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Soul Care

May 14, 2010 , , No Comments

If you have not become familiar with Mindy Caliguire’s site on Soul Care, it is worth a look. Soul care is a more focused area of spiritual formation that examines the heath of our inner life. She explains:

So what makes a soul healthy? Quite simply, a soul is healthy to the extent that it experiences a strong connection to and receptivity to God. Jesus was clear: “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5, TNIV). However, connecting this spiritual reality to how we actually live is another matter.

The Soul Care organization has developed to help you connect with your own spiritual reality, and give tools to change how you actually live – one step at a time. To do that, Mindy and the Soul Care team provide resources, events, and consulting with an aim to:

1. Foster authentic inner growth for individuals
2. Help organizations lead towards spiritual formation and
3. Mentor leaders to focusing on re-establishing their spiritual vitality as the primary step towards a lifestyle of sustainable ministry and leadership.

Go to Mindy’s site.

All the best for the Journey, Gavin.

Book: The Kingdom Life

May 7, 2010 , No Comments

Kingdom Life The HB

A couple of months ago, IVP published The Kingdom Life: A Practical Theology of Discipleship and Spiritual Formation (2010). This book provides a summary of 10 main concepts behind spiritual formation, with each chapter written by one of the leading thinkers in this field, including Dallas Willard, Bill Hull, and others. It’s a basic but solid biblical introduction to the subject.

The Mind Under Grace

May 7, 2010 No Comments

The 2010 March edition of Christianity Today has some interesting articles on the relationship of doctrine to spiritual formation. In The Mind Under Grace, Darren Marks urges us to base our theology solidly on Scripture rather than the experiences of faithful people in the past, and warns against the temptation to think that what we experience is more important than what we think. His article helps to allay the fears of those who believe that spiritual formation is somehow untethered from the word of God.

This edition has two further articles on the importance of doctrine, one on the relationship of doctrine to the daily life, and a fascinating short section on using catechisms today.

All the best for the Journey, Gavin.

Video: Updated Plans for citySeminary

February 17, 2010 , , No Comments

The citySeminary is a city-based, city-focused, discipleship training concept that we are trialling in Dublin among all of our churches. It is focused around the following vision:

as our greatest desire is to honour God by revealing the beauty of his character in our city…

we are learning how to be ever more closely re-formed in His image, becoming cross-cultural missionaries who are passionately searching to bring others into an intimate communion which we enjoy with Jesus

The Dublin citySeminary has the following objectives that are shaped by this vision:

  1. Coordinates united city-focused mission.
  2. Training for discipleship and mission.
  3. Support and nurture of church departmental leaders.

Video: House of Prayer

February 17, 2010 , , No Comments
Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, believes prayer is the barometer of the church’s success. It’s not how many people who show up to services that count, but how many come to pray. In this 50min video, Cymbala presents his vision of a praying church and tells the story of how the Brooklyn Tabernacle grew from literally a handful to having 1500 turn up at prayer meeting. Very inspiring.

Best wishes for the journey, Gavin.

Video: Don’t Run Alone

February 7, 2010 , , No Comments

Discipleship is not intended to be a private or individual affair. It is meant to be done together…

Video: New Believers

February 5, 2010 , , No Comments

What are the important things for new believers to learn? In the video clip below, Dallas Willard suggests what spiritual disciplines to teach at the beginning of their journey to set the right direction.

Best wishes for the Journey, Gavin.

Video: Discipling Young People

February 5, 2010 , , No Comments

If you are interested in discipling young people, this video gives an interesting overview of their world-view and provides a link to another website where you can get more resources.

All the best for the Journey, Gavin

Video: Spiritual lives of teens and emerging adults

February 5, 2010 , No Comments

Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (April 2009), by Christian Smith and Melina Lundquist Denton maybe a book you will want to have a look at. This book will be followed up with Souls In Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults (Sept 2009).

They also offer a DVD (2007). The trailer is below.

All the best for the Journey, Gavin.

Scougal on religion

February 1, 2010 , No Comments

Henry Scougal (1650-1678) wrote a book entitled, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, and it was reading this book that brought about a deep conversion in George Whitefield. At the beginning, Scougal defines religion and those that practice it as follows:

They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or, in the apostle’s phrase, “It is Christ formed within us.” . . . .

. . . . religion being a resemblance of the divine perfections, the image of the Almighty shining in the soul of man: nay, it is a real participation of his nature, it is a beam of the eternal light, a drop of that infinite ocean of goodness; and they who are endowed with it may be said to have “God dwelling in their souls, and Christ formed within them.” (39, 44)

I found this quote majestic and extremely challenging. What defines religion in your life–in your church? How does it compare to Scougal’s conception?

All the best for the Journey, Gavin.

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