Discerned?
There are many times I discerned God’s direction for my life. Every day I pray that I might follow where God is leading me and the paths I take might be the ones God has prepared for me. But especially as a pastor who is called by congregation and ministries, I have discerned call and…
Metta Meditation
This was an interesting practice that really was close to giving affirmations, but Oneika Mays explained it was about us and not the person. That we offer words of compassion to a loved one, then to ourselves, then to a familiar stranger, and then to a difficult person. And she told us about how her…
Spiritual Direction ~ Spiritual Friendship
How can spiritual direction and spiritual friendship play a role in your own spiritual journey? It is an interesting thought to think about a pastor getting/needing spiritual direction, as most in the membership of congregations would think pastors are the ones giving spiritual direction, but I recall my psychologist telling me that he goes to…
Technology and Spirituality
There are many ways that technology can hinder our spirituality. We can get sucked into social media and allow it to consume us so we do not look at spiritual insights or think about God. We find ways to distract ourselves from where we should be and how we should be connected to the world…
God in nature
As I was thinking about a time when I experienced God in nature I had a few came to mind but the one that most stuck out was the encounter with a microburst at Camp Luther in Ohio. This was Monday, July 21, 2008, and the start of a week few of us present will…
Charismatic
What aspect of the charismatic tradition resonated with you, and how could it continue to be part of your spiritual journey? It is interesting to me that the Charismatic movement is the movement that seems to follow the Holy Spirit more than others and the word Charismatic has Charis in it, which is grace. When…
ham sab
Tonight’s journal entry is on the topic, what does liberation look like in your relationship with God and your relationship with others? This is interesting given the topic of our discussion was on lament and the Advent Devotional done by Pastor Tahina Verna Rasche and Pastor Jason Chesnut in 2016 called Fuck this Shit. It…
Contemporary Christian Spirituality Person
Tonight in class we had group presentations over zoom. This was an interesting twist on group projects but was very well handled by the whole class and was a wonderful time of learning in my humble opinion. We were asked to write about which person and their spiritual emphasis did we most relate to and…
Minimalism
I think like most people when we hear the word minimalism we think, “Oh no I will have to get rid of all of my stuff.” We have an emotional attachment to our stuff. As I was reading the excerpt from Christian Minimalism by Becca Erlich I was struck by her talking about her emotional…
Contemplative Practices
We were specifically asked to look at the practices at the Contemplative Outreach Website and then give our impressions of the practices and if we would consider using them regularly in our own spiritual life or using them in our ministry setting. I think this is an interesting thought as I have used the Contemplative…
A Father’s Psalm of Lament
I see her about to break under the weight of those demons. I need to help her but the demons just laugh at me. I shout, “Get away from her. Leave her alone.” The demons laugh louder I hear you say to me, “Oh, you of little faith…” I feel like I have failed her,…
Spiritual Gifts
My understanding of spiritual gifts really has not been expanded, as I have done lots of work on the Natural Church Development (NCD) in the past and also the 3 passages of the body of Christ in the Pauline corpus and the gifts listed there. I did love the discussion we had about tongues and…
A Psalm of Despair
O Lord where are you, I feel all alone as if you are not hereI’m straining under the load of life Struggling to take care of myself and my familyWondering why you are not here to help me Wondering where you are to guide meI wonder if the way Paul discussed would be better To…
Spiritual practices
Discuss your experience today learning about and trying some spiritual practices. What practices made you comfortable or uncomfortable (learning about or practicing), and why? How can you incorporate some of these spiritual practices into your daily life? So today in class we discussed the book Soul Feast by Marjorie Thompson which lays out spiritual practices…
What is your hope?
What is my hope for Contemporary Christian Spirituality as a class, my self personally or my ministry? As I ponder this question, my first thought is why do these three things need to be different? My faith is intertwined in my life that it is hard to look at something I do that isn’t a…
The beginning of a Contemporary Christian Spirituality Journal
It is interesting to me that 20 years ago I started this blog for a class. It was an independent study that took me to a gathering of 3 different groups of church developers in Orlando. We had to blog about our experiences. And now today I am starting a journal for one of the…
aSacredRebel 