Renovare
Chris Hall

Chris Hall

President of Renovaré

Chris Hall

Articles & Essays by Chris Hall

04 26 Egret
Essay

Navigating a New World

Published April, 2017 • Featured May 11, 2020

Con­tin­u­ing his reflec­tions about loss and grief, Chris Hall turns his atten­tion to the ways those we love nev­er real­ly leave us — even when they are more than a phone call away. He shares some favorite quotes that bring his friend Tom Oden close by, even as Tom’s absence is still keen­ly felt.
Stones Stacked
Letter

Remembering God's Provision: A Response to the Coronavirus Crisis

Published March, 2020 • Featured March 20, 2020

As we unex­pect­ed­ly tran­si­tion into the volatile and uncer­tain envi­ron­ment of the coro­n­avirus, how can we nav­i­gate it well through the guid­ance and empow­er­ment of the Holy Spir­it? Ren­o­varé Pres­i­dent Chris Hall address­es that ques­tion in this let­ter to the Ren­o­varé community.
Shoe Stepping In Water
Essay

The Surprising Power of the Holy Spirit

Published March, 2020 • Featured March 15, 2020

Ear­ly in his faith jour­ney, Chris Hall was taught that many of the gifts of the Spir­it had ceased. Grad­u­al­ly a new open­ness to the Holy Spir­it devel­oped and he decid­ed to dip his toe into the charis­mat­ic stream. Here’s what happened.
03 21 Holy Spirit Has History
Article

The Holy Spirit Has a History

Published March, 2017 • Featured March 4, 2020

Many have believed that God went silent for hun­dreds of years after the 1st cen­tu­ry. Not so. With the help of his men­tor, Tom Oden, Chris Hall learned to trace God’s hand through­out history.
Feather And Sky
Essay

Keeping Our Souls Light

Published April, 2018 • Featured February 9, 2020

Poor choic­es form poor habits which lead to dull and heavy hearts. Chris Hall with help from Abba Isaac lights the way back to feath­er-like sen­si­tiv­i­ty to the Holy Spirit.
Bible Psalm 15
Essay

The Psalms: Our Prayer Mentor

Published March, 2018 • Featured January 27, 2020

When we learn to imi­tate those who mod­el a rich and deep prayer life, their thoughts will shape and become our own. In this endeav­or there is no one bet­ter to look at, Chris Hall writes, than King David.
James Catford Featured
News

Announcing James Catford as New Renovaré Board Chair

Featured November 24, 2019

Long-time board mem­ber and friend James Cat­ford will be the new board chair for Ren­o­varé USA.
Windmills
Book Excerpt from The Reservoir

What is the Spirit-Empowered Life?

Published September, 2019 • Featured September 20, 2019

From The Reser­voir, these dai­ly devo­tion­als by Chris Hall dive into the Charis­mat­ic Stream.
Sunset Conversation
Essay

Why Pray If God Already Knows?

Published July, 2019 • Featured July 14, 2019

With help from the church fathers and moth­ers, Chris Hall con­sid­ers what com­mu­ni­ca­tion is like with the God whose knowl­edge is insep­a­ra­ble from his love.
Cow In Field
Essay

Chewing the Cud of Scripture

Published January, 2017 • Featured May 26, 2019

Chris Hall exam­ines John Chrysos­tom’s ​“con­stant reread­ing and mem­o­riza­tion of Pauline texts” in his own trans­for­ma­tion toward Christ­like­ness and encour­ages us to do likewise.
Mary Joseph1
Essay

Walking with Hope

Featured December 5, 2018

In this read­ing for the first week of Advent, Chris Hall explores the mes­sage of hope that the Mes­si­ah brings. With Mary’s tena­cious faith as his mod­el, he encour­ages us to ​“to live in hope [as our lives unfold] in the strange, won­drous, demand­ing in-between time all Chris­tians indwell.”
Fasting Unplug
Article

Holy Hunger

Published December, 2016 • Featured May 17, 2018

Chris Hall encour­ages us to unplug in the most lit­er­al sense and fast in small ways from media. How might your mind and spir­it be trans­formed by abstain­ing from the dis­trac­tions of the dig­i­tal age?
2018 05 08 Church Fathers
Article

Interviewing the Church Fathers

Featured May 8, 2018

Chris Hal­l’s book Liv­ing Wise­ly with the Church Fathers is the last selec­tion in this year’s Ren­o­varé Book Club. Chris shares a snap­shot of what the book is about.
04 10 Purging
Article

Purging the Passions

Featured April 9, 2018

What are the first steps toward unceas­ing prayer? John Cass­ian taught that the key to per­se­ver­ing in prayer is to cleanse the ​“obses­sive emo­tions, atti­tudes, desires, and ways of act­ing” that keep us from lov­ing God, oth­ers, and our­selves as we ought to. Chris Hall guides us in this teaching.
04 03 Bird
Article

How Can We Pray without Ceasing?

Featured April 2, 2018

Chris Hall asks the ques­tion that is instant­ly raised by read­ing 1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 5:17: How can one pray with­out ceas­ing when the human mind so often acts like a flighty, wild bird, always ready to fly away at the least provo­ca­tion or dis­trac­tion? Hap­pi­ly, the desert fathers are here to help!
03 13 Prayer
Article

An Invitation to Openness and Honesty

Featured March 12, 2018

“What rea­son is there to go to prayer with hands indeed washed, but the spir­it foul?” Ter­tul­lian’s ques­tion remains key to under­stand­ing how we ought to pray, Chris Hall explains in today’s post. Only whole­heart­ed sur­ren­der will lead us out of self-decep­tion and into the lov­ing pres­ence of the King.
01 30 Learning Spaces
Article

The Fruit of Confinement

Featured January 29, 2018

Obe­di­ence and sub­mis­sion will grow in the ​“cru­cible of impris­on­ment” — whether that hap­pens behind lit­er­al bars or in the pris­ons of fail­ing bod­ies. Chris Hall shares some thoughts with us about learn­ing spaces we’d rather not enter and the good fruit God can cul­ti­vate inside them.
01 23 Humpback Whale
Article

The Prodigal Mind of God

Featured January 22, 2018

Chris Hall and John Chrysos­tom invite us to spend some time think­ing about how much God delights in the extrav­a­gant vari­ety of his cre­ation and to con­sid­er how, as God’s image-bear­ers, we can pre­serve and pro­tect the nat­ur­al world. They remind us that ​“God loves wild things” — and so should we.
01 16 Bee
Article

A Providential Environment

Featured January 15, 2018

Does God use wild and ter­ri­ble things — like bees and snakes and immi­nent exe­cu­tion — prov­i­den­tial­ly to shape us? John Chyr­sos­tom says yes. Chris Hall reminds us that, under God’s prov­i­dence, all things hap­pen for a rea­son — even when ​“it’s scream­ing­ly dif­fi­cult to dis­cern what that rea­son is.”
01 09 Snake In The Grass
Article

Benefits Beyond Our Grasp

Featured January 8, 2018

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nei­ther are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. John Chrysos­tom embraces this rev­e­la­tion. Instead of look­ing on the dan­ger­ous things in the cre­at­ed world as an absence of good­ness, he choos­es to see them as expres­sions of God’s love. Chris Hall explains.