Interviewing several pastors can be eye opening in that you will begin to see different character qualities, disciplines and where they are in their spiritual journey. My intention was to interview several pastors, however, I was unable to obtain the responses needed to complete a study such as that. I did get to meet with one pastor, and I believe that it was truly difficult for him to answer most of the questions even after giving him some time to think about each question. My interview was with a very intelligent and spiritual man named Les Harvey. He is currently serving at the Church of the Highlands Greystone campus under many great leaders.
We will begin with the questions and answers to the questions, however short they are. The first
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Les answers “The role of the Holy Spirit in spiritual transformation is to bear witness with our spirits that we are the sons and daughters of God. Les again scratched the surface here on the Holy Spirit’s role in our transformation. The Holy Spirit’s role is to form and transform our inner nature. He opens our eyes to the present truth of scripture. He makes us aware of God’s presence and counsels us in a way to maintain healthy habits of holiness. He is essentially our best friend that has the transforming power that no human has. His revealing power of unveiling our eyes to truth enables further transformation of our minds to be more Christ-like in …show more content…
However, our church does have a spiritual growth plan call the growth track. The Growth Track puts Christians on a track to be lifelong followers of Christ.
The fifth question on practices that allow one to grow spiritually, Les answers “Bible reading, prayer, and fellowship with other believers. These are the biblical examples of spiritual tools.” This is truly the model by which one can grow spiritually. In my experience, being in fellowship with fellow believers is the only way to be protected spiritually, grow spiritually, and connect with others spiritually. This small group model, or fellowshipping coupled with daily prayer and meditation of God’s word keeps us moving and stretching ourselves to develop a deeper understanding of God’s nature and this will allow us to become more secure in our
The book is divided into seven parts. The book focuses spiritual growth and it is a manual for building a Spirit-filled life in a world where perfection can only be found in God’s loving vision. Ortberg helps us gauge your spiritual health and measure the gap between where you are now and where God intends you to be. As the author emphasizes on
In addition, going to the baptist church made me realize that no matter what your culture is, humans all want the same things. People want a sense of meaning and purpose, and to feel inspired, hopeful, unconditionally loved, accepted, and uplifted. People want to have an understanding of who they are, and what that entails. When people are feeling scared and insecure about the present and future, they demand explanations for the unknown, or the difficult elements of their life. Furthermore, people need order, structure, and security in their lives by being told what they should think/believe, how they should behave. People also seek a sense of belonging and community. Overall,it doesn’t matter if you’re Jewish, Christian, Caucasian, or African American, at the end of the day, humans generally all want the same thing, but just have different ways of showing it or expressing it.
To say my faith life has been completely revamped in the last year would be an understatement. I had views and ideas about faith that seem somewhat vile to me know with the experiences I’ve had. From just lectures to the retreats my spiritual side has gone from that of a holiday catholic to a Campus Ministry Student. From little things to big ethic topics I’ve changed in a multitude of ways, my Spiritual Autobiography looks like looks like someone else wrote it compared to any year before it. I think faith is one of the most important aspects of our life and it took me until last year to realize it.
21). I agree, it is vital that the disciple is involved in an intentional, ongoing plan that challenges themselves to greater Christ-likeness which manifests itself in the nurturing of others toward wholeness. This is what we are called to do when we become children of God. Christian Spiritual formation cannot happen in solitude; therefore, the purpose of spiritual formation is to ultimately lived out in community. This aligns with my view of personal and corporate spiritual formation. If we are not conformed to the image of Christ, we cannot incarnate in our relationships with others. Therefore, if we say we love God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit we are to love others. The image of Christ will be seen as the ultimate reality of human wholeness, the consummation for which each heart longs (Mullholland, p. 21). Therefore, God’s people has a role in healing brokenness and injustice in the world (p. 21). We are to be the salt and light of the world (Matthew
Today was a boring and very uncomfortable day for me. Everyone know my last day here at Grace Christian Center is tomorrow so everyone is telling me that they’re sorry that I’m leaving. I’m not sure if its true or not , but its nice to hear. When I walked through the doors of GCC I went straight back to my seat and started cleaning out my desk. I don’t have much in there but I want to make sure that I leave it in better shape than when I got it. Just because I’m leaving doesn’t mean that I have to leave my work area cluttered. After cleaning up my area I decided that I was going to go downstairs to eat lunch with the rest of the staff member, which was odd because that’s something that I normally run away from. Me and the staff ate
Evil One and the Word of God abides in them.12 These individuals are striving to become more
If I were to start my own Faith Community Practice I would first plan to sign up for EMU's online Faith Community Nursing Course in order to fully understand what an FCN is and how best to go about establishing my own practice. After completing the course, spend however much time I needed to figure out how exactly I want to run my practice. After figuring out a baseline plan, I would go about facing my other challenges. One challenge that I would most likely face is where to set up my practice. I would most likely want to start my practice in service to my home church at Lindale Mennonite Church. I don't believe we have an FCN practice there and I think it would an amazing opportunity to serve my home church in that manner if they allow. My
Throughout my time with the Methodist church, I have experienced great opportunities and also many challenges. My family and I have been taught by a man who I think to be one of the most godly men I have ever met. Reverend Felder has always had a positive outlook on St. Luke UMC future even through trials and adversity. In fact, I truly think the Lord used him to save St. Luke because when he became pastor the city of Augusta had the land the church occupied labeled a future parking lot. However Felder had a vision for the church and the vision included having the sanctuary packed with families from the neighborhood of Harrisburg. The church is now an entity in the neighborhood that it was not before Reverend Felder came, and while is has a
Spiritual. Daily time spent in prayer along with a regular, unhurried time in the Bible is essential for growth. In the Bible, growth is linked to spiritual maturity and becoming more like Jesus (Romans 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 3:18). Time in prayer, at the beginning and the end of day
I had the opportunity to interview Andrea Kier who is the Children’s Pastor at Manor Church. She has been working there for five years. Previously she worked as a Children’s Pastor at a Korean-American church in Chicago. She is very passionate about children’s ministry and about equipping parents to be the prime spiritual influencer in a child’s life.
Christ has always been apart of my life. The only issue was I didn’t quite understand what it meant to trust him completely as my lord and savior. As long as i can remember my parents had me going to church at ccv and i attended many church camps . When i started to get older i got involved in club sports which took up lot of my time where i couldn't fit church in my life anymore. When i started 9th grade i had a friend named Makensie and she kept bugging me yo go to church again however i didn't want to because i was scared to go back. After awhile of her begging me i went and realized what i was missing and attended church camp that year. I loved it but i still didn't understand what it meant to give my life to him. As time went on i still continued to go to church every weekend.
This past month I got the opportunity to attend church with my friend Norbentina who is originally from Honduras. She attends Southwest Christian Church which is an all speaking Spanish congregation. I accompanied Norbentina to a Sunday morning service and as you can imagine it was quite different than what I’m usually use to.
I’d like to state the most obvious observation that I’ve made about spiritual formation; that is that I will always need to be seeking for ways to nurture my personal spirituality throughout my life. I know that to most people this may sound like a “duh” statement, but for me it has truly become a reality and one that I must admit I have been struggling to embrace. I was brought up in a church that, like most traditional churches, stayed happy living in the “comfort zone” of their Christianity. They took everything that the Bible said at face value without digging in to find out why they believed what they believed. I had never been challenged to look deeper into the text. In the past few years I have felt the need to tunnel out of this
My journey with God started in February of 1993, when I went to a ladies’ conference in Columbus, Texas. It was while the speaker was explaining that she knew there were some of us out in the audience, who felt guilty about something they had done in their past, and they did not feel that God could forgive them for it. But then she quoted from God’s word; “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not principalities, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39 NASB) The speaker continued on to say that all we need to do is
The Necessity of Community. Spiritual transformation takes place incrementally over time with others in the context of disciplines and practices that open us to God. In general, while we are still on this earth, our transformation will happen by degrees (II Corinthians 3:18)