Richard Foster Discipline Summary

In the beginning, I felt Anderson’s heart when he wrote, “there is no replacement for a deep and abiding experiential relationship with God when it comes to authentic spirituality” (pg. 51). God is always available at the surface level, but it is down deep into the soil of one’s heart where the authentic growth and development will blossom. One must invite and permit God to come in and began that relationship that cultivates authentic encounters that transforms life from dark to light.

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

William Willimon provided Character and Calling: Virtues of the Ordained Life as possibly the greatest impact of the lot. His first chapter entitled “Vocation” is worth the cost of the book. Willimon clearly articulates the great need for pastoral leaders to solidify their calling and vocation. This must be settled in the mind of the pastor because “in a culture

Courage & Calling by Gordon T. Smith is a book about embracing one’s God-given potential. He talks about responsibilities and obligations as Christians, and how they are ultimately tied back to God. Smith also focuses on the differences between occupation and vocations, and how we are to navigate through different transitions in one’s life, and how all is linked back to being proper stewards.

Upon reading through “Celebration of Discipline” I had felt the novel was like a diary from Richard Foster or entirely a spiritual guidebook. What I mean by of spiritual guidebook is that Foster fully created the book in explaining spiritual disciplines, that in reality would assist someone in wanting to become a person that wants to be closer to the Lord, while at the same time treating it as a book by dividing the disciplines into three descriptive groups. Foster has done an excellent job in his use of scripture and incorporating personal experiences, just as Dr. Wilson has in “Father Cry”, in better explaining the disciplines. Upon providing explanations for the disciplines I had felt he has treated each of them[disciplines] equally, not

Peterson opens Working the Angles with three chapters on prayer. He critiques contemporary Seminary culture for training pastors to focus on the ministry of the Word and Sacrament. However, Peterson contests, “For the majority of the Christian centuries most pastors have been convinced that prayer is the central and essential act for maintaining the essential shape of the ministry to which they were ordained.”1 For Peterson prayer is never the first word, but it is response to what God has already done and is doing. Therefore, the pastoral task is to restore prayer to this position of response through practice of praying the Psalms and other Scripture. It is vitally important that pastors make space for

At work our manager decided to do something fun for the office to raise office morale. She got individual photos of us and stuck them on magazine pages. My photo was put on a 4 year old boy hanging from monkey bars for a Target advertisement. This magnified how I had felt most of my life. That people considered me to be the immature one. Therefore, when having to choose a discipline from Adele Ahlberg Calhoun’s book Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, the one that resonated with me the most was discernment as the desire is “to delight in and recognise the voice and will of God”.

Looking at the pastor’s life through the thoughts of Jones and Bloom give us some different ideas to explore. Jones’ ideas seem to be practices that a pastor can explore before engaging Bloom’s thoughts. Jones wants the pastor to embrace the stillness of God and begin with the quietness of breathing in the love of God. The stillness prepares a person for the day, so that when called upon the pastor can bring that stillness of presence with her as she serves. Practicing the stillness allows the pastors to embrace what Bloom may describe as meaningful work of the pastor. Because Bloom believes that a pastor must find fulfillment in her work in order to sustain emotion and spiritual health. While Jones focuses on the personal spiritual disciplines

The importance of making study a spiritual discipline is that it is not enough just to believe the truth someone has told me. It necessitates the exploration to learn and see the truth for myself. In making the truth my own not only am I transformed by it but I am also better prepared to give an account of my faith to others.

Although this was probably the most ‘rollercoaster-esk’ conversation that I had ever had regarding my personal spirituality, I’m glad that it happened. I now have a better understanding of the habits that I still need to die to and the kind of mentorship I need to seek out and learn from.

In Student Ministry for the 21st Century, Bo Boshers urges his readers to reevaluate, minister, structure, and program with a purpose in order to reach the lost as well as develop and send out the church. Boshers first encourages readers to reevaluate their purpose. The first manner by which he suggests reevaluating one’s purpose is by leading with authenticity and remaining “REAL with Christ” (19). The acronym stands for “Recognize your fatal flaws,” “Experience God daily,” “Adjust your gauges,” and “Learn discipline.” Boshers claims that unless a leader is authentic, he or she will not be able to effectively minister to others.

After a car accident three years ago, God used the recovery period to hone my old skills and birth new. Over the course of the process, He repositioned me for a different journey. The new path led to a transition from a secular K-12 setting to Christian higher education; yet, still within the context of supporting a diverse student population. My purpose became preparing and teaching ministerial leadership in a

Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, was first published in 1978. It presented sets of Disciplines that, if followed, would serve as vehicles for a deeper relationship with Christ as well as preparation for service. These disciplines are divided into three broad categories: the Inward Disciplines, the Outward Disciplines, and the Corporate Disciplines (Foster, 2003). Each category contains four Disciplines, which indicated by their titles, moves the disciple from the very personal to the larger congregational community (Foster, 2003). Recognizing humanity’s trend to make any process a law or regulation to follow, Foster warned against this by reminding the disciple that to do so would turn

In Shaped by the Word, by Robert Mulholland Jr., one finds a way to read scripture in order to provide a deeper understanding of God and allow His Word to shape one’s spiritual life. In the Introduction, in chapter 1, the reader is introduced to the idea that there is a movement in the church that seeks to become deeper and stricter in spiritual formation. He claims there are many books written for this purpose, and his intending purpose for this book is for God to use however he may want in the reader’s spiritual life. Mulholland provides the reader with a prayer to pray in preparation of reading this book and states there may be points where God is knocking and calling the reader’s attention to something new.

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