Spiritual formation is the process of being formed into the image of Christ for the sake of others. Here you can learn more about daily, weekly, and monthly habits that will help you accomplish the goal of spiritual formation. Each week a new video will be available to watch on the daily or weekly habit. Create your own Rules of Life HERE.
Daily Habits
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The world is made of words. Even small, repeated words have power. Regular, carefully placed prayer is one of the keystone habits of spiritual formation and is the beginning of building the trellis of habit. By framing our day in the words of prayer, we frame the day in love.
Personal
Watch the practice HERE.
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We were made to eat, so the table must be our center of gravity. The habit of making time for one communal meal each day forces us to reorient our schedules and our space around food and each other. The more the table becomes our center of gravity, the more it draws our neighbors into gospel community.
Classical
Watch the practice HERE.
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We were made for presence, but so often our phones are the cause of our absence. To be two places at a time is to be no place at all. Turning off our phone for an hour a day is a way to turn our gaze up to each other, whether that be children, coworkers, friends, or neighbors. Our habits of attention are habits of love. To resist absence is to love neighbor.
Personal
Watch the practice HERE.
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Refusing to check the phone until after reading a passage of Scripture is a way of replacing the question "What do I need to do today?" with a better one, "Who cam I and who am I becoming?" We have no stable identity outside of Jesus. Daily immersion in the Scriptures resists the anxiety of emails, the anger of news, and the envy of social media. Instead it forms us daily in our true identity as children of the King, dearly loved.
Personal
Watch the practice HERE.
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Classical
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Classical
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Personal
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Personal
Weekly Habits
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We were made for each other, and we can’t become lovers of God and neighbor without intimate relationships where vulnerability is sustained across time. In habitual, face-to-face conversation with each other, we find a gospel practice; we are laid bare to each other and loved anyway.
Personal
Video coming soon.
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Stories matter so much that we must handle them with the utmost care. Resisting the constant stream of addictive media with an hour limit means we are forced to curate what we watch. Curating stories means that we seek stories that uphold beauty, that teach us to love justice, and that turn us to community.
Personal
Watch the practice HERE.
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We constantly seek to fill our emptiness with food and other comforts. We ignore our soul and our neighbor’s need by medicating with food and drink. Regular fasting exposes who we really are, reminds us how broken the world is, and draws our eyes to how Jesus is redeeming all things.
Classical
Watch the practice HERE.
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The weekly practice of sabbath teaches us that God sustains the world and that we don’t. To make a countercultural embrace of our limitations, we stop our usual work for one day of rest. Sabbath is a gospel practice because it reminds us that the world doesn’t hang on what we can accomplish, but rather on what God has accomplished for us.
Classical
Watch the practice HERE.
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Classical
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Classical
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Classical
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Personal
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Personal
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Classical
Monthly Habits
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Jesus loves a cheerful giver! Tithing is a reminder that God is the supplier of everything we have. By tithing we put more trust is God.
Classical
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Taking time to show your neighbor kindness helps create a connection. A friendship can develop and trust can be formed.
Classical
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Classical
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Classical
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Journey classes will help you grow deeper in your understanding of God, yourself, and others.
Personal
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We all have been given a gift from God. We are called to be good stewards of our gift and use them to help others.
Classical
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Bringing a friend a meal after surgery, helping an elderly neighbor with home repairs, praying with a family member who is struggling. These are all examples of meeting the needs of someone in crisis.
Personal
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Personal
Classical vs Personal Habits
A classical discipline is something that every follower of Jesus should practice. A personal discipline is something that applies specifically to the individual follower of Jesus
How to get started
A Rule of Life should help you to experience and love God and others more. It is important to remember any thinking about developing a rule as a legalistic way of earning points with God or impressing others should be abandoned. Remember, Jesus never handed out spiritual formation awards to the Pharisees. If the word “rule” concerns you because it sounds legalistic, think of “rule” as a “rhythm of life” or as a “Curriculum for Christlikeness” (Dallas Willard), or as a “Game Plan for Morphing” (John Ortberg).
Begin where you are: First, as Evan Howard reminds, at the start of your exploration of a Rule, keep track of your time, which is your life. When you have learned what the honest realities of your life schedule, emotional energies, relationships and such demand, you will be best equipped to shape a Rule of Life that reflects not merely a pious ideal, but the concrete shape of a life of abiding and thriving.
A Few Considerations: We offer the following suggestions concerning pitfalls to avoid:
Keep it Simple and Brief: You can only do what you can do, not what you can’t. A Rule must be realistic if it is to be life giving and sustainable.
Keep it in Line with your God-given individual differences: Rules vary widely depending on the person. If you are a night person, you don’t have to set your alarm for a 5:00 AM prayer session. Remember, God is up all night. If you are an extreme extrovert, ease into solitude. If you hate journaling, then don’t. As Thomas à Kempis offers, “All cannot use the same kind of spiritual exercises…[and] different devotions are also suited for the seasons [of life]…”
A Rule of Life should include five things:
Self-assessment: What is your current rhythm of life?
Consultation: Dialogue with key friends and mentors as you develop your rule.
A written plan: How will you implement your chosen spiritual practices – on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis?
Accountability: Who will ask, “how is it going?”
Fun: Be playful with yourself and exercise child-like trust as you step into the playground of your life with God.
How to Get Started provided by The Martin Institute
Create your own Rule of Life HERE.