Because it’s fun news, I’ll start with the end, then give some details.
Today Renovaré is releasing a new online course called From the Inside Out: Discovering a Deeper, More Transformative Life with God.
Thanks to generous donors, it’s completely free.Access it here.
The course is yours to take individually or run with a group. Share it freely.
It includes videos, podcast conversations with Renovaré Ministry Team members, a facilitator’s guide, and participant handouts. We’ve done our best to make it beautiful and easy to use.
Who is the course for, what does it cover, and what is our hope for it?
From the Inside Out is a starting place for those who say: I’m hungry for a deeper life with God. I’ve heard about spiritual formation. Where should I begin?
It covers six big questions…
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?
And our hope is that it sparks a vision of a different kind of life — that it moves the needle from fascination about God to an interactive life with God.
You have to understand that I’m skeptical about online courses. The world is awash with them, and my inner critic asks what makes this course more than a forgettable drop in a vast ocean of content.
So, inner critic, thank you for your concern. Here’s my kind reply:
1. It distills without dumbing down. Carolyn Arends condenses core ideas from the two-year Renovaré Institute into 15-minute teaching videos. (It can’t replace years of experiential learning, of course, but it’s a wonderful starting place.)
2. It’s gentle without being wishy-washy.How something is taught matters nearly as much as what is taught. This course is unapologetically centered on Jesus and offers a concrete path of spiritual growth, yet is still gentle and winsome. All the words in the previous sentence don’t often co-exist.
3. It is experiential. Knowledge puffs up; love builds up. Becoming a person who loves well requires practice, especially the practice of receiving the love of God. So prayer practices are woven into the course to help work the concepts from the mind down into body and life.
4. You. The people who gravitate toward Renovaré tend to be a special bunch — open-hearted, Jesus-loving, un-pretenders who desire a deeper life with God. So we’re thrilled to offer you a tool that hopefully helps you and others enter that life. And if you choose to facilitate the course with a group, how you hold space with a group makes a tremendous difference. I’m not talking about performance; I’m talking about listening to people and keeping an open ear to God — stuff you already do, which is why we’re happy to tell you about the course first.
So there you have it. We hope From the Inside Out is a helpful signpost on your lifelong journey with Jesus.
