Personal Statement : My Spiritual Growth

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

My vision as an undergraduate student of the Haskayne School of Business (HSB) is to become a well-rounded influential leader and equip myself with a set of skills and values that will enhance me as an individual in my career. Thus, my goal is to succeed academically and socially, graduating with a distinction and having built strong relationships.

Spiritual gifts have been a topic of heated debate among a wide array of congregations and faith believers. Are these gifts just natural everyday abilities or miraculous one’s on par with what Jesus showed on earth? Scripture gives some insight into these questions but with the power and flexibility of interpretation these answers are also obscured.

For those who have left the church behind but don’t want to entirely abandon spiritual practice, and also for those who were never a part of the church but are still seeking to foster meaningful spiritual development, Rachelle Mee-Chapman’s new book, Relig-ish: Soulful Living in a

The lessons I’ve received from transitioning through the church as a child, youth, and adult member have taught me a number of lessons; patience, reverence, and empathy are all traits I’ve strengthened, and they have undoubtably helped me through my high school career. Taught how to ask thoughtful questions, I’m unashamed of my curiosity. Our faith is not always one of direct answers— even our most devoted

Sitting in church on a cold Sunday in January, the hair on the back of my neck stood up as my pastor preached a sermon that, for once, made me feel like she was speaking directly to me. I’m not an extremely religious person; I don’t go to church every Sunday or pray at night before I go to sleep. I just go through the motions. But this time was different. “The time we spend in between leaving home and finding our way back home is where people gain the ability to grow into their full potential.” Those words spoke to me, and I was reeled in, just like the rest of the congregation, wondering what our Pastor was going to say next.

Throughout the assignment, I have explored key themes that I connected with and considered how they relate to my spiritual and religious growth, both personally and professionally. Perhaps the themes that I connected with from Mackay’s book were not the most obvious, however, they allowed me to experience reflection on my journey of Christian Life. The personal reflection required for this assignment has in itself provided an opportunity for my spiritual growth as I was challenged to recall and deal with previous issues I had, up to this time, intentionally

While I was making these exciting discoveries for myself, I was still wondering how I was supposed to instill this willingness to search in others. Once again, Foster provided an answer, though it was not the answer I had hoped for. What I had found so satisfying about this book was that it clearly spelled out things for me to do in order to grow spiritually. Yes, God does the real transforming work within us, but the "Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us. "6

Perhaps the lesson given the most support throughout the course of this semester is the healthy church is a church whose members are devoted to prayer.1 Powerful

This article was of interest to me, because as a practicing Christian Life Coach, it was helpful to learn about assessment methods, specifically designed to capture the client’s spiritual inclinations, and to learn how that information can be used to help them achieve their goals.

I have hope that many of my post-graduate years will be less spiritually trying than the last three years. There is no doubt that the perseverance accumulated from the struggles of ministry and Duke academics have formed tenacity in my spirituality. However, surviving Duke Divinity School along with the other compounding issues of the past three years have enabled me to form spiritual disciplines that will allow me to grow in my spirituality in both times of joy and

During the latter part of my 15-year career, the Lord blessed me with opportunities to grow in my leadership and public speaking skills. I managed a staff of seven, a budget of several million dollars and made presentations to professional boards and potential business partners. After the Lord called me to be home with my children full time, I struggled with the meaning and usefulness of the opportunities I had been blessed to experience. They felt wasted in light of the carpool driving, diaper changing and house cleaning duties that were now the staples of my new “career” at home. After a semester in my church’s MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group, I was asked to co-lead the steering team. This invitation was definitely from the Lord, as I

I am taking your advice and picking up the book Spiritual Formation: A Wesleyan Paradigm to use in my daily devotions. Our conversation about the importance of focusing on spiritual formation, due to the demands of officership, provided valuable insight into my need of intentionality in this area of my life. Thank you for making me aware of the need to maintain

During the week-long Intensive class sessions with my mentors, I learned a number of new things about myself that I was not previously willing to address. In short, I had a moment of self-actualization that required some personal omissions on my part regarding my faith and yes, some internalized oppression as labeled by author Gayraud S. Wilmore. Opening up in class and admitting a few of my own short-comings was nothing short of liberating. Suddenly, I felt as though I had an epiphany; that has given birth to a renewed zeal, mind, and spirit. For the first time in years, I feel closer to the apex of excellence where God intended me to be.

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