Footnoteref: The Role Of Engaging In Spiritual Practices

Wilhoit, while teaching and having dialogue with his students pertaining to their spirituality formative influences which lead to conducting interviews with a number of church leaders, he realized, through these stories and interviews there has been a “sea of change in our formational structures and their effects will take a generation to fully manifest themselves.(13)” This establishes the basis for writing this book, to make a “call to intentionality about our formation and to repentance about how we have tried to engineer formation more than we have prayerfully opened our lives and our churches to God’s grace(14)”.

Some adults may live much of their lives with a literal faith. Stage three is group faith Young people start to value the importance of friendship and often come to view God as one who treats them much like a trusted companion. Stage four is person faith. People strengthen their faith by questioning earlier beliefs. Stage five is mystical faith. At this stage of faith the awareness of God’s inner presence leads one to become more aware that God also dwells in others. Interfaith dialogue now becomes not a threat but an opportunity for new understanding. Stage six is sacrificial faith. Jesus, Dorothy Day, and Archbishop Romero are examples of this sacrificial faith. Such people display radical and consistent commitment to the doing of God’s will that is uncompromised by concern for personal security.

Under his ten reasons, I note the common questions usually raised in a spiritual direction session: "Where is God in this situation for you?" "How is God in this for you?" "Where is God in all of this?" "How might God be calling you to respond in this situation?" "Who is God in your life?" "Where is God hiding?" "Who is God?" "What is God calling you to do?" I have asked some of these questions in the sessions but not all of them. These are some good questions to evoke the story of the directees and allow them to deepen their awareness of God's presence. I will have to learn to use these questions in my sessions at appropriate times. I agree with his comment that "As you become more aware of the Divine in your life, there is a good chance that your ideas about the nature of God and God's relationship to the universe and you will change." I believe this personal change will result in a closer relationship with God and deepen one's life in

A relationship with God with close interaction is what life is all about. Hearing God's voice and knowing His presence daily can take your Christian experience to the highest level. The Bible reveals to us the way for us to hear God's voice and to know Him better. Through prayer and intimate knowledge of God all Christians can know God better when they know how to listen to God with their spirits. The art of hearing God does not have to escape the believer. God is always near open your spiritual eyes. Find out more about hearing God's voice for

It all began in Forth Worth, Texas on June 9, 1964, when Mr. and Mrs. Tisdale celebrated the welcoming of their third baby boy entering the world of curiosity. With the biggest smile ever, from there his parents knew something about Wayman. That God has something big planned in his future that will change his and his parents live, but his parents didn’t know how big. Suddenly, a loud church bell sounded the whole street, herded in like a herd of cattle everyone to Friendship Baptist Church to hear the word of God be spoken by Dr. Louis L. Tisdale. Cries erupted from the congregation from the Holy Ghost spreading from the tongue of one powerful man. Exclaiming how wonderful God is, and is promised for a better life. Little did the Tisdales know how powerful this statement would be to their lives.

We must learn about ourselves so that we can begin to understand others and we must be willing let our own pre-conceived notions be challenged and molded. As Spradley noted, “rather than studying people, ethnography means learning from people”. “You can observe a lot by watching” (25). Moschella persuasively argues that ethnography allows the religious leader to “engage the congregation’s current faith practices in theological reflection,” operate as “a sensitive and perceptive leader, one who has eyes to see and ears to hear the faith of the gathered community,” and “articulate his or her perceptions of the living faith of the people” (40-41). It is in this way that new and intentional practices can emerge from within the community, rather than being imposed by a solitary authority figure operating without informed buy-in from the same faith community. Moschella also gives us a rather curious definition of religious practice that is simultaneously broad and limiting. By defining religious practice as “something people do over and again, with some regularity” (47), Moschella encourages the pastoral ethnographer to look at every repeatable action by a congregation as potentially theologically

The Little Guide to Christian Spirituality offers a simple, but not overly simplified, look at this subject. The content is organized in such a way that makes it accessible and relevant to believers at any stage of their faith journey. The three dynamics – relational, transformational, and vocational – cover the majority, if not all, aspects of Christian spirituality. There is attention given to areas that were even

Experience, through the personal revelation of God, is a philosophical theological source. Emil Brunner when building on the “I Thou” “I It” concept introduced by Buber derived that “revelation […] is the establishment of a mutual relationship between the revealing God and responding humanity”.1 Philosophical concepts around our experience of God all attempt to capture an explanation of the unexplainable. Scripture describes multiple occasions of experience of God in our world, from Moses and the Israelites in Exodus to Saul on the road the Damascus. Our ability to communicate experience of God is essential if we are to bring the Gospel to life. Our ministry and mission within church today must seek tirelessly to draw attention to the historical

Every Sunday, I attended a church called Greater Mt. Pleasant. My Christian journey symbolized a flawless perspective of the church: it was thrilling and motivating. On Sundays, I dressed up in “Sunday Best”: a solid white shirt, black tie, and black shoes. I walked to church with my Bible in my hand. After the choir sang our welcome song, Pastor Joel D. Taylor preached and motivated his congregation to trust in God. Trusting in God meant that I would believe in him through any circumstance I endure,

“Would God have chosen to reveal himself to us as the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, unless he knew that this would be important to our understanding of him and of our faith? Must it not be the case that God cares greatly that we “get it,” that we see him for who he is? And must it not matter to our own lives, whether or not we understand him as the triune God that he is?” (13) This is the very heart of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance, by Dr. Bruce Ware, Senior Associate Dean and Professor of Christian Theology, at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. The book was initially written for the purpose of teaching at a pastor’s conference, but with the help of his diligent secretary was composed into a book. Through the perseverance of his secretary and Dr. Ware’s gifted theological teaching, we now have what one critic considers “a thorough theological treatise that any biblically literate layman can understand.” (Paige Patterson)

Imagine a 16-year-old boy, lost, hurting, and searching for answers. That was me four years ago as I sat in a room full of people who were singing songs to a God I had never heard of. 3 days went by as I observed the energy and mystery of people who had something that I didn’t. Was it their families? Was it where they were from? All I knew was that I was missing something. I’ll never forget July 28, 2010; as the gospel came out of a prerecorded video during a worship set at Bigstuf Camps in Panama City Beach. I heard the truth, love, and grace of Jesus Christ and it erupted inside of me. That was the moment that everything changed—the moment that God “rescued me out of the dominion of darkness and transferred me into the kingdom of the Son

Acts 2:2-21 shows a picture of the community that is filled by the Holy Spirit. The disciples gathered together in one place, and “all of them were fulfilled with the Holy Spirit” (v.4). The scene leaves some people amazed, confused and marveled (v.6-7). Even some thought that the people were drunk (v.13). While many people were perplexed by the work of the Holy Spirit, Peter validates this scene by reciting the prophecy of Joel (v.14-21). This text shows the new understanding of a community of believers with the work of Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? What a Spirit-filled community looks like? How does a Spirit-filled community differ?

At the beginning of the semester we learned the basis of what makes Christianity, the Trinity. After reviewing and understanding the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost we looked at how each three of these entities were reflected in the relationships of mankind; from marriage, to family, to vocation. With a deeper understanding of these concepts I have had an alteration and growth in my worldview in the way in which I should be living my life. In this paper I will discuss deciphering my calling, my views of marriage, family, and personal life direct my thought process. I will also discuss how they are being implemented in a way that allows me to share the teachings of the Lord with others in my daily life.

A common problem today for adolescent Christians is the lack of intimacy with God, and not fully experiencing Christ in their lives. The solution to this problem can be found in the spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines are practices that aid in transforming believers into the image of Christ, and help them to develop a more intimate relationship with Christ. They help to bring a Christian into the presence of God, and to bring them a “portion of heaven.” According to Isaac Ambrose, an English Puritan minister from the seventeenth century, spiritual disciplines are the vehicles to God. He said: “...the saints look upon duties (the Word, Sacraments, Prayers, etc.) as bridges to give them a passage to God, as boats to carry them into the bosom of Christ, as means to bring them into more intimate communion with their heavenly Father, and therefore are they so much taken with them (Schwanda 1).” Ambrose argued that through spiritual disciplines, one could experience an intimate relationship with God. The spiritual disciplines are broken into three categories, inward, outward, and corporate. From these three categories, the three main focuses are meditation, service, and worship. Through the application of these three spiritual disciplines, the main goal is to enter a deeper, more intimate relation with Christ and to be shaped into the image of Christ.

As a Christian, I always refer to Joshua 24:15b when asked about how I will pass down my faith through my family. However, in this essay I will trace back through four generations of my family to show how I have gotten to this stance for my future. Throughout the four generations I explore many different Christian denominations and the impact they had on each member of my family, who later, has impacted me. Studying my spiritual roots lead to the understanding of why I am who I am and how I got here, it has shown me how God uses every aspect of who you are in determining what you will do, but most importantly, it has shown me how I will continue the work that has been in progress for the last four generations. There are numerous experiences that have shaped my faith and many are due to certain stories and traditions that have been handed down through my family’s heritage.