Throwback

If Christmas gift-giving feels like an annual performance review that you fail each year, consider adopting these 5 resolutions.

How do you handle it when life isn’t fair? It’s easy to grow frustrated with our own lot in life and resent those who seem to have it better. Consider the story of Miriam.

Barnabas is an great example of the incredible good you can do when you don’t care who gets credit. Though he is uncelebrated by history,  without Barnabas — you could argue — there would have been no Apostle Paul, no John Mark, and no Gospel of Mark.

Failed CEOs shared these 7 habits. What about leaders in the church?

As a ministry leader you probably make a lot of coffee. I’ve found using the Toddy Coffee system is the easiest way to make the most coffee with the least amount of mess, fuss and clean up. Here’s how.

The theology of Spiritual Formation assumes there is a level a spirituality that I can have if I do certain spiritual practices. Prayer is typically is one of those practices.  Yet, the biblical picture of prayer is not a spiritual discipline that I use to reach a higher spiritual level. Rather prayer is an unavoidable mandatory battlefield in the war of faith.

Not only does the theology of spiritual formation aim at the wrong target, spiritual formation seeks the wrong kind of change. While spiritual disciplines focus on success at outward righteous behavior, the Bible teaches that the goal of spiritual maturity is a strong unshakeable faith.

The theology of Spiritual Formation sounds great on paper, but it is focused on the wrong target.

Progress toward greater spirituality is measured by what can be seen (for example, how well I maintain the routines of sabbath, bible reading, confession;  how loving my actions are toward others; how much I experience greater joy and contentment; how well I serve and sacrifice, etc.) which means success is measured by outward righteous behavior.

But is outward righteous behavior the right target?

“Spiritual formation” is a hot topic today.  But does it work?  The Old Testament prophet Haggai would answer no.

Spiritual formation is “an intentional Christian practice with the goal of developing spiritual maturity that leads to Christ-likeness.”  This theology is based on the premise that doing certain practices (typically daily prayer, fasting, solitude, confession and/or meditating on scripture) will make us more like Christ.

While everyone agrees that prayer and bible study are beneficial, does regularly practicing them guarantee spiritual growth?