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Mon 17 Jun 2013

Resources for Spiritual Formation

Posted by Valerie Hess under General News
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I thought you all might like to see my book list that I pass out whenever I do a workshop on spiritual formation. I try to keep adding new things to it as they come out.

  • Baker, Howard, “Soul Keeping: Ancient Paths of Spiritual Direction,” NavPress 1998.
  • Berlin, Sarah Butler, “Contemplative Compassion: Creating A Culture of Care in Faith Communities,” Renovare, 2009.
  • Calhoun, Adele Ahberg, “Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us,” InterVarsity Press, 2005.
  • Caliguire, Mindy, “Discovering Soul Care,” InterVarsity Press, 2007.
  •  ___________      “Spiritual Friendship,” InterVarsity Press, 2007.
  • Carlson, kent and Mike Lueken, “Renovation of the Church: What Happens When a Seeker Church Discovers Spiritual Formation,” IVP Books, 2011.
  • Chittister, OSB, Joan, “Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today,” HarperSanFrancisco, 1990.
  • Claiborne, Shane, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Enuma Okoro, “Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals,” Zondervan, 2010.
  • Demarest, Bruce A., Brad Nassif, Scott Hahn and Joe Driskill “Four Views on Christian Spirituality.” Zondervan, 2012.
  • DeYoung, Rebecca Konyndyk, “Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies,” Brazos Press, 2009.
  • Foster, Richard J., “Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth,” HarperSanFrancisco, 1988.
  • ____________., “The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power,” HarperSanFrancisco, 1989.
  •  ___________“Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World,” HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.
  •   ___________“Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home,” HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.
  • _____________, “Sanctuary of the Soul: Journey Into Meditative Prayer,” InterVarsity Press, 2011.
  •  ____________“Seeking the Kingdom: Devotions for the Daily Journey of Faith,” HarperSanFrancisco, 1995.
  • Foster, Richard J. and Gayle D. Beebe, Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion,” InterVarsity Press, 2009.
  • Foster, Richard J. and Emilie Griffin, “Spiritual Classics: Selected Readings on the Twelve Spiritual Disicplines,” HarperCollins, 2000.
  • Foster, Richard J. and James Bryan Smith, “Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups,” HarperSanFrancisco, rev. 2005.
  • Fry, Timothy, O.S.B. “The Rule of St. Benedict in English,” The Liturgical Press, 1982.
  • Fryling, Robert A., The Leadership Ellipse: Shaping How We Lead By Who We Are,” InterVarsity Press, 2010.
  • Graybeal, Lynda L. and Julia L. Roller, “Connecting with God: A Spiritual Formation Guide,” HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.
  • Griffin, Emilie, Wilderness Time: A Guide for Spiritual Retreat,” HarperOne, 1997.
  • Gross, Bobby, “Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God,” InterVarsity Press, 2009.
  • Guenther, Margaret, “Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction,” Cowley Publications, 1992.
  • Hall, Christopher A., “Worshiping with the Church Fathers,” InterVarsity Press, 2009.
  • Hess, Valerie E., “Spiritual Disciplines Devotional: A Year of Readings,” InterVarsity Press 2007.
  • Hess, Valerie E. and Lane M. Arnold, “The Life of the Body: Physical Well-Being and Spiritual Formation,” InterVarsity Press, 2012.
  • Hess, Valerie E. and Marti Watson Garlett, “Habits of a Child’s Heart: Raising Your Kids with the Spiritual Disciplines,” NavPress, 2004.
  • Hudson, Trevor, “One Day At a Time: Discovering the Freedom of 12-Step Spirituality,” Upper Room Books, 2007.
  • ____________, “Discovering Our Spiritual Identity: Practices for God’s Beloved,” InterVarsity Press, 2010.
  • Johnson, Jan, “Community & Submission: Spiritual Disciplines Bible Studies,” InterVarsityPress, 2003.
  • ____________”Invitation to the Jesus Life: Experiments in Christlikeness,” NavPress 2008.
  • Kang, Joshua Choonmin, “Scripture By Heart: Devotional Practices for Memorizing God’s Word,” InterVarsity Press, 2010.
  • Kelsy, Morton, “Dreams: A Way to Listen to God,” New York: Paulist Press, 1978.
  • MacBeth, Sybil, “Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God,” Paraclete Press 2007.
  • Macchia, Stephen A., “Crafting A Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way,” InterVarsity Press, 2012.
  • MacDonald, Gordon, “Ordering Your Private World,” Oliver Nelson Press, 1985.
  • May, Gerald G., M.D. The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth,” Harper One, 2005.
  • Moll, Rob, The Art of Dying: Living Fully into the Life to Come,” Intervarsity Press, 2010.
  • Norris, Kathleen, “Acedia & Me,” Riverhead Books, 2008. [Note: I would urge you to start with the last chapter of quotes first.]
  • Renovare, “The Life With God Bible with Deuterocanonical Books,” HarperOne, 2009.
  • Rohr, Richard, “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life,” Jossey-Bass, 2011
  • Rolheiser, Ronald, “The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality,” Doubleday, 1999.
  • Roller, Julia A., editor,  “25 Books Every Christian Should Read,” HarperOne, 2011.
  • Showalter, Carol with Maggie Davis, “Your Whole Life: The 3D Plan for Eating Right, Living Well, Loving God,” Paraclete Press 2007.
  • Smith, James Bryan, “The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows,” InterVarsity Press, 2009.
  • ________________, “The Good and Beautiful Community: Following the Spirit, Extending Grace, Demonstrating Love,” InterVarsity Press, August, 2010.
  • ________________, “The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the Character of Christ,” InterVarsity Press, January, 2010.
  • Smith, James Bryan and Lynda Graybeal, “A Spiritual Formation Workbook: Small-Group Resources for Nurturing Christian Growth,” HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.
  • Smith, Stephen W., “The Lazarus Life: Spiritual Transformation for Ordinary People,” David C. Cook, 2008.
  • _____________, “Living the Lazarus Life: A Guidebook for Spiritual Transformation,” David C. Cook, 2009.
  • Sparks, Jack N., “Prayer in the Unseen Warfare,” Conciliar Press, 1996.
  •  ____________“Victory in the Unseen Warfare,” Conciliar Press, 1993.
  •  ____________ “Virtue in the Unseen Warfare,” Conciliar Press, 1995.
  • Spencer, Gregory, “Awakening the Quieter Virtues,” InterVarsity Press, 2010.
  • Thompson, Marjorie J., “Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life,” Westminster John Knox Press, 1995.
  • Wallis, Arthur, “God’s Chosen Fast,” Christian Literature Crusade, 1986.
  • Webber, Robert E., “The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life,” Baker Books, 2006.
  • Whitney, Donald S., “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,” NavPress, 1991.
  • Willard, Dallas, “The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives,” HarperSanFrancisco, 1998.
  • Winner, Lauren F., “Mudhouse Sabbath,” Paraclete Press, 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mon 10 Jun 2013

A Rule of Life at Potter’s Inn in September

Posted by Valerie Hess under General News
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http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e7i2ihr6aa180994

On September 14, 2013, I will be leading a retreat at Potter’s Inn, Colorado Springs, Colorado around the theme of creating a Rule of Life. The link above takes you to more information as well as a registration form. I hope you will consider joining me!

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Wed 5 Jun 2013

The Kingdom of God and Dallas Willard

Posted by Valerie Hess under General News
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http://conversationsjournal.com/2013/06/where-what-god-wants-done-is-done/

I would love your feedback on this month’s post I wrote for the Conversations Journal blog!

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Sat 1 Jun 2013

End Shotgun Confirmations

Posted by Valerie Hess under General News
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I was chatting with a friend the other day when I heard one of the most horrifying stories of my life.  This person was sharing how a very unhappy teenaged child was forced to go through confirmation.  The reasoning shared with me in a quite angry voice tone though the incident happened years ago, was “since I’m paying the bills, you’re going to be confirmed!”  This now-adult child no longer goes to church and the parent seemed surprised and confused as to why. 

I found my heart in my throat and with the questions: “isn’t confirmation a time when people of all ages affirm the promises made at their baptism for them by parents and sponsors?”  If we force young people to affirm (confirm) promises they have no intention of keeping, are we not as a Church doing a version of the “shot gun wedding,” an event that forces two people into marriage because one of them is pregnant?  The statistics on the longevity of those kinds of arrangements are dismal and I believe the statistics would be equally dismal on the long-term involvement in a church of those who have experienced these “shot gun” confirmations. 

Do we not believe that God loves our children more than we do?  If they are in rebellion against God (or the catechetical system), why do we panic as if this is their last chance to confirm those Baptismal promises ever again in their life? If they don’t go through the rite of confirmation now, does that mean they are forever abandoned by God? 

Forcing a child through confirmation is, it seems to me, more about the potential embarrassment to the parent than it is about the faith formation of the child.  A child who is very unhappy in confirmation should cause all of the adults in that faith community to engage with that young person, seek to identify what is missing, and then to walk in love with that child until s/he is ready to either say yes to God’s promises given in their Baptism or leave to try to find other ways to answer their questions.

Let’s commit to ending “shot gun” confirmations and work with both the embarrassed, angry parents and the frustrated, angry youth to find what piece of the Story of Grace each has missed.  God can handle both; the question is: can we?

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Sat 18 May 2013

Pentecost

Posted by Valerie Hess under General News
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As we come to the celebration of Pentecost, we end the festival cycle of the Church Year (Christmas and Easter being the other two great feasts) and move into Ordinary Time (not common place but ordinal or of the calendar). It is interesting to me how even professing Christians will spend a lot of time and money on Christmas decorations, music, activities and church programs. They will do a moderate at Easter and almost nothing for Pentecost. Yet, it is because of Pentecost that we have the Church, that mystic Body of Christ all baptized people who are seeking to be disciples of Christ are a part of.

Why the ho-hum approach to Pentecost? Is it because there are no commercial decorations associated with it? No radio station I know of, even ones that call themselves Christian, have been playing Pentecost music for the last month. If you stopped the average person on the street, would they even know what Pentecost is, let alone that it is being celebrated in the Western Church tomorrow? Would you even know it was Pentecost if walked into many faith communities tomorrow? Why is this?

My personal sense is that as we got further away from the Reformation and more groups splintered into even more groups, rejecting anything that smacked of “Roman Catholicism,” we lost the New Testament church’s structure of cycles to remember salvation history, especially that involving Christ’s birth, death, Resurrection, Ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit. It became more about each community being led by a preacher through their sense of what needed to be preached on that week. We lost the connected sense to the larger Body of Christ that spans all time and history, in every culture and nation. That is especially reflected in much of today’s music for corporate worship which uses “I” language instead of “We” language.

Does this really make a difference? I mean, one is not saved if one follows the Church Year cycle. True but a sense of being part of something larger, timeless and cross-cultural is lost. It is the same loss we feel in society today with the break-down not only of extended family inter-connectedness but also with the breakdown of the nuclear family. Now, any group of people can name themselves “family” and society says, “Amen.”

The point of this article is not social commentary on familial configurations. It is a sense that while society is fragmenting into smaller and smaller units, so is the Church. Our faith communities don’t follow the same calendar such that we can talk with friends who are members of other faith communities about the same themes we are each experiencing in our corporate worship services. Some of my most powerful worship experiences have been overseas where I didn’t know the language but I knew the historic form of the liturgy that this group was also using. I could participate in English while they worshiped in their language. The sense of unity was palpable.

I would like to suggest that one of the ways to strengthen the witness of the Church of Jesus Christ in today’s society is to all unite around the Church Year calendar and its accompanying lectionary as well as the use of the historic liturgical form of Gathering, Word, Meal and Sending. That form can be filled in with a variety of music and words. By using these two frameworks, we would be more visibly united as the Body of Christ to the watching world. We would feel part of a larger, transcultural Body of believers around the world. There might even be less “us vs. them” within the Christian confession.

That kind of unity might trigger a fresh outpouring of the wind and fire of God’s Holy Spirit, igniting God’s people into new ways of caring for the poor and the earth. Come, Holy Spirit, come.

 

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