theme: christian formation

The posts below all relate in some way to the theme of Christian Formation. What does it mean to disciple ourselves to Jesus? How do we change and grow as people of God? These posts are my way of wrestling with these questions, and in sharing them I hope they may be of help to you too.

  • opening a doorway for change

    There’s so much about the life we share with others, both near and far, that feels difficult, unknown, and hard to navigate. Much of the time, it is easier to distract myself from my real, personal response to it all than to feel it, or to face it. But every so often, my own discomfort becomes hard to ignore. In these ordinary moments, how do I open a doorway or a place of meeting with God? Read more ...

  • arrange your life

    Every week, I have people telling me that they don’t have enough time. They don’t have enough time to read books. Or they don’t have enough time to work out. Or they don’t have enough time to learn a foreign language. Or they don’t have enough time to cook meals from scratch. Time is one of those things that is shared out evenly; we all get the same amount dolled out to us. Read more ...

  • what's your fault line?

    This weekend I was chatting with a friend who is an athletics coach. He commented that every athlete has an area of weakness, an achilles heel if you will. But he called it a ‘fault line’ - that place where all the training and hard work is most likely to break down. In Christian formation, it reminds me of the way we become known for our habitual hang-ups or ingrained behaviour patterns. Read more ...

  • grow more: keep a journal

    The formational effects of journalling are simple, yet profound. This is an easy practice to implement, yet can have far-reaching effects in people’s personal growth and in building community. Richard Foster argues that spiritual practices “are meant to bring the abundance of God into our lives.” I believe that is exactly what this personal and shared process of reflection and journaling can do for you too. Read more ...

  • responding to pain

    Anything can be a prompt towards thoughtful engagement with ourselves and God. Even toothache, as it turns out. It got me thinking about the ways in which trauma or trials disturb deeply rooted things in our lives, causing us discomfort and pain. Something that we had been unaware of for years suddenly gets bumped or poked and then, there it is, that old flare in a place of wounding or irritation that just won’t be ignored. Read more ...

  • the truth about me

    I don’t know about you but, when it comes to my own inner landscape, I feel like I have a pretty large capacity for denial. I guess I have found several tried and tested ways to kid myself over the years ... The thing is, we are wired for truth-telling. We are made to live in truth and it is only in our places of truth, or reality, that God can meet with us. Denial, lack of awareness, blind spots and self-deception are just not places where the good stuff can happen, you know? Read more ...

  • meeting god on the way

    If people were bored of hearing it, I was bored of saying it: this had been a long, dark tunnel of transition. Our move to Spain had not brought with it the life I expected. Things hadn't worked out with the team I thought I'd be part of. There seemed to be some secret to making friends in Spain that I had yet to learn ... Jacob had said, "God was in this place and I never knew it." Perhaps God was in my dark place with me, too? Read more ...

  • right here

    We think of ourselves as being more enlightened, more advanced in our thinking and ways of doing things than those who have gone before us. But way back in the fourth century, a monk living in the desert of Egypt said something that still has the ring of revelatory truth about it, all these years later. Read more ...