I am teaching a weekly class at the Tusculum Church of Christ called Designing Your Life for Growth. This will be an exploration of Christian Spiritual Formation. There will be components involving both teaching and praxis, and in order to centralize where people can access content from the classes, I am creating posts here on my website to emphasize teachings from each week. Here I will also be creating a list of links to all the individual posts as I make them.
Some of the things we’ll be talking about:
- Foundations of Christian Spirituality
- Fresh ways to practice prayer
- New techniques for engaging with Scripture
- A tool to develop your personal strategy for being open to how God is shaping you
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Posts for Individual Lessons:
- 01 Five Foundations for Spiritual Growth
CLASS HANDOUT - 02 Pathways to God
CLASS HANDOUT - A Guided Experience: Lectio Divina
CLASS HANDOUT
PODCAST - 03 Purpose in Patterns
CLASS HANDOUT - 04 Creating a Rule of Life
CLASS HANDOUT - 05 Teach Me To Pray
CLASS HANDOUT - 06 Engaging With Scripture
CLASS HANDOUT - 07 Adjusting Your Thinking
CLASS HANDOUT
Recommended Resources:
These are links to books and other media that I believe is beneficial. Please note that I am an Amazon affiliate, and dearly appreciate you using the links here if you plan to purchase any of these.
- Living God’s Love: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality by Holloway and Lavender.
This is a great book for someone with a background in Churches of Christ looking to get started in Spiritual Formation. Holloway and Lavender are both professors at Lipscomb University, and people who have mentored me personally. - Soul Feast by Thompson, revised edition.
This is a rich read for someone wanting to go deeper in a basic understanding of Spiritual Formation. - Thirsty for God: A Brief History of Christian Spirituality by Holt, 3rd edition.
If you enjoy history, this book is a helpful walkthrough of Christian spirituality through the lenses of Christians beginning in the earliest years up to the present time. - Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us by Calhoun.
This book is a categorized collection of all sorts of spiritual disciplines with brief explanations for how to practice each of them. It’s a good book for browsing when you’re looking for new methods to try. - The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.
This is a delightful little book. It is a collection of teachings from Brother Lawrence, a humble monk who spent his life working in the kitchen at a monastery. He has inspired many (myself included) to be intentional about viewing every action in every day as an opportunity to invite God’s presence into your life. - Confessions by Augustine of Hippo.
This is a true classic. Augustine looks back at his life and all the ways God has been with him through his ups and considerable downs. It is a great example of a spiritual autobiography. It is written as a prayer to God with much gratitude.