the opportunity to begin their own process of self-discovery, recovery of memory, and reflection within a caring Christian community.

• Participants have found healing,
• regaining of joy,
• God's love, and
• the ability to craft their own story to share with others, family members, and especially grandchildren.

Use of the traditional Sunday School structure to select a group of individuals evidencing readiness and interest in Christian Spiritual Development.

For my project, I set out to weave Renovaré spiritual formation principles into the 3 ministries I was already embedded in at my local church, First Pres of Colorado Springs.

The ministries were:

• Spiritual Formation lay ministry team
• small groups ministry
• local missions service projects

The project includes devotionals, a small group curriculum, and a curriculum for an Intro to SF class.

I describe it as an adventure in spiritual formation. It is highly structured and requires a significant commitment.

It is a 2 year study using material and resources currently available in the market place. It consists of 6 parts that build upon each other. It is probably best done in a small group.

• The only prerequisite is commitment and a heart that deeply desires to know God intimately.

Note: The project is not an off-the-shelf, ready to use project. It is tailored to the specific situation.

For my project, I led a small group with my daughter and several of her friends, beginning when they were eighth-graders and continuing through their high school graduation last May.

Many of the discussions I created using ideas and materials from my Renovaré Institute experience. We also worked at a food pantry, visited the art gallery after discussing art and Scripture for several weeks, and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows at our annual family bonfire. And we goofed around quite a lot and ate bowls and bowls full of popcorn.

Note: I do have several discussion plans I'd be willing to share, though I suspect that I'm better at leading discussions than I am at creating discussion outlines that will work for everyone.

The curriculum takes a campus minister and student disciples through seven months of weekly meeting to build key spiritual disciplines into their lives.

The seven disciplines are:

• practicing the presence of God
• solitude/silence/stillness
• Scripture memorization/meditation
• prayer
• submission
• confession
• sabbath

Each weekly component involves scripture study on the discipline and debrief on the practice.

The overarching purpose of this curriculum is to introduce children to Jesus. The Scriptures are the anchor, and the Spiritual Disciplines are used as a means of opening the space for relationship.

The structure is a grand exercise in the Spiritual Discipline of study. It is based on the people profiles found in The Renovaré Life With God Bible. These are not merely lessons to be taught—this is discipleship for children, giving them knowledge and opening the space for a Christ-like relationship with God, adults, and peers.

Find out more here.

I created a small group curriculum as a companion for the "Life with God Bible" to guide groups through the fifteen stages of formation that God is with us (as highlighted in the Renovaré "Life with God Bible.")

As a family, we are looking to experience God's kingdom together as a family and sharing it with our neighbors, both in the everyday and outdoor settings.

We want the "deep gladness" of His Kingdom, being together and enjoying nature to "meet" with the "deep hunger" that we see in our neighborhood.

I took the concepts that we learned and added activities to help youth grasp them in a small group setting.

It mainly includes topics such as:

• our image of God,
• various ways to read and interact with Scripture, and
• using our creativity in various forms to maintain our relationship with God.

I've included examples that my youth did with the various topics. I've also tried to be very directive so that anyone could use it, but there's certainly plenty of room for making it your own.

A series of three session courses (trios) based on the Apprenticeship series. I had previously run a course teaching the three books one after the other but found it was a very long commitment for people to make. People dipped in and out but the series foundation is "The Good and Beautiful God". If someone had missed that book it was harder to grasp the rest.

The trios consist of one session from each book; Good and Beautiful God, Life and Community. We looked at one aspect of our picture of God and then asked how our own lives and our community life would look like if we really believed that.

• God is Good:
  • Week 1: God is Good
  • Week 2: Learning to live without worry
  • Week 3: The worshipping Community

If we really believe in God’s overriding governance for good then we can let go of worry. If we really believe God is good then we will genuinely want to worship him. As we worship, we are reminded that God is good.

The material from each chapter was taught from the front (20mins) we had small group discussion (45mins) and then set the Soul training exercise. With time for tea and coffee plus discussion of previous soul training each session was 2 hours max.

Find out more here. Ali notes these docs are aimed at a British audience. :-)

The project is designed to blend multiple threads of church life into helping others follow Jesus. I want to use preaching series; small groups; and teaching in a variety of ways, along with personal/individual guidance in developing a personal rule of life.

Preaching Series: Converting Life into Light: 8 Week Series. The Big Idea for this series is that Jesus came into the World “as life” and that life was converted into Light. John 1:4, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” How do we convert the Life of God within us into Light in our sphere of influence, and thus expand the Kingdom of God. It was a three part series:

• Converting Time to Light
• Converting Talents to Light
• Converting Treasure to Light

Small Groups: We are using are small groups that meet in the community for the purpose of Spiritual Formation. Here are resources used within the last year. Four Women’s Groups have used the following materials as curriculum:

• A Spiritual Formation Workbook, by James Bryan Smith and Lynda Graybeal
• The Good and Beautiful Series, By James Bryan Smith

Rule of Life: I have encouraged each of our Staff Members, Elders, and Ministry Team Leaders to develop a “Rule of Life.” I have worked with them on developing them, and meet with them monthly to see how they are doing.

It is a workbook for children going through attributes of God starting with each letter of the Alphabet with corresponding pages to color.

• Each page has a brief paragraph to engage the student, questions, space to write or draw their responses, followed by scripture verses.

The project is a six-part follow-up to an evangelism course like ALPHA. I created it for a German small group context for the recent attendees of an ALPHA evangelism course. It is based on Jesus' proclamation in Mark 2:15 of the presence of the Kingdom of God and the response of repentance and belief.

The course is geared toward people who have little or no knowledge of the Bible, church, or what it means to be a follower of Christ. The ALPHA pattern of having a meal together and then engaging with Scripture, prayer and spiritual practices was continued. Questions and concerns were welcomed and participation encouraged but without pressure.

Scripture reading between the meetings was suggested and spiritual exercises were provided for each week that reinforced the lessons, and opportunity was always given to share their experiences or ask questions that had arisen.

• The 'Kingdom' section is in two parts - love encountered and love engaged.
• 'Repent,' is also in two parts - love desired or rejected and love received.
• Finally the two parts of 'Believe' are love understood and love lived.

It is intended to be a foundational introduction to Biblically based spiritual formation, life with Christ, and prayerful loving community.

My project is a spiritual formation website I created called Invitation to Rest (https://invitationtorest.org/). I wanted to create a place in the digital world that invites people to experience rest and a relationship with God and do so in a way that can be accessed anytime on any device.

I want to take some of the complicated books and concepts we have experienced and boil them down in as simple and plain of a narrative that people can easily grasp and click to learn more. I am envisioning that this site will be part of my life’s work and ministry going forward.

I would like to go through all of the Renovaré content and create some on-line courses where I can provide a more interactive way to engage people to learn more concepts around spiritual formation.

My big dream is to conduct a variety of retreats and spiritual direction and will have a section on the website for that.

The Bright Star Marriage Blog is one component of our strategy to help shape what we call "bright star marriages," marriages that shine in a dark world. Bright Star marriages:

• See marriage as a vehicle for God to change each partner from the inside out
• Relate to each other in a way that reflects the love of the Trinity
• Live out their unique calling for the sake of the world
• Serve as a shining example of what happens when God lives through a marriage

The blog's focus is to introduce readers to the idea of a transformative marriage through regular posts that unpack key concepts in the following categories:

• What’s God Got To Do With It?: Most couples - even Christian couples - compartmentalize their marriage away from God’s influence. They see marriage as a purely human endeavor. This category of posts seeks to reclaim the fact that marriage is a deeply spiritual enterprise in which God is keenly interested. These posts also seek to root marriage in the Trinitarian reality of community.
• In: We believe that one of God’s primary purposes of marriage is to transform each partner from the inside out. This category of posts explores how God uses our everyday marriages to shape us into the people we were created to be.
• Between: This category of posts helps couples see the vision of one-ness and to learn practical skills for loving like Jesus. We also use a lot of research from Attachment Theory in these posts to explain why we respond in certain ways when we feel connected or disconnected in our relationships.
• Through: Ultimately, God designed our marriages to be our bases of operation in the world, from where we radiate his love to those around us. These posts cast the vision of the transformational role a marriage can play in a home, a neighborhood, and a community.

Ask the Therapist: Periodically, we publish conversations we have on marriage questions where Gretchen shares her perspective as a marriage therapist.

How I constructed this podcast:

I first read the book “Storybrand” to learn how to clarify my message to my targeted avatar/ audience. On YouTube I listened to the author of the book, Donald Miller, to learn how to develop my own brand and what that meant.

To explore further options, I listened to several Podcasts to give me an idea of what were the most popular podcasts and why. My Apple iPad was all I needed to listen and create a podcast to launch it globally.

An online course called Podcasting with SkillShare explained how to develop my own podcast. Here I was able to download a booklet they offered which provided a checklist or plan of action to move forward. I learned about ideation, goals and how to create an audio file.

On Skill Share I learned how to edit the podcast, add music, give my podcast a title and develop a description that would be about 300 or less words. I still need to finish a press kit for release. It's important to stay consistent and release a podcast a week for the first five weeks to gain an audience. I am currently on week three.

• Anchor.fm is a new application that is free to receive the software to record, edit and distribute.
• On my checklist from SkillShare were the details for ordering a microphone for recording from Amazon.

We followed instruction to design cover art and brand development with Canva.com. This was fun to be creative and see what the cover art might be for a Christian podcast on spiritual practices.

Rev.com was suggested and contracted at $1.00 a minute to create a transcript that can be accessible on the website blog. Twenty-minute podcasts would cost me $20.00. Once this is on my website then Google search could identify key words and index these words for searches.

Visit the project here: https://www.unlockingchristianspiritualpracticespodcast.com

Note: This was just fun to explore new ways to communicate that are at our fingertips with new technology. My daughter was a big help in completing this project.

I have learned that it can be very challenging to see God when we are suffering deeply. But it can also be the place where we sense his closeness and love more than at any other time.

That’s why I pulled together an entire series about connecting with God in suffering on the blog of the mission organization I work for, Novo. I worked with several different missionaries in our organization—trained counselors, spiritual directors, and people who had personally experienced different kinds of suffering—to create this series of posts.

• Some are theological in nature.
• Others are personal narrative.
• A few speak to how to help others who are suffering.

All of them point to that question of Where is God when we suffer? How can we stay close to him in the midst of it?

Check out the series here!

This blog site will craft and post daily prayers with the end of encouragement and to promote a desire to live the With-God Life.

They prayers will be cross-posted on various social media sites including Facebook and Twitter.

There will also be blog posts from time to time from a "Parkishly" perspective to encourage the reader.

https://www.parkishly.com

I write down my reflections on devotional classics recommended by Dallas Willard, trying to understand his thinking and his practice. Even in my brief time knowing him, I have found him to be a great mentor and teacher of the way of Christ. As I write, I am reminded about spiritual disciplines and seek to use them more effectively in my walk with Christ. They teach me greater dependence on him.

I envision my blogs to have some signs or cairns on the path which may help or encourage other followers of Jesus. The internet provides a way for people to gather in small ways who are separated by distance, language, or culture. My hope is that I can encourage others to seek Christ through spiritual formation and in the teachings of Dallas.

Another use for these blogs of my journey have been as a resource for a spiritual formation group we have been leading. I am able to draw from things I have studied and written about for the benefit of our group, like a small entry I did on the prayer of Examen I shared with our group recently.

Websites:

• http://messagescraps.blogspot.com
• http://classicdevotional.blogspot.com

"Money Lies" will be a series of blog posts that walks through the many false beliefs we have about money.

First, we will identify the practices that are characteristic of those ideas.

We will then contrast those false beliefs about money with the truth that Jesus reveals about God and life.

This part will focus on our inability to serve both God and Mammon by examining the interaction between false beliefs about money and false beliefs about God.

Then we will look at how the lie operates in our life by learning to recognize when it rules over us and the effects it has on us.

Finally, we will provide some ideas on how we might begin to adopt the truth Jesus reveals by engaging in applicable spiritual disciplines and considering the positive effects of this process.

Ministry based on my spiritual writings and poetry on FB, Instagram and blog at www.healingpresenceministry.com.

My project had 2 parts:

• First was my completed manuscript and book proposal.
• Second was starting my website www.healingpresenceministry.com which expanded to be a weekly blog, on FB 3 posts a week with over 160K followers now growing by 30K a week due to ads and followers sharing; Instagram with over 15K averaging over 1000 likes per post.

I post one poem a week on my blog and FB. Other posts on FB and Instagram are inspiring, encouraging, comforting words of hope and God's love on beautiful photos.

This Blog site is for those who are looking for a place to find a voice in their journey with God. It covers topics that are uniquely formational in theme and typically focuses on aspects of a with-God life—in areas of discipleship, community, and ministry.

Visit the blog here.

This is a 3-year men's discipleship training group (DTG) consisting of 12 men divided into two equal groups. Group 1 meets on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays (8:30-10:30 am) while the 2nd group meets on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays. If you cannot make your group's meeting, you may attend the other group's meeting.

We will learn how to study the Bible, study some key biblical passages pertaining to being a disciple of Jesus, and focus on some key, overarching principles for living in the kingdom with Jesus daily. We will also read selected books for background understanding.

We will emphasize 5 components of change:

• The Word of God renewing our mind
• Spiritual Disciplines reforming our habits
• Ordinary Events & Trials of Life refining our character
• Christian Community reinforcing our obedience
• The Spirit of Christ changing and uniting our heart with God

Our ultimate goal is transformation from the inside out and union in action with the Triune God.

Long term relationships with several men using personal interaction, scripture meditation and resource books (Foster, Willard, N T Wright, Jan Johnson).

• The goal is to make what we read more than head knowledge, but rather direct application to who we are in Christ and hoe we allow Him to live in us and change us.

This project is a one year mentoring program where experienced leaders are paired with emerging leaders in the church.

• This contains an outline for topics to discuss each quarter.
• There is an application for mentees with an outline for the program.

Find out more here.

A extended weekend women’s retreat in a beautiful location for Women Who Want More (WWWM). Not more hurry or worry, strife, overextending, exhaustion.

This is time is a reset for more joy, and contentment, and peace. To be waking up to the fullness of the good, true and unique design of each woman. Women stopping their schedules, comparison game, and scarcity mentality. This allows for Space to believe that God is up to something Bigger.

The retreats are in beautiful places for 10-15 women to get away on the beach or in the mountains or some historic city. The purpose is to remember that they don’t need to be all things for all people, and step into a true freedom as they follow Jesus. Women saying Yes together to God's Extravagant Love. This includes spiritual practices with their minds, bodies, spirits. The time includes gathering together and solo time to reflect and examine.

The extended weekend (Thursday to Sunday) will include:

• A schedule that they don’t have to make
• Emotional Refreshment
• Exhale that brings rest
• Good Surprises
• Worship
• Exercise (optional)
• Invigorating group conversations
• Individual Devotional times
• Centering Reflection
• Offered prayers to release our burdens

Everything is included: the place, the snacks, the engagement activities, the yummy meals, the solitude books, worship, personalized goodies. They just have to get themselves to the retreat location.

https://www.donandrenee.com/

The title of my project is "Finding Your Way: Bearings for a Transforming Friendship With God."

The project is a series of six four-week retreats built around the six core questions of the first two semesters of the Renovaré Institute. The material was crafted as a guide that spiritual directors would offer to groups or individuals participating in an extended retreat in daily life.

The guides include:

• an outline for an orientation session,
• weekly prayer materials and suggested practices,
• a closing session, and
• briefing notes on several forms of praying with scripture.

The Bright Star Cohort is a nine-month intensive process that builds upon the Even Better Retreat. Up to fifteen participant couples work under the guidance of three mentor couples to dive deeper into the core Bright Star marriage themes:

• In: How God uses your marriage as a lab to change you from the inside out into the kind of person who can have a life-giving marriage, and who will be at home in heaven
• Between: How God uses your marriage to model the connectedness experienced every moment inside the Trinity
• Through: How God uses your marriage as a platform for your calling, for the sake of the world

The nine months are divided into three-month cycles, one for each of the core themes. Each cycle has the following components:

• A one-day mini-retreat to experience and dive deeper into the theme
• Monthly practices to engage participants in God-driven transforming experiences
• Monthly small groups to process what each person is learning (2-3 participant couples per mentor couple)
• Monthly individual check-ins between mentor couples and participant couples

This is a weekend retreat aimed for high school/college age attendees.

The focus is on how we form our views of God, considers two common false narratives about God and offers some practices to take home.

This curriculum offers four sessions:

• the teaching portion,
• activities, and
• small group reflection questions for each gathering.

This is a guide for those who are interested in a spiritually guided thirty day retreat.

I have used the basic Ignatius Retreat outline to write this guide into four sections.

• We look at the love of God,
• our sinful condition,
• Christ's life and work on our behalf,
• and the outward expression of His love through us to the world.

The entire guided retreat notes are comprised of materials I focused on in my two years’ experience with RI Seattle Cohort 2017 to 2019.

The Spiritual Formation Leadership Summit is a three-day retreat and conference for Christian leaders. The retreat element aims to nurture the soul of leaders who constantly pour out their lives in service to others. The conference element seeks to equip leaders to more effectively disciple those in their care. Participation is limited to sixty leaders.

The 2018 Summit developed the theme “Resurrecting the Gospel” for this Renovate Institute Project. The Summit essentially followed a monastic pattern of prayer, common meals, an hour of teaching followed by an hour of silent reflection.

• The four workshops argued for an expanded vision of the Gospel that moves beyond the good news of the atonement to other equally important elements of Gospel such as union with God and the pursuit of shalom.

The 2018 Summit was held April 14-16 at Eagle Rock Retreat Center on the edge of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. Since the completion of this project the Summit has expanded to offer both a fall and spring Summit.

The vision is to provide a context where pastors can attend to the needs of their souls for physical rest and spiritual renewal, as well as a practical process for nurturing and sustaining an authentic, inter-active relationship with God. This includes providing a context where growth can take place in safe, authentic community.

The strategy for implementation is two-fold.

• First, providing a retreat where pastors receive a taste of deeper intimacy with God through vision casting, hands-on experiences and Christian community.
• Second, providing the opportunity for pastors to become involved in an on-going spiritual formation small group with fellow pastors.

The retreat design could easily be adapted for other demographics besides pastors.

The retreat/curriculum is based on some of the concepts learned during the SF institute. It's unique design allows a 48 experience of creating a grid/ map of one's vision for living in the Kingdom of God, by focusing on:

• sovereign foundations,
• core narratives,
• living in friendship with God,
• authenticity in love, and
• reaffirming God's grace as wounded healers with divine encounters that have contributed to our unique design, purpose and callings.

I attempted to lay out a viable spiritual formation road-map for reflective practitioners of an integral mission network across Latin America called the “Red del Camino” (The Way Network).

I took the most compelling things that I had learned in the Renovaré Institute (the highlights), and turn it into available information to build spiritual formation awareness and practice into the life of the RdC. In other words, to make it accessible to Latin Americans.

• Note: Building from the foundation of my Renovaré project, I'm actually turning it into a more concrete plan through my Fuller Seminary Spiritual Direction doctoral project.

Women’s Retreat

• The Healing Force of Spiritual Friendships
• Contemporary research on loneliness and friendships
• Know your role; Know your goal
• Learning to have “conversations that count”
• Practice Loving Listening
• Practice Self-Assessment: My Listening Skills Inventory
• The power of a good question: Life-giving questions
• Practice The Power of Contemplative Practices
• Definitions and Examples
• How these practices help a soul friendship
• Practice (with extended time and space, handouts prepared, etc)

Our non-profit helped working women juggling busy schedules integrate all of life under the loving care of the Kingdom of God.

Events and meetings centered on focused subjects including:

• spiritual disciplines
• practicing the presence of God

Book studies, discussion and prayer groups offered community and fellowship.

Day and overnight retreats and events focused on:

• lectio divine
• contemplative prayer
• hearing God

A set of guides to be utilized for 1-day silent retreats. Each guide is written with the Christian calendar in mind; September through May is the designated format.

• The guide includes a theme, Scripture, reflective questions, and applicable quotes.
• As an example, the theme for March is "Keeping Vigil," or paying attention during the Lenten season.

My garden is in a peaceful setting with winding paths created to mimic a labyrinth.

There are multiple opportunities to sit and meditate.

There is a brochure for anyone to use as they travel the path.

• Along the path are objects to aid someone in sensing God's presence.

This is a retreat for girls in their senior year of high school to help them prepare to continue to grow and thrive in their faith as they move on to the next stage of their lives.

My project was the framework for a three day retreat for furloughing missionaries.

The retreat begins with dinner on a Wednesday evening and ends with dinner on Friday evening.

• The retreat includes solitude and silence
• Is geared around reentry back to the US after being overseas.

A series of 7 short films (one intro and one for each of the 6 streams) aimed at introducing those outside and on the fringes of church to the life of the kingdom.

• Each short film encourages people to take away an action to complete on their own.

Watch the videos here.

We wanted to create a documentary about the life and impact of Dallas Willard. The purpose of the film would be to wet the appetite of the masses with Dallas's approach to the gospels. Moreover, the film would serve as a time capsule for future generations as those who know Dallas best and were most influenced by him are still alive and well.

I have worked with the Dallas Willard Center in helping produce a video sermon series for John Ortberg. I have also worked on a committee on behalf of the institute in development of their new website.

I developed a way to pray the hours using quotes from Institute readings and other sources meaningful to my spiritual life.

It is not for beginners but suited more for people on the road of deeper experience.

My project provides a 90-Day spiritual practice journal with essays to help folks develop the habit of intentionality and consistency.

I think this work could be used as a potential:

• short book,
• podcast interview,
• blog post, etc.

Biography of DB pointing to all the spiritual disciplines he practiced, with an emphasis on how they helped change him.

As a special educator, I focused on how to create sermons that work for congregants at all levels of intellectual ability. Our context includes adults with intellectual disabilities who worship with others without disabilities in an inclusive context.

I used the principles of universal design of learning (UDL) that includes applying multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression.

My project includes four sermons based on Renovare resources. Each sermon has a UDL planning chart to show how the lay speaker sermon went beyond the traditional "I speak/ you listen." I also reflected on how the ideas worked.

Six week Preaching and Study Lenten Series on the Six Great Traditions of the Church in worship and utilizing small group discussion.

This series includes eight sermons that I prepared and have preached in various settings. They address topics of the Sermon on the Mount, as they are understood by Dallas Willard.

Jesus offers us a life with God and will teach us how to live our life. We can take him seriously and in doing so, find abundant life in the Kingdom of God.

There are also activities and discussion questions that can be used in a small group setting or with an adult class. I have adapted the material for older teens as well using the activities and discussion questions.

Working as a district superintendent with my district lay leader to develop a teamwork approach between clergy and the lay leaders in the district as we work to bring about a culture shift in our local churches to prioritize discipleship and transformation as the core mission of the church.

I led the congregation I was serving in a church-wide focus using the book Renovation of the Heart.

• Books were made available and each Sunday I preaching a message based on each chapter.
• We also made available Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice by Jan Johnson.
• The small group ministries also engaged with the small group curriculum and leaders guide developed by Gary Moon.

The world is full of liturgies. These liturgies form us they create desires and loves within us. We have only to think of The Mall. This space is set up to create in us desires and loves engaging our whole bodies: our eyes, with smells, touch and even taste. We are shaped and deformed by these desires and loves.

In the Anglican tradition, we also use liturgy every Sunday. The Liturgy also creates desires and loves, not for self but for God and others. The Liturgy engages the embodied spirit, we stand, we kneel, we cross ourselves, in the Eucharist—we eat and with our eyes we see the lit candles on the Table we are focused on God. Worship is not just an expressive act but is also very much formative. God is shaping us through the repetition of the Liturgy. We place our selves our embodied spirit in the Spiritual Discipline of the Liturgy. Where through indirection we are being re-shaped, re-formed.

The World understands that repetition/training is necessary for formation; think of sports, learning how to drive etc. Only the church believes we have to come up with novel ways of worship every Sunday. This may hinder being formed within the service, it may lead us to having an experience that competes with all other experiences in life.

In our Fellowship the message always ask us a question. We participate throughout the whole Liturgy. We enter silence and take out our journal and respond to the question. We then have a sharing time for anyone who would like to share. We are very honest about our lives. We share our struggles with competing loves and desires-we are a no-shame zone. We also have a time for anyone who has a Word from The Lord for the community. When we are led we pray with oil during the sharing time for one another.

Our Fellowship meets in our home. The Chapel use to be our living room. This space is set apart and only used for prayers and Sunday Worship. The space is designed to invite you into thoughtful silence and listening. As a community we have been doing a book study on The Divine Conspiracy for months, we are only on Chapter 4. We are not in a hurry, change comes by degrees. This Fall we will enter a year long training in Healing Prayer. We want to intentionally connect Healing Prayer and transformation. After worship we have a meal together every Sunday. Please pray for us.

• Notes: I take my vows and will be commissioned this June as a Monk in the Religious Active Monastic Order of Saint Martin de Tours as a Chaplain in The Anglican Church.
• We are married and single, male and female Chaplains placed through-out the country, with our Abbot living in The East Coast.
• How this relates to my project I was looking for a community of fellow students of Jesus who value spiritual formation into Christ likeness that I can be accountable to.

Small group with men in the county jail.

I just wrote a paper about the process of salvation from my perspective.

The tool gives the respondent a detailed report, including graphs and explanations, which provides an assessment of their relative strengths/areas of growth in Christian formation, their ranking with respect to various population groups, an indicator of their self-awareness of their own Christian formation, and recommended targeted spiritual disciplines.

This resource is especially suited to be used in:

• one-on-one spiritual direction, discipling, and mentoring contexts
• group settings such as church programs, group spiritual direction, or seminary classes

Note: Those interested should email me for guidance before taking the online assessment.

The Immanuel App aims to aid people in increasing their awareness of God in the present moment by sending context-based prompts throughout the day.

It can be difficult to stay aware of God throughout the day. With this motivation, we built an app to help us listen more attentively to God’s voice in the moment by contextually redirecting our attention to the voice & presence of God and the present reality of God’s kingdom.

If you install the app, we would ask you to just allow the app to bring to your mind and heart your life with God. We believe that the strength of this app is that it encourages one’s awareness of the Kingdom of God both in the present moment and in one’s present context. At this initial stage, “context” is being determined through the time of day. In the future, context may be determined by:

• location services
• calendar events
• questionnaires

If you are interested in being added to our trusted testers or to collaborate in any way, please email Tomas at [email protected]

I created an exhibit that showcased my Institute journey through art that emerged as a response to all that I was reading and experiencing.

• I used key quotes from our readings and lectures;
• Displayed the books we read;
• Included my altar items from each residency;
• Approximately 40 pieces of larger art on display along with many smaller pieces, art journals, and course journals.

Website: https://renovare.org/events/overview

This is Christ-centered yoga.

The intention is to bring one's body into a place of peace and receptivity to the Spirit for the purpose of transforming the entire person, including the physical body, into Christ-likeness.

• This is a place of refreshment,
• letting go, and
• receiving new life as we breathe in the Spirit of God.

This project begins with examples of passing to individuals on what I learned at Renovaré about the with-God life. The individuals included:

• a woman pastor in a difficult church,
• two women in a weekly study,
• a woman incarcerated for life in prison,
• a family with a brain-injured daughter, and
• a trans-sexual graduate student.

Because I didn't have any immediate plans for implementing a project anywhere, I then described three organizations and how I might proceed with a project should an opening present itself. These organizations include:

• an off-campus (but close) Christian organization with a ministry to undergraduate and graduate students,
• another similar but smaller organization tied to a Religious Studies professor's (whose wife is the director) academic center, and
• a very small, rural United Methodist Church where I was attending during my time in the Institute.

Each organization was described along with my current (at the time) involvement and a plan for potential future involvement. I closed with principles I would follow in developing a tailored curriculum for these organizations:

• Authentic living;
• assessment of need;
• prayer, not judgment; and
• availability.

I edited my class notes, incorporated notes from other cohort friends, and inserted photos and graphics.

The notes were distributed among our cohort after each intensive.

As I understand it, the notes were also used with:

• other Renovaré Institute cohorts
• the Denver cohort, in which I participated

This project is a series of meditations on John 13-17; the invitation of this passage is to discover Christ's heart of love for his disciples in general and for you in particular.

Each meditation explores a facet of Christ's actions, teachings, or prayers in these chapters, always coming back to the inclination of Christ's heart toward those who follow him.

Each study consists of one short, major quote in large font at the top of the page, followed by an extended quote from a book, followed by a related Scripture passage. Then there are a few questions to ponder, followed by a suggestion for a spiritual practice.

I named the studies "Recess" and here is the introduction to them:
Recess: a temporary withdrawal or cessation from the usual work or activity; a secluded or inner area or part.

These contemplative studies are meant to provide you with an opportunity for recess, a chance to cease your usual activity and examine your inner self. A time to be aware of God and how he is working in your life.

Begin with prayer, simply asking God to speak to you. Read slowly, pause, think, and converse with God. Find a way to make the “big idea” at the top of the page a part of your thinking throughout the day and week (sticky notes are great for this!).

• The studies are not meant to be hurried through.
• Come back to them several times during the week.
• Print them and jot down your thoughts and reactions, or keep a journal.

But most of all, enjoy your time with God! He loves being with you!

Visit Sharon's website, Dwelling Place, to learn more: http://www.dwellingplaceindy.org/recess-contemplative-studies/

Our Father's Ranch is a boutique working cattle ranch located on 112 beautiful irrigated acres of farmland in Southern Oregon.

There are many opportunities and places here to be still...

• places to rest,
• retreat,
• renew,
• relax and
• recalibrate your heart, soul, body, mind and spirit.

Please visit our website at Ourfathersranch.org

This curriculum is a 16-week presentation of stories from the Book of Acts.

• The stories are presented through interactive story-telling, short skits, and role plays.
• Each lesson includes memory verse practice, a craft, and a game.
• Spiritual practices are introduced with a focus on different and accessible ways to pray.

Our church had unused meadows/shallow woods that could be turned into mowed walking trails. I worked with our staff to have trails mowed in these areas; as well as organized workdays for others to help clear out invasive shrubs and mulch the trails.

My goal is to encourage our church family to spend more time outdoors as well as use these trails in their individual practice of prayer, meditation, silence, worship, etc. The hope is that each year we will build on these practices whether through individuals or small groups incorporating the trails into their spiritual growth.

• There are six signs that I installed that can have different content posted, according to the practice highlighted.
• For example: I used Pete Greig's book, How to Pray, and the sign prompts featured a different section of the Lord's Prayer.
• If you completed the walk, the six signs guided you through the prayer.

My project incorporates lectures and discussions of several books related to the Renovare Institute material, starting with the trilogy written by James Bryan Smith (The Good and Beautiful God, The Good and Beautiful Life, and The Good and Beautiful Community).

This material is to be followed by presentations of:

• Discovering Our Spiritual Identity (Hudson)
• Hearing God (Willard)
• The Spirit of the Disciplines (Willard)
• The Spiritual Formation Workbook (Smith & Graybeal)

Through offering these various topics, my goal is to introduce our congregation to the material covered in the two-year RI program (6 core questions and 6 streams) thereby fostering an awareness and appreciation of spiritual formation within the church culture.

Our church has several unused acres which I developed into trails to be used for meditation, prayer, exercise, celebration, etc.

Six stations were built which include benches and signs which currently direct you in a stand alone portion of the Lord's prayer. Once a person walks the trails and visits each sign they have prayed through the prayer. The signs are designed so that you can insert new content based on the topic of a prayer walk.

We have used the trails for other church events, including filming worship and sermons during Covid.