Richard J. Foster

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Articles & Essays by Richard J. Foster

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Celebration

Published October, 2014 • Featured February 6, 2019

Richard Foster shares how celebration prevents the spiritual disciplines from deteriorating into soul-killing legalisms and saves us from taking ourselves too seriously.

Essay

An Everyday Experiment in Hearing God

Published February, 1979 • Featured January 30, 2019

Found in archives dated shortly after the publication of Celebration of Discipline, these honest journal entries from Richard Foster provide a helpful window into a daily experiment​with listening to God moment by moment.

Book Excerpt from Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

How We Pray for Daily Bread

Published December, 1991 • Featured January 26, 2019

Trusting God fully means learning to ask for our bread, day by day. To those of us who live in a world of efficient farming, industrial bakeries, and super-sized grocery stores, asking for our daily bread may seem a quaint, too trivial petition. Not so, says Richard Foster in this excerpt.

Journal/Magazine Article

Jesus Our Present Teacher

Published October, 1977 • Featured January 7, 2019

“Jesus Christ is alive today in power and wants to be your present teacher.” Richard Foster invites us to begin today a lifestyle of listening and obedience to Christ.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Guidance

Featured December 31, 2018

What is the spiritual discipline of guidance, and how can we fine-tune our hearts to receive what God is giving us? Richard Foster gives us a short introduction.

Book Excerpt from Celebration of Discipline

To Worship is to Touch Life

Featured December 27, 2018

Richard Foster joins us once again to share some thoughts on the immediacy of the spiritual discipline of worship in the with-God life — that sense that we at last are experiencing Reality.

Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

Justice and Liturgical Worship

Featured December 12, 2018

Richard Foster joins us to offer caution from Scripture on the perils of divorcing our practices of worship from the compassionate heart of our God. Using Amos as his text, Richard connects the acts of worship and service into one joyful expression of praise.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Worship

Featured December 3, 2018

Turning to Isaiah and John’s responses to the glory of the living God as models, Richard Foster gives us a brief introduction to the practice of worship, reminding us that, whether our encounter with God is one of divine fireworks or a still, small voice, we must answer with awe, wonder, and praise.

Book Excerpt from Celebration of Discipline

The Christian's Authority to Forgive Sin

Published December, 1977 • Featured November 15, 2018

“The followers of Jesus Christ have been given the authority to receive the confession of sin and to forgive it in his name.” Richard Foster unpacks the privilege and power of confession in this Celebration of Discipline excerpt.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Confession

Published October, 2014 • Featured November 7, 2018

Confession is the spiritual discipline that allows us to enter into the grace and mercy of God in such a way that we experience forgiveness and healing for the sins and sorrows of the past.

Book Excerpt from The Challenge of the Disciplined Life

The Vow of Service in the Family

Featured October 30, 2018

This excerpt from Richard Foster’s The Challenge of the Disciplined Life reveals how to live out the Ministry of Power, particularly in family life, through the ​“ministry of the towel.”

Article

Is It So Terrible to be Useful?

Published October, 1988 • Featured October 23, 2018

Drawing on a scene from ​“The Last Emperor,” Richard Foster helps us shift our thinking from feeling used to becoming useful.

Book Excerpt from Celebration of Discipline

Self-Righteous Service Versus True Service

Published December, 1977 • Featured October 16, 2018

Richard Foster invites us to discern between self-righteous service and true service, the kind that ​“can serve enemies as freely as friends.”

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Service

Published October, 2014 • Featured October 9, 2018

“Of all the spiritual disciplines, service is the most conducive to the growth of the grace of humility within us.” Richard Foster explains why in this snapshot of Service.

Book Excerpt from Spiritual Classics

Silence Gives Power to Words

Published December, 1999 • Featured September 24, 2018

John Main contends that for words to be charged with strength and power, they must spring from the silence of the Spirit in our inner being.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Solitude

Published October, 2014 • Featured September 20, 2018

“Solitude empowers us to walk away from all human pretense and manipulation.” Richard Foster gives us a clear snapshot of this vital spiritual discipline.

Letter

Facing the Fear of Solitude

Published March, 1997 • Featured September 6, 2018

Solitude strikes right at the root of our fear of becoming unimportant, unneeded, insignificant, useless— which is precisely why we need it. Richard Foster helps us learn how to resign as CEO of the universe.

Book Excerpt from Freedom of Simplicity

Christ the Center

Featured July 31, 2018

Richard Foster draws a profound lesson about simplicity from Matthew 6. How are we to live with glad and generous hearts? With eyes focused singly on Christ the center.

Journal/Magazine Article

Four Paradoxes of Christian Simplicity

Published December, 2004 • Featured July 17, 2018

Christian simplicity is not just a faddish attempt to respond to the chaotic and materialist world in which we find ourselves; it is a call given to every Christian in every age to follow Christ.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Simplicity

Published October, 2014 • Featured July 12, 2018

“Simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward lifestyle. Both are necessary. ” Richard Foster explains why.